I’m sure we all would have loved the chance to take a day off from everything and just snuggle in our blanket, binge watching our favorite TV shows and spend some time in self-reflection. But what happens when every day starts to look like that?
You can start to lose sight of your goals! So let’s bring our attention towards the three most essential things to focus on during this lockdown period so we can stay motivated:
1) STAY PRODUCTIVE
Working from home can be one of those grass is greener on the other side situations, am I right? People who work from home sometimes miss the social aspect of working in an office whereas people who work in an office wish they had the flexibility of working remotely. Whatever your typical setup, I think we all agree that life has changed substantially over the last couple weeks and it has become more crucial than ever to find ways to keep yourself motivated and productive.
Whether you have a study table or not, it’s important to facilitate great thinking with a great space to think in. So create a cozy corner – whether it’s on a bed, couch or table and make sure to pay attention to your posture. We don’t want to come out of the lockdown with another excuse to have to stay at home.
It’s time to unwrap that pretty new notepad you had saved up and start letting your creative juices flow. Find joys in simpler things like maybe even adding a candle to your workstation and giving your laptop that much-needed cleaning. It could also help to use some apps to help you organize and stay on track with your to-do list. Check out ‘Swipes’ and ‘Google Calendar’ – I live by these!
I recently heard about the blue light (light which is emitted from our phones, laptops, and tablets) craze and maybe it’s worth giving it a try now that we’re continuously on our electronics. Research has shown that overexposure to blue light can, indeed, accelerate signs of aging, worsening the wrinkles, fine lines, and hyperpigmentation we've come to associate with too much sun. So just like we’re advised to wear sunscreen every single day (even when sitting at home), maybe it’s worth giving a blue light protection cream a shot? I recommend the ‘Coola Full Spectrum 360 Sun Silk Drops SPF 30’ – it’s all in one and they deliver online! Give it a try.
2) STAY ACTIVE – EXERCISE IS MEDICINE
With fitness centers and gyms temporarily closed, it’s essential to find newer and maybe even better ways to stay active at home that you can sustain even after this lockdown period. First things first, stop making excuses! It’s not that hard to find a space to fit your yoga mat and get started.
There’s an overload of workout videos online to pick from and you can choose the kind of workout that works best for your body type and fitness goals. If you’re looking to sweat it out, there are a lot of YouTube videos of ‘Dance Aerobics’ and ‘Walking at Home or Spot Jogging’ workouts – however ridiculous it sounds, it’s very effective and gets the job done. If you want something functional and strength oriented, there are some very easy to follow apps out there where you can set all your parameters like time, intensity and focus areas and they curate an entire workout, just for you!
There’s Sworkit, Sculpt, Nike Training Club, Sweat and By that Kayla to name a few tried and tested ones. There are also a lot of fitness influencers who are putting up their daily work outs on social networking sites. Follow ‘Brown Boy Aesthetics’, ‘Fight the Sunrise’ and ‘Get Fit with Sid’ on Instagram for some much-needed inspiration.
So what are you waiting for? Get those endorphins flowing to ensure a healthy and happy state of mind and body.
3) STAY COMFORTABLE YET STYLISH
Let’s be honest, we’re all hating everything about DIY grooming and no access to salons. Personally, I am dreading removing my gel nail polish at home and not feeling so good about myself with all that facial hair growing back. To top it off, changing from one pajama set to another can set in some serious blues and the only way to break that is to try and stay comfortable yet stylish even when you’re home all day.
With summer kicking in, it’s important to wear breathable and lightweight fabrics and what’s better than sticking to basic cotton clothing? So go to your wardrobe, pull out every cotton clothing you own and let’s get started. And always remember - wearing brighter colors will automatically brighten your mood and we need all the happiness that we can get right now, am I right?
If you’re looking for some new wardrobe essentials, be sure to check out Aanswr’s super comfortable cotton high waist pants (the high-rise, lounge lover, carrot crush and miss cosmo pants) for women and the lounge roll up shorts for men which are perfect to work from home and still make you feel great about yourself!
I hope reading this gave you a push in the right direction and don’t worry cause we’re here to stay! We’ll be posting a lot more so stay connected and remember – we’re all in this together and will come out stronger.
- By Shafali Goutam
