The COVID-19 pandemic has everyone stuck at home. Here are tips to avoid climbing the walls.

Stay healthy.

Take this pandemic seriously, no matter who you are. First, because getting sick is no fun. Second, because even the young and healthy have a risk of serious health consequences. And third, because you can potentially infect someone else, even if you’re not showing symptoms. Follow social distancing and sanitation guidelines to make sure you’re part of the solution, not the problem.

Vet your sources.

There’s a lot of bad information out there. Don’t get swept away in the river of conspiracy theories and nonsense surging through social media. Debaters know to evaluate sources and heed advice only from qualified experts like the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. 

Cut yourself some slack.

This is a historic crisis. Someday, you’ll tell your children and grandchildren stories about living through the COVID-19 pandemic. Every single corner of society is impacted in some way. You’ll have to adapt; that can mean changing or delaying your life plans. 

Almost everyone in the country is experiencing the same anxiety: “I’m stuck at home, slacking off, and I’m falling behind! I’m so lazy. I need to work harder and make sure that this pandemic doesn’t slow me down in any way. If I don’t work twice as hard, I’ll beat myself up even harder.” As the virus spreads and the lockdown lasts longer, the anxiety builds into panic.

Of course, this is an impossible standard. This is not “business as usual, only at home.” This is “the world in crisis.”  It’s okay to be less productive; it’s okay to slow down; it’s okay to spend the day taking care of yourself. Take a breath. Give yourself a dose of compassion. 

Here’s your new standard for success: if you can get through the entire day without infecting yourself or anyone else, you win. Anything beyond that is a bonus. 

Clean and repair.

Every time you walk past a mess or use something that is damaged, you lose a little bit of energy and sanity. Keep your quarantine zone in tip-top shape. Spend time cleaning every day. Make your bed; take out the trash; do the dishes. Go into that room you’ve been putting off, where everything is a mess. Repair, replace, or throw away anything that is damaged. You’ll notice a big difference when you live in a well-maintained space.

We promise your mom didn’t make us say this. It just happens to be true.

Dig in.

It’s impossible to know how what happens next. Everyone wants the lockdown to be lifted as soon as possible. The danger is that lifting it too soon will cause another surge in infections, and this whole crisis will be prolonged. Even when the initial orders are lifted, we’ll be in an interim period with extensive testing and contact tracing, where public activity is still restricted to some degree. We won’t be able to go back to true “normal” until a treatment goes into mass production, and that’s still a long way off. 

That means you need to develop a sustainable day-to-day to take care of yourself. Watching Netflix may work for a weekend, but not for weeks on end. Pace yourself and plan ahead.

In the next article, we’ll give you tips for improving your day-to-day experience in quarantine.