Solent Unviersity Southampton logo
Solent Unviersity Southampton logo
Skip to main content

Student blogger, Carolina shares her tips for keeping to a routine during quarantine - balancing uni work with down time.

26th April 2020

These are strange times. I am sure a lot of us are trying to adapt to this new lifestyle that will hopefully come to an end soon.

I started to self-isolate on 16 March, so it has been more than a month that I have been in this ‘new normal’. In the beginning I tried to see what worked best for me in terms of a routine to make things seem as normal as possible, and I am sure I wasn’t the only one. If you are struggling to find this here is what I have been doing…

I have been trying to maintain a business working week, meaning across Monday to Friday working on the uni projects I have, doing some exercise in the morning, do any other work I have to do (virtually, of course).

I have also been trying to add in some things that I have always wanted to do, but never got round to doing before. This has consisted of learning a new language and reading more - and after a month in quarantine I can say I have been fairly successful! Then I reserve the weekends for some entertainment like series and films - this has indeed been a great time for binge watching!

However, the most important thing, in my opinion at least, is our mental health. Sometimes it is also the one thing being most overlooked. In my case, I felt like all of this work put into the routine was a way to ignore or try to mask the reality of things as they are at the moment; eventually I wasn’t really into this routine anymore, I would just make myself do it and it wasn’t as enjoyable as it was when I started it. So, I understood that I had to deal with this new reality and that I would do things when it felt right to do them, not just to stick to a schedule. Obviously, sometimes forcing ourselves to do things might have a positive outcome, but sometimes not always, and we need to be able to know ourselves to recognise our instincts and what is right for us. That being said, I think this is a great time to explore new things - we are probably spending far more time with ourselves than ever before, so we can take some advantage of that.

Overall, if you are struggling with being in quarantine, it is absolutely normal and you are not alone; it isn’t easy or something natural for us human beings. Let’s just try to make the best of it and focus on the positives that this brings for all of us individually and as a community. After we overcome this, we will all be together again and for sure, giving more importance to a number of things that we didn’t before and more importantly we will be stronger and probably able to take anything that is thrown in our way!

Carolina

Student blogger, Carolina