The Importance of Maintaining This Routine During Quarantine

The coronavirus outbreak has impacted every aspect of our lives, so it's not a stretch to assume that your regular daily routine has gone out the window. Whether you're in the workforce or in school, suddenly having to stay home all day can be difficult, frustrating, and just overall uncomfortable.

When you're home all day, it's all too easy to get distracted and lose track of time. It might even feel like your normal rules no longer apply. 

Why go to bed on time if you have nowhere to go in the morning? Why get out of bed in the morning when you can work beneath your cozy comforter?

Losing your normal routine can even lead to snacking more, a poorer diet, and the end of your exercise goals.

Whether you've already experienced some of these unhealthy habits creeping into your daily life or you're feeling a toll on your mental well-being, you can probably benefit from establishing a new routine to survive the quarantine.

Why Is Routine Important?

Maintaining a routine is important to preserving your mental well-being during the coronavirus quarantine. Maintaining normalcy with your daily routine is essential to keeping your spirits lifted and staving off unneeded stress and boredom.

Routines help us feel in control of our lives and ensure we make room for everything that's important: Family, work, hobbies, relaxation. Routine can also help the average person form healthy habits, cope with change, and also reduce stress levels. Think of routine as an anchor. 

When life throws uncertainties at you (like coronavirus!), you can cope better by relying on the certainties a routine brings.

How to Maintain a Routine During Quarantine

If you’re one of the many people struggling to maintain a routine during the coronavirus pandemic, here are a few tips to help get you back on track:

1. Find a Dedicated Workspace

If you're able to work from home, it's important to set some boundaries. The idea of working from your bed may sound nice, but boundaries are an important aspect of remote work. Of course, these boundaries may differ from person to person, but it's important to set some that work for you.

Boundaries might mean no TV or working in a room free from pets or children (not always possible, but worth a try). But, mostly, boundaries meanfinding a dedicated workspace that doesn't feed your distractions. 

Setting up a desk area or even finding a free table in your home where you can spend the majority of the day is a great way to reclaim the work setting you've been missing.

2. Maintain Regular Hours

If you typically work regular hours, make sure to stick to them. It might not seem important to do this, but it can be difficult to separate your work life from your home life when you’re working at home. Working remotely does provide added flexibility that you might not normally have, but sticking to a schedule as much as possible can ensure you remain productive.

If you’re not careful, you may spend too much time working - which can be very draining - or not enough time working - which can lead to unwanted repercussions.

In that same vein, don’t just give yourself an 8-hour window to get work done and stop there. Make sure to schedule breaks for yourself. It can be tempting to take a snack break or pay your dog a visit in the other room, but unscheduled breaks can easily throw your day off track. You may not be able to enjoy your breaks the way you normally would at work, but adhering to a schedule is definitely the way to go.

3. Know When to Log Off

One of the most difficult aspects of working from home is that you’re always technically at work. Maintaining regular work hours is a great start, but what’s to stop you from checking your computer or your work phone when you receive an email after hours?

Quarantine is difficult enough on its own, so don’t put added pressure on yourself by continuing to answer the phone or respond to emails in the evenings.Self-care is important, and constantly being on the clock is definitely not self-care. 

Instead, mute your phone and leave your work things at your dedicated workspace. Step away and live your life so you can maintain some level of sanity while stuck at home.

4. Get Enough Sleep

No routine is complete without a sleep schedule. When you have a long commute each morning, it’s pretty easy to get to sleep early and get out of bed in the morning. On the other hand, when you know your commute is a short walk to your dedicated workspace, it can be difficult to stick to a schedule.

You may no longer have that crazy commute to worry about, but getting enough sleep is still essential to self-care during quarantine. Don’t stay up half the night binging the TV show on Netflix everyone’s talking about, and don’t sleep in until lunchtime just because you can get away with it.

The best course of action is to continue to stick to your normal sleep schedule - provided you’re getting enough sleep with your normal sleep schedule. Plus, it’ll be a lot easier to transition back into your old routine once quarantine is over.

5. Make Sure You Move

Perhaps the most difficult part of being all cooped up in our apartments and houses is that we’re moving much less. If you have a smartwatch that tracks your movement or steps, chances are you’ve seen your activity take a steep drop since stay at home orders went into effect.

You may not be able to go to your gym, and you may not be able to take your yoga or aerobics class, but you’re still able to stay active.

If you have the space in your home, you can create a workout area to stay active. Try simple bodyweight exercises like squats or lunges, or even run up and down your stairs if you have some. 

Also, just because everything is closed down doesn’t mean you can’t get some fresh air every now and then. Being outdoors is good for you, so take a walk or go for a jog every day to keep your heart pumping and your health where it needs to be.

6. Don’t Forget Your Diet

Structured meals are important to maintaining a healthy diet, yet quarantine may make it more difficult to stick to your health goals. You may not be able to grocery shop as often (or your favorite foods may be more difficult to find), ordering delivery is much more tempting these days, and snacking can happen before you even realize it.

If your diet has taken a hit during quarantine, then we have good news for you. SMART Pressed Juice has developed the perfect program to keep you on track. Our plant-based system is the most convenient way to get the superfood nutrients your body needs to feel, look, and perform at your best throughout quarantine and beyond!

We broke it down into 4 simple steps: 

Step 1: Cut Your Cravings | 8 AMVegan Vanilla Proteini

Nourish your body and feel satisfied all day with clean, organic plant-based protein from 10 superfoods like peas, hemp, maca, sacha inchi and sprouts.

Step 2: Nourish with Greens | 10:00 AMOrganic Pressed Greens

Our triple award-winning Organic Pressed Greens is the crowd favorite for people who don’t get enough vegetables! Energize, detox and destress with over 20 superfoods specifically formulated for optimal immune health. 

Step 3: Energize with Beets | 2 PMRevive Beets + Roots

Feel the boost of energy from our freshly pressed organic beets, turmeric, ginger and superfood roots. Naturally boosts your body’s energy, pre-workout, and performance with no jitters or crash.

Step 4: Undo the Junk and | 5 PMPineapple Chia Cleanse

Feel full and satisfied with activated prebiotic fiber from sprouts, chia, pineapple enzymes and probiotics. It’s your daily gut-defense and mini-cleanse to ensure you feel light, clean and happy every day. Secret tip: drink this right before that big night out and be amazed at your willpower.

Good news! You can enjoy all of these tasty plant-based products when you buy ourEverything Bundle!

For more SMART lifestyle tips like this, visithttp://www.smartpressedjuice.com and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or like us on Facebook. You can also visit our Amazon store to stock up on our delicious juices.

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