I know the pandemic isn’t really almost over, but I want to believe we are coming up at the end. I hope we are past the halfway point, and I feel like that is a safe assumption. Of course, things can change so quickly (as we’ve all learned this past year), but I’m trying to stay positive and hope that we are almost to a time when we don’t have to be in the middle of a health crisis.
And I think part of the reason I think this way is because I have slowly started to have a schedule that resembles what my schedule was like a year ago. I still don’t have a big social life (at least outside of my home), but I have a regular work schedule again and I need to plan out my days to make sure I’m getting everything done that I need to. And because things are starting to feel a bit more normal to me, I’ve been thinking a lot more about my life after the pandemic is done.
The idea of being done with the pandemic is a weird one still to me. It feels like everything went from normal to pandemic times overnight. That sort of switch is unlikely to happen as we come out of this. I would guess things slowly get back to normal again. But the idea that it could be like flipping a switch has stayed in my head and I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. I want to be prepared for my regular life again, whether that takes time to get back to or if it happens overnight.
So recently, I have been thinking more and more about the new habits and routines I have started in the past year. Some of these things are things specific to the pandemic, like how I disinfect things more than I used to or things I have taken up because I needed to find ways to fill my time. But most things I have started to do in the past year are things that either I have wanted to have as habits for a while or are good and positive changes that I want to keep up.
I think the most obvious one is that I have been able to get more into cooking. I still struggle with cooking a lot and don’t do it as much as I would like, but it’s still better than it was a year ago. I have figured out more things I can buy so that it’s easier for me to make meals each day. Not everything has to be made from scratch. There are things I can keep in my house that help me put together easy meals with very little time or effort. And this is something I want to not only keep up, but continue to grow and maybe one day in the future I will be cooking almost everything I eat instead of relying on delivery food or microwave meals.
Going along with cooking, I’ve gotten into a new cleaning routine. This was something I was working on before the pandemic, but having the time to work on this has been good. I have always been someone who has a small bit of routine with cleaning. For as long as I can remember, I have always done my laundry on Sundays. This goes back to when I was in elementary or middle school (whatever age I was when I started doing my own laundry). But the rest of my cleaning hasn’t been a regular schedule. I do still do 5-10 minutes of speed cleaning every day, but it’s always been random cleaning tasks. Now, I’m trying to be more mindful of what days I do different things. This is still something I’m working out, but I’m getting better at it. And since I have focused more on cleaning, I have gotten better at what cleaning products I have in my house. I have made it easier for me to do a big clean around my house and keeping all the tools I might need in a central place. Having a cleaning caddy is a very small thing I did, but it made a big change in my life.
I’ve also changed up my beauty/self-care routine in the past year. Some of this was due to boredom and needing to find things to fill time. So I did a bit more into my daily routines since it took up time in my morning. But recently, I’ve been a bit more selective about what self-care things I do each day since I don’t have endless time every day. But I still have gotten into a good routine especially with my skincare. I actually have reduced the number of products I’ve used when compared to a year ago. I’ve realized I don’t need to use as much stuff on my skin to make it look nice. I did change up a few products because I noticed some issues after wearing masks, but those are all minor things that I know will be easy to stop doing once that’s no longer an issue with my skin.
But I think the best new habit I’ve started that I want to keep up is just finding different ways to stay in touch with people. Everyone has had to do that over the past year. I have done more phone calls and video calls in the past year than probably in the 10 years before. In-person hangouts will always be best, but I have learned that I don’t have to just use those to stay in touch with people. I know that my calls will be reduced once I’m not using that as often, but I won’t be getting rid of regular phone calls with friends.
I hope that one day in the future, I will look back at this time with a positive mindset. I know that it’s been horrible and so many people have died who didn’t need to. There’s no doubt that I wish we never went through this. But I’m working on being grateful for the things I have learned and picked up during this year of isolation and seeing how it can make my life better going forward.
You Might Also Like
Always Cleaning (or At Least The Pandemic Helped Create This Habit)
Seeing My Therapist (or Building Habits)
Back To More Scheduling (or Seeing How Much My Time Unemployed Affected Me)
Monthly Recap Update (or My New Habits)
Relearning Old Habits (or Seriously, This Again?!?)
Trying To Prevent Zoom Fatigue (or Not Sure If This Is A Pandemic Problem Or Not)
