Tips on Staying Productive During Quarantine

Okay, time to get personal— who else is binging DARK on Netflix and bringing midnight snacks to bed at 2 AM in the middle of the night? Probably (and maybe) only you, if that’s what you’re thinking.

Wrong. I do it effortlessly. I sneak away into the night in my Spongebob PJs to grab a cold slice of sandwich from the fridge and appear before my boyfriend like a hunched man, only to scare him.

Quarantine has had my sense of time and space all warped— if it’s Friday today, somehow, it’s Tuesday tomorrow and I have no recollection whatsoever about doing anything “productive” other than slipping in and out of my bed to finish writing, but nothing productive enough that’s for my own well-being. But that’s okay... I guess?

Nope. Wrong again. Because as much of a sloth I am, my day-to-day chores aren’t really getting done by themselves— either my partner is grudgingly taking care of them or they’re piling up in some corner.

As a writer, it’s important for me to keep my ideas going, but sometimes I hit the writers’ block. And for some reason, I’ve been hitting these creative blocks more than I should, and after days of staying under the reflection waterfall a.k.a my showerhead, I came to find the source of my blocks: procrastination.

Not that I’m a person who’s super hyper about being productive all the time, but I’ve also realized that I probably won’t have much time to spare as I do now after quarantine.

I read somewhere that if you’re being productive and engage in sharing some activities, it makes you happier as a person. And it did turn out to be true! Yes, I know that I said that I’m the kind of person who will steal away into the night to get some food but hey, discovering ways you can be productive doesn’t hurt. So, here are some four tips that Vowlá agrees with me on productivity:

Focusing on the bond at hand

I’m a photographer by day and a writer by night, so two of these jobs are equally as demanding and (sometimes) a pain in the a**. Being holed up hasn’t given me much of a reason as to why I shouldn’t give more time to my family. We realize that this certain period of time might be the only time this year that we’ll be able to genuinely know what’s going on in each other’s lives. So, we have these weekly family nights where we all just sit down, watch a movie together, order good pizza, and enjoy board games.

Okay, so suppose you had special plans for this year. Maybe it was your baby’s birthday party or your wedding, and you wanted to go all out and celebrate it with a dream venue in mind. But you didn’t have much time to catch up with your amazing family. Well, now you have more than enough time to go and hug your parents and tell them that you love them. Or your fiancé. You might as well play charades together with your family(while maintaining social distance, of course) and spend some time going over your event plans without having to go out. And you know who just happens to provide and connect you to the best of the best in the events industry? That’s right—Aaron Paul! No, I’m sorry, it’s actually us— the Vowla gang!

     

Rediscovering your old hobbies

At some point during my teenage years, I was extremely keen on the subject of arts and crafts. I didn’t excel in it, but I really liked painting. And somewhere along the lines of graduating high school and getting into college, I forgot how therapeutic it was.

I realized that this certain stay-at-home-until-the-virus-is-gone vacation, or lockdown, has set some a new fear of certainty in me: when will this end? With that in mind, now that I don’t have to worry about deadlines, I ordered myself a round canvas, a painting kit and a whole new set of brushes to get started again, because hey, why not?

Maybe you had a hobby too— was it playing the guitar? Writing? Taking pictures? Whatever it was, the best way to stay productive during times like these is to just get back in that old version of yourself and rediscover yourself. 

Develop a new skill

Have you ever wondered about how the people who arrange the flowers for your events? Or the food caterer who makes the most amazing salads for your dinner party? Or how a wedding planner magically makes your venue and the wedding itself seem like a dream come true? Well, guess what— you can do it too!

Due to the pandemic, most educational institutions closed down. However, the lockdown didn’t stop them there because they decided to move education to the virtual platforms. Surprisingly, many have flocked to these online courses and actually enjoying it, so why shouldn’t you?

If you’ve ever had the curiosity about how the events or wedding industry works, you are humbly invited to check out our online webinar platform, ROCKNUNIVERSITY, which exclusively covers all sorts of knowledge that you need to know about the industry. ROCKNU is an open platform for everyone to come together and share their love and knowledge about the events industry. So, pay us a visit for an awesome journey to becoming one of the amazing people to enter the industry!

  “Work out, you must”

Take it from someone who only used to sleep for 2 hours a day, and still, somehow managed to function. And let me tell you, it wasn’t healthy. At all. On top of that, I took exercising for granted because pfft who needs it when you can just roll on the bed? (The truth is I never even lifted a dumble in my life, but I do enjoy running now.)

But staying inside your home for over half of the year really gives you a lot of free time to think about life. And I thought long and hard about the times I’ve neglected the greens and proper consumption of water and oh!— how I’ve pushed myself around on a desk office chair so that I don’t have to get up! Turns out I could hide two pens in my belly if I slouched a little. Also, I was starting to get back pains. I mean, I’m only in my 20s, why should I feel like a hundred years old! ‘Tis the time to shine! So, I downloaded some apps to regulate my exercise schedule and sleep routine. But, it did take a lot of effort to not take a ten-minute nap every one hour.

So, there you go. And hey, being productive isn’t a competition. You don’t have to feel like you should be doing something when you clearly need to take some time off to sit back and reflect, buddy. Take care and be safe!

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