Inevitable laziness: a personal quarantine routine

By VICTORIA PERCHERKE

Staff Writer

Before campus closed due to COVID-19, I worked at Campus Recreation as a fitness instructor. In that role, I helped motivate others to become a better version of themselves. But, when I returned home for online school, I found myself to be the exact opposite of that energetic and motivational person.

Since we started remote learning, I have not set one alarm, I have not been loving my classes like I used to and I have not been as motivated to get good grades since the new pass/fail option was announced.

I wake up around 9:40 a.m. most mornings, and find myself lying in bed watching Tik Toks until about 10:15 a.m. Then finally, when my eyes grow tired from my bright screen, I force myself to get out of bed. Rubbing my eyes and fixing my hair that flopped over in the night, I walk downstairs.

My dad welcomes me with a bright smile, as he has been up since five in the morning painting sections of the house. It seems to me that everyone is doing something random like painting the house, bleaching their clothes or dying their hair different colors due to complete boredom.  

I fix a pot of coffee and grab the blender out of the pantry. Recently I switched to making smoothies every morning instead of pancakes. The first two weeks of remote learning, I had a pancake craving and ate pancakes everyday– the ones from Trader Joe’s that are both gluten and dairy free. It’s kind of healthy, right?

I pull out my laptop and sip on my coffee as I read the daily announcements on Canvas. With a sigh of stress, I get to work. Most of my assignments are discussion posts or Connect activities. None of my classes use Zoom or any video conferencing method. This is both a good and bad thing in my opinion.

Whenever I start to get overwhelmed with my studies, I take a “break” that always lasts longer than it should. But, I’m sorry! I was doing more important things like coloring, online shopping and solving puzzles. Definitely way more serious work than conjugating verbs in Spanish or solving rules to a linguistic problem.

After realizing that I am a complete failure, and crying that this semester has gone to complete shambles, I go for a walk to reevaluate my life. When I come back, I finish one of the many things off my checklist and claim that that was enough for today. Day completed. I can be lazy again, until another breakdown comes over me.

Okay. Week three is over and week four is about to begin. I’ve done a lot of walks to “reevaluate my life,” and I started to set goals during my work week. I rediscovered the value sticky notes, making studying more fun and creating pretty, colorful check lists of what to accomplish before the Netflix-binging break. I’ve learned that it’s okay to be lazy during this time, because despite what is on social media, those fitness crazies still watch “Tiger King” after it’s all over. Taking my days step by step, create lists on what has to be done, and then rewarding myself for working hard has been helpful.

I like to start my day by eating a healthy breakfast, and discussing what I have to get done today with family or friends over the phone. Talking out my day makes me more motivated to stay focused.

Working out also helps my focus. I like to wake up with a good stretch– start with reaching for my toes, to stretch those hamstrings, then coming up easy from that stretch, do some arm circles forward and backward. I also fall back on my time as a fitness instructor for a serious at home work out. One of my HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) combinations is listed below.

At-Home Cardio HIIT: x2
Slow-steady marches in place for 30 sec
Jog for 30 sec
Mountain Climbers for 30 sec
Push ups for 30 sec

At-Home Strength HIIT: x2
(Use canned goods for weights if you have no equipment)
Bicep Curls for 45 sec
Goblet Squat for 45 sec
T-raises for 45 sec
V-raises for 45 sec

At-Home Core HIIT: x2
Glute Bridges for 40 sec
Crunches for 40 sec
Bicycles for 40 sec
Flutter Kicks for 40 sec