The year of 2020…
(The year where Trump is a daily headline, a virus stops the world, crude oil fell all time low, there is trade war, there is Brexit, Malaysia changed goverment again…)
Its definitely not what most people expect it to turn out to be. Come January, we were busy planning our winter trip to Jeju & Seoul in February. And when we came back the unimaginable happened. We went into self quaratined and the whole country went into movement control order shortly after. From out and about on family vacation, we were then contained inside the house for a good 3 months. Work arrangements were from home, schools were closed, only groceries and farmacies were opened, only one member from a household allowed to go out to get essential needs at a time, curfews and roadblocks governed by police and armies. All to prevent the spread of the unseen enemies COVID19.
Getting used to the new normal presented was challenging. Given the circumstances, working from home with kids and a household to run was indeed tough. The first month was confusing. Its anxiety mixed with uncertainty. From news channel to social media its filled with COVID19 updates and globally it was rising at alarming rate. After a while we got better at managing the situation.
We focused on securing atleast 2 weeks groceries and kids essentials each time one of us go out to minimise exposing ourselves outdoor too often. We were fortunate and grateful to be able to do that. We only watched COVID19 updates once a day which is the official update in the evening . That is in the effort to stay updated and yet mentally sane during the heightened uncertainty. And for myself I created a routine to manage work and everything else.
A healthy routine allow myself to segregate my mind and focus to get things done.
Waking up as early as 430AM to get a head start of office work
Yes I took it to the extreme. Extreme time requires extreme measure. Before everyone wakes up. And I am pulled in so many direction. I would try and get a headstart of work. On top of that, during that time work was excessive. Maybe its my role in planning and market intelligence, its important to be able to feed management crucial informations at any given time. There would times when work took over sleep time. Which I tried very much to avoid.
This is a crazy one but I do my face and go about my day although I don’t go out. It signifies my day has started and I have to move forward. I do a quick make up ritual that is like 10 min or less and start my day. Even on a weekend when I have laundry and bunch of house chores.
Dust off my pink yoga mat and start exercising
Cooking and cleaning and office work and attending the kids took a whole load of energy. And since we can’t go out for a walk for fresh air or to exercise, I decided to be deligent on my yoga mat. Plus the kids love the sweat out moment with their mummy. So I am on youtube learning Yoga with Adriene and doing abs challenges with Chloe Ting. Of course after that we cool down doing the Gummybear Dance.
Got my planner hat on and start revising my monthly, quarterly and annual goals.
After a while, you get the sense of pushing yourself too hard through this tough time would only push you over the edge. So for once I decided to take things slow. Accomplish simple daily goals and spend more time with the kids and learn to communicate better with my other half. Its like we are programmed to rampage through life everyday from sending kids to school, off to work with the traffics, deadlines after another in the office, go home and dinner and off to sleep and the cycle continues. All of that norms just suddenly stop. Everyone is at home everyday every minute. In many ways adapting to the new daily norm was hard but there are tremendous blessings at the same time. The fact that if you do not have COVID19 and that you have a roof over your head its more than what some people has.
Put a great deal of focus on your blessings to avoid getting side track by negative thoughts. Push blessing hard as a habit that the narrow minded thought has less room in your head. Stay safe everone…
IdeaLisTale 