Take care of your mental health.

Since this is already a very uncertain time, you do not want to burden yourself too much with too much work. This can be the time for you to pause and reflect on yourself. If you lack motivation, feel burnout or require some purpose to get back to work, I recommend that you just take a break for possibly 2-3 days where you take care of your mental health by meditating, praying and talking to someone (video calling or people at home). I don’t recommend using too much social media at this time. However, you should not use the excuse of ‘mental health’ if you feel completely fine and you just want to procrastinate.

Organise your house.

Since nearly half of the academic year was nearly completed, your house may have started looking a bit disorganised. If that is the case, this is the perfect time for you to spice up and clean your house. Redecorate a bit of your house, organise everything and just live in a clean environment that you will feel productive and happy in.

Write down your goals.

As life could have taken a turn for you, especially if your exams were cancelled, it can be hard to define what you want to do currently. So, therefore, I recommend you to just grab a pen and a piece of paper and write down who you want to be in the future. Then try to write an action plan for your goals and how you can reach this. This will redefine your purpose for life.

Make a routine for yourself during this period.

It is best to try to make a routine that is adaptable to you only. If you find that you are distracted by younger siblings, for example, maybe you could wake up earlier when they are still asleep and get some work done before they wake up. Find a routine where you can really manage your time and obviously remember to have breaks in between.

Try to stay up-to-date with your schoolwork.

I recommend that you try to stay up-to-date with your schoolwork as later on, it can pile up. If this is hard for you to do due to the numerous distractions you have around you, then stick to the routine that you have made and maybe tell someone in your family to keep you accountable. You could also try to stick to your school timetable as closely as possible and try to do your lessons, especially if you are set work from your teachers.

Practise self-care.

Self-care does not only mean just having a spa routine, but it also means making sure that you eat well and exercise regularly. This is vital for you to ensure that you are also taking care of your physical health especially before going back to school.

Have a habit tracker.

This relates to my previous point about practising self-care and that is track those habits. Essentially, this is when you have a table with different habits you want to do regularly, such as having limited screen time, praying and exercising. You can tick these off daily or weekly. This will also help to build self-discipline.

Talk to someone regularly.

We, humans, are social creatures and I know it can be hard for most people to be told to stay behind shut doors and not be in the midst of our usually busy lives. However, if quarantining is recommended by the Government, we should follow it but if you need to talk to someone, I recommend that you talk to your family members who live with you at home, or alternatively, text, call or video chat your friends and relatives who don’t live with you.

Have a side project.

If you don’t have an extracurricular activity or a side project amongst your normal workload, then this could be the time for you to introduce this into your life. Starting a side project requires commitment but you can experiment now to see a side project you could do. Examples are creating a website, a Youtube channel, an Instagram or a Pinterest board to share with this world.

Learn something new.

This is also the time to gain some extra knowledge by watching relevant TED talks and documentaries. Knowledge is surely power and if you have always wanted to learn about a good specific topic or read that good book, then this is the time for you to do that!

I hope this article is helpful as it is like a checklist that if you want to follow if your school is currently closed due to coronavirus. Make sure to check out these sources for more information:

Sources:  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-51951914/coronavirus-uk-schools-to-close-to-prevent-virus-spread

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Stay safe and well. Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day!

In this article, I wanted to share the positives (hard to find) and the negatives of this pandemic and how it has changed my one month of staying at home. This is just my own experience of what happened to me and feel free to comment below if you have been quarantining and your experience. I have also left some sources of any information, all information correct as of 18th April 2020, and please don’t take my word for anything. So here I shall get started.

This is my first article of the four articles I will be posting about my one-month quarantine experience so stay tuned for the other three :).

My School Closed and My Exams Were Cancelled

GCSE and A-Level exams cancelled: How will UK grades be calculated?

When will schools reopen in the UK, and is it safe to send my child back?

Tuesday 17th March 2020 was my last day in school. I received the letter that my school would partially close on my last lesson which was Drama. I was truly shocked and all my classmates were shrieking. This news was upsetting as I never thought in a million years that my school would be closed due to an invisible virus, but I knew that I had more time to spend time on myself and quarantining would help reduce the spread of the virus for everyone. I was also supposed to have my GCSE Biology Paper 2 Mock the next day, which I could not do the next day. On Friday 20th March, my school was shut fully as well as many other schools. 

I Started Home Learning/Online School At Home And I Struggled To Find Things To Do At Home

With this new situation, I initially struggled to find a routine for myself. However, I soon got back to work at home as my teachers were setting me tasks to do through Google Classroom. I started waking up at the same time I would wake up for school and just followed my normal school timetable by following the same lessons I would have on that day in school. I also had breaks in between and this helped me to get my work done. After that, I adapted to this online school. I then tried finding things to do at home and I found many activities for myself to do to make productive use of my time which I will talk about later.

The Last Time I Stepped Out of My House

The last time I stepped out of my house was on Friday 20th March 2020, where I went outside before the UK lockdown and that was right outside my house. I took some pictures with my sister for my GCSE Photography. After that, I have not stepped out of my house.

My Substitute For Going Out

With this new experience of being told to stay at home, I did sometimes have the urge to go out but I did not. I found my substitution to enjoy the new sunny weather from looking outside through my brother’s large window. I could still feel the fresh air.

I Started Appreciating More Time At Home

As an adventurous, outgoing person, this was difficult in the beginning but then, talking to my beloved family members, learning more skills and setting myself goals to have a more positive mindset really helped me think about myself. It taught me to be more considerate together for those who are suffering from this terrible virus. The unity that this world is having right now is quite remarkable and I can see that from the comfort of my home.

This was the first out of the four articles I will be posting about my quarantine experience. All my thoughts go to those who have loved ones who are suffering from this horrible disease or who have contracted COVID-19 themselves. Please stay at home if you are advised to do so and only go out if it is necessary. Pray to God and take care of yourself and your family and stay happy and healthy :). Check out my other articles:

Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day!