Hi! My name is Lindsey, I work for Inizio, and over the last two months of quarantine, I have found ways to embrace working from home by creating a balance between work, mental health, and leisure. I have gathered helpful insights and tips on how to take advantage of working from home and creating a balance during quarantine!
This series will be divided into three parts: balancing work, mental health, and leisure – with all topics addressing #WFH life. This week’s topic is all about balancing leisure time: giving you insight and tips into how I use my free time to be creative and active while encouraging you to use this time to dive into your interests!
Balancing Leisure:
I am the type of person that values a work-life balance. I valued it before #WFH and quarantine, but never did I truly use my leisure time to stimulate my creative and active interests. Before, I always planned on starting a project, to read a book, to do something that would make me a more interesting person, but I always found a reason to avoid starting those activities.
When my local area began to issue the stay at home order, I saw it as an opportunity to make the most of my free time and to finally start working on my hobbies/interests. To help keep myself motivated and to use my leisure time diligently, I created three simple daily goals: to make art, to read a book, and to go on a walk/bike ride.
I love my three daily goals because they give me something to look forward to after work or on the weekends. I’m learning more about my creative side, reading excites me again, and moving my body and exploring the surrounding cities on my bike gives me a sense of freedom and exploration that I haven’t felt since I was a child. Sometimes I don’t do all three goals and sometimes I find another activity to explore before going back to another, but as long as I am doing something beyond scrolling on social media or watching video after video, then I feel happy, stimulated, and excited about life.
I encourage you to either pick three activities you want to do or start a project you keep on putting off! With the sun setting later and later and the world slowing down, now is a great time to use your leisure time to explore new and old interests. I personally feel that quarantine is helping us all reexamine our priorities and slow down to enjoy simple leisure activities again.
Tips:
- With the extra time and sunlight, it is the perfect time to start a personal project outside of work. Learn or create something new (an instrument, a language, a painting, garden) or pick up an old project. Now is the time to be creative!
- By no longer commuting in rush hour traffic, now is the time to become an expert chef/baker. Learn new and healthy recipes for your household to enjoy.
- Conclusively, never underestimate the power of exercise. Going for a run, walk, and bike ride or staying inside to follow a dance, cardio, or yoga class on the internet is a great way to break up your day, boost your mental health, and get your body moving!
Once again this is Lindsey from Inizio, sharing my tips and insight on how I am balancing my leisure time during these unusual times and I hope they have inspired you.
To read more about my #WFH life, visit the Inizio blog to learn how I am balancing work and mental health!
Stay healthy and safe out there!