Day 11 of staying at home! How does it feel?

So, for me, this is day 11 of self confinement and apart from a walk in the park on day 2, two visits to local shops and two short walks around our communal gardens, I’ve been indoors all the time. I can’t think about it long term so I really only take it one day at a time. Having recently become a photographer and YouTuber with my content based on being out and about in London, this is a bit of a blow, to say the least. I chose this lifestyle after a lot of thought because I wanted to spend a good proportion of my time out of doors and meeting people.

Despite all this, we have to do our bit to fight this blasted coronavirus and I feel lucky that our flat has a balcony, a view and a communal garden. I’m also not alone so I feel a lot of gratitude for this, even though a few spats of bickering have already broken out.

I was starting to feel a bit of lethargy so I asked my LinkedIn contacts if anyone wanted to get in touch for some mutual coaching. I’ve got no experience in coaching, by the way. Luckily, a friend saw my post and so we started this morning with a call at 9am. We’re agreed that we each need a little bit of motivation to save sinking into inactivity or getting into any bad habits. My health won’t stand up long to lolling around in pyjamas, playing games on my phone and drinking a bottle of wine at a time. I did that on Saturday, so I know.

By 9am, I had written a list of 10 tasks for the day. Some related to photography and some are domestic such as cleaning the windows. I had been up at 7, showered and had breakfast already. My friend also got up a lot earlier than usual (for these times!) and rather than a list she’s planned out her day into 6 different hours of activity. We’re going to call back again at 5pm to check how we got on.

Will we keep this up? I don’t know. But if we do, it’s really going to help us make the most of this time and keep us off the streets :) It’s a really good start anyway. I like the buzz of working with other people so it’s a small step towards that.

I’ve just seen a facebook post asking if the clocks can go forward this weekend by 4 months instead of an hour!!

Stay safe everyone and try a version of this mutual coaching for yourselves if you feel you’re floundering!