For the first time since starting university abroad, coming back to Dundee was such a struggle. Flights kept getting cancelled and restrictions were tightened. But at least I made before a 10-day obligatory hotel quarantine, instead Ive done that in my flat.

However, 10 days spend in isolation is not exactly an ideal environment for an extrovert like me. Therefore I knew I had to make sure to have somethings planned to make sure I wouldn’t go crazy and I thought Id share them with you:

1. Many, many, many zoom calls. That’s right, at least once pr day. I just really need to be in contact with people, and since it couldn’t be the real thing, I was substituting with the amazing technology I have at hand. Sure, I might have been recapping more with my mum than usual, but at least I didn’t feel completely drained from being on my own for so long.
2. Binge watching my comfort show. I rarely tend to watch TV-shows during semesters – due to my lack of self-discipline to not tap -play next episode and instead head to my empty word document. But because of this unideal situation I allowed myself to start watching Friends again, which is my ultimate comfort show when Im feeling a little down!
3. Plan my homeworkouts. As Ive said many times in my previous posts, exercise is so vital to me and my mental health. Home workers however are not my favourite thing to do. I usually really struggle with finding motivation to do a workout in the living room rather than staying in bed or my sofa. So what Ive done to make sure I would do it, Ive written it into my calendar. Like that I felt like I had to do it as it was an official plan I had made with myself. Its been working so far!
4. Do something new. Im not talking banana-bread baking of starting knitting as the common lockdown hobbies, just something smaller I knew would make me happy on a daily basis. Ive made sure to do some stretching and flexibility workouts, which is something Ive wanted to get more into but never really found the time or motivation to do. I guess all it took to get down was being locked indoors for 10 days!
5. Not being upset if I didn’t manage to get as much work done as I planned to. For me concentrating at home is such a struggle so I knew before going in that every day wouldn’t be a great day for my studies. And that’s okay. This whole covid-situation isn’t ideal for anyone, so I think its important to be gentle to oneself and allow us to have some days lousier than others, at least thats what Ive said to myself.