Skip to main content

How to use our time at home

Image
By
Suddenly we're spending a lot more time at home. Sometimes we're unsure what to do with our time.

We didn't choose for this to happen, but we can choose how we deal with it.

Shutdown Schedule

Daily planner for extra time at home
Here's my daily planner template. It's flexible so feel free to move things around and put other things in. The main idea is that it gives you a default activity to be doing at any given time.

Click the image for a larger version to download, and see below for more details.

Key Actions

I've designed this to give us the things we'll miss while being at home all the time.

Purpose

Find a project that you want to work on. Time will pass quicker if you're working towards a goal. There are some suggestions in the planner. You may have some of your own.

Joy

Events and activities have been cancelled, but we can make our own fun. I've included some time for playing (or listening to) music, playing games (I still love Uno) or watching a movie. You might choose doing art or looking back on old photos.

Social interaction

There are two prompts to call someone. Not a text, or an email - though you can do that too - but an actual phone call. The sound of someone's voice and physically having a conversation is good for us at this time.

Exercise

For mental exercise I've included an hour for a podcast or reading a book (here are my book reviews). There's two prompts to do physical exercise. It can be a run, if that's OK where you live, some frisbee in the backyard, a work-out in your garage or even gardening. The idea is to get some healthy movement into the day.

Project ideas

If you are taking up the decluttering and selling unwanted items, here's my guide to selling items online. An average household could make thousands. Having less stuff can also save you even more again. See how decluttering is currently saving us thousands.

If you're now schooling your kids at home, here a some handy resources:

Learning something new

It might be learning a new skill yourself, particularly if future income is looking shaky. Or it might be a good time to look at having less expenses. I recently did an article on how to waste a year's salary (do the opposite of that) and another on how I got a month's free electricity. Even really small savings can really add up over time.

All the best

Hope this helps you make the most of your time and to stay healthy. For email updates, you can subscribe here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Reasons why we hoard - and they're wrong

By
"Less is More" is one of the catch-cries of downsizing. Often the fewer things we have the more we value them. So it's a great title for a book that's basically a manual for how to de-clutter your home. The introductory chapter of Less is More: How to De-clutter Your Life gives some great insights into why we find it so hard to reduce our stuff. Here are 5 of them - the last one is one of the biggest for me. 1. The cost of holding on. We were raised by our parents and grandparents and in their day items were expensive and space was cheap. It made sense in those days to hold onto stuff just in case you ever needed it. But today housing is expensive and items are cheap. It's hard to change a habit, but now we save much more by downsizing. 2. Keeping it in the family. For some reason we prefer to give things to those close to us. Again this was viable in the days of big families and lots of children to receive hand-me-downs. But these days we have smaller fa...
Post a Comment
Read more

20 unplugged ideas

By
May 1-7 is Screen-Free Week . It's about spending time away from the screen and more time with each other - or doing things we love. It's a great chance to break the work-tired-watchTV-ads-shop-work cycle. This list of twenty alternative ideas is great for screen-free week. It's also a great reminder of things we could enjoy if we're shopping and spending less - and maybe working less and enjoying life more.
Post a Comment
Read more

My October challenge

By
Decluttering can be overwhelming. I've been stuck. Shelves and boxes and drawers full of stuff I should go through but not sure where to start. Aaagh - there's so much of it. The solution? So for myself (and for you if you want) I've developed a strategy. I've picked 31 categories in advance. I plan to tackle one item per day of October. If I miss a few that's OK. The point is to overcome overwhelm. To focus on one thing at a time. To move forward instead of being stuck. My favourite way to declutter is to sell online . (I even wrote a  free ebook of tips for selling online). I also like to recycle or upcycle things. Wanna join in? I've chosen categories where I think most people would have excess. If there's a category you have already dealt with, that's cool. Have a rest day - or go even further in one of the previous areas. The list Ok so here's my plan for this October. Bookmark this post or download the picture of my notes. For each category I ...
2 comments
Read more