Getting Back into the Swing of Things After COVID-19

After being decommissioned with COVID-19 for over a week, getting back to normalcy and my daily routine was not an easy transition. I had struggled to go back to doing all of the things in my life that had great benefits: Journaling, meditating, reading, engaging in blogging communities… It all took a backseat as I was sick and has been difficult to re-start. This might be because I am not fully recovered as according to my doctor, COVID-19 effects can linger for over a month after…

However, a big part of this is when you leave your life on hiatus for over a week, especially unexpectedly, you are entering back into a life of mayhem and disorganization. All aspects of life went unattended and now it is time to get back up to speed with everything…all at once!

Home life, work life, social life …. Cleaning, working out, working on yourself, creating, and so, so much more. It is overwhelming and difficult to get back into the swing of things. However, it is possible. Here are some tips to get back on track after being sidelined, by sickness or other:

1. Understand it will take time

The first and most important thing to do is understand that you won’t be able to get caught up with everything overnight, it will take time. This is because there will be so much to catch up on and only 24 hours in a day. It will be a slow and steady process. Take your time and remember: it is a marathon, not a sprint. Baby steps will get you to where you need to be.

2. Don’t blame yourself

If the reason you were sidelined is something out of your control, like COVID-19 despite safety precautions, you can’t blame yourself. If you tend to be hard on yourself in general, it will be easy to blame yourself over falling behind in your activities. However, since this was something outside of your control, don’t. There is nothing you could do to avoid this. Move on and focus on more important things such as getting back on track. Be productive instead of beating yourself up and wailing in your sorrow. (If it was something in your control, there is still no need or use in blaming yourself. You can examine why and learn from it, but don’t beat yourself up over it.)

3. Split up the categories

As mentioned at the top, you will now be behind on all aspects of your life. That includes work life, social life, and home/family life. The best way to approach this situation is to:

1. Spend a little bit of time in each category every day until you are slowly caught up in everything
   
   The reason it is better to spread out everything you need to catch up on is that this way nothing will fall “too deep into the hole”. For example, if you only focus on spending time with your family and catch up in that area of your life, you will continue to fall behind in your work and other duties and responsibilities. This is where you need to be organized and disciplined and set time increments for everything you are behind in and work on those things. If you really take the time to do this and are focused, you should be able to get caught up with all you have going on in life within 1 – 2 weeks.
   
   
   
2. Divide and conquer

Divide & Conquer is a computer science technique that breaks down a problem into sub-problems until the problem becomes simple enough to solve.

When trying to get back into the groove of things, divide and conquer. Break down everything into manageable actions of what you need to do next. How you break this down is up to you and your style. If you enjoy working on numerous projects at once, figure out what the next steps for each project will be and do those steps for each project every day. By the end of the week, the projects should be mostly or fully completed. If you enjoy working on one project at a time, tackle one project for Monday and give all your attention to that project. Same for Tuesday, then Wednesday, and so on.

This is a great technique to avoid becoming overwhelmed and to make actual, genuine progress.

4. Start with the most important stuff

Don’t jump to immediately checking your email! I know it’s tempting, but those can usually wait. Taking hours of time when we return to check our email can be counterproductive. Instead, focus on things that will help you catch up on your work and make you the most productive. This is valid for other areas of your life as well, outside of work.

Only you will know what is most important for you to get done. If your room or house is a mess and you cannot concentrate surrounded by messiness, give your workspace a clean first. But do not get carried away and clean your entire three-story house if you have more pressing matters to attend to.

If you are behind in your bills, get those paid right away to avoid late charges. If physical fitness is extremely important to you, get back into the gym and/or work on meal prep (although I do recommend taking a break from the gym until your body fully recovers if you have been sick). Whatever you prioritize as most important, focus on that first.

5. Take it easy

If you were sick, don’t kill yourself. Especially if you had COVID. Doing too much work, physical or mental, can drain and exhaust you. Do not use your previous threshold either. You can get exhausted much faster, by doing the same amount as you previously did. Don’t try to be a hero, just take it easy, man.

6. A small step is better than no step

As I said earlier, take baby steps. If you try to do much at once, you will get fatigued and gas yourself out. On the other side of things, as humans when we are overwhelmed, we tend to do nothing. This is because we have so much to do, we don’t know where to begin, so we just don’t. This is why so many people don’t take the first step towards improving themselves, starting their own business, building confidence, etc. It’s because it’s overwhelming.

To combat this, even if you don’t accomplish everything you wanted to get done in a day, do at least ONE thing. That is one less thing that you will have to worry about tomorrow.

Getting sick in the first place was not your ideal situation. Getting back on track is not a perfect, smooth, or ideal process. But as you start to do this, you will slowly build up those good habits you had earlier. I believe in you!

Best,

Eric