By Dylan Porras and the Blue Titan Team

A few weeks back, after having been in quarantine for quite some time, we asked our leadership team/head coaches:

What are your top 5 tips for surviving quarantine?

While it was interesting to see what each coach does to stay sane during this time, it was also great to see how many of their answers were the same or somewhat similar. 

Here are your coaches top 5 tips to survive this quarantine! 

AMANDA:

1. Maintain Normalcy: Make dinner, take out the trash, decorate for the holidays. Don’t let yourself fall into a slump that it doesn’t matter and nobody cares. Because if you don’t care, neither will they. 

2. Feel good about being the one who cared. Send weekly messages to people who live alone. Especially the elderly. You might be the only one they heard from for days. 

3. Invest in a good pair of walking shoes and get outside! 

4. Spend time organizing all of your online orders like dog food, prescriptions, contacts, gifts, etc. because many things are on backorder or considered “non-essential” and might take extra time to get to you. Reduce your stress by planning ahead! 

5. Allow yourself downtime. Working from home can be 24/7 if you let it. Put the laptop down and watch that 80’s movie you never saw. 

NOGI:

1. Declutter- take this time to remove unnecessary items from your home. Creating more space so you don’t feel so confined.

2. Keep in touch- call/face time friends and family to check in and make sure they are well. Seeing familiar faces even if only through the phone helps you stay connected and gives the opportunity to help others cope with the current circumstances.

3. Karaoke- sing along to your favorite songs. Work on your vocals no matter how bad you are. If you’re really bad, annoy your family with your stellar performance.

4. Walk/run- go out into nature, get fresh air. The trees are blooming, take in the beauty of it all.

5. Work out- stay active, work on your weaknesses, and improve your strengths. Stay fit, strong, and healthy.

CHERYL:

225

1) Keep your immune system strong: avoid foods you know make you feel bad, get enough sleep, and even if you’re working out every day, get outside and walk too. You need the steps and fresh air.

2) Call at least one friend, colleague, or family member a day and check in on them and catch up.

3) Choose one positive thing you want to accomplish that you’ve been putting off: read the big book, learn the language, master french cooking, etc..

4) When making assessments, forming opinions, and dealing with your own emotions around the current situation, look outside of your own experience, both locally, and globally.

5) Educate yourself about how we got here, in the small picture and the big picture, and commit to contributing to ensuring that we are never here again.

DYLAN:

1: Have a routine. In the beginning, I spent most of my time doing useless/pointless things. I set a schedule for myself and got in the habit of doing similar tasks at similar times and that’s helped me stay a lot more productive and got more done with each day. 

2. Getting quality sleep. Now is a great time to focus not just on getting the right amount of sleep but quality sleep. Example: No screens 1 hr before bed, sleeping in a dark/silent room. 

3. Getting Outside. Getting enough sunlight and getting my steps in has been key to helping me feel good throughout the day. 

4: Learning new things and picking up new hobbies. This one helps me stay motivated and interested. 

5: Communication. Connecting with people via facetime or zoom. I call my parents every day, cousins, or aunts that I don’t usually talk to and it’s refreshing and puts me in a good mood. 

KEITH:

1. Have a Schedule- Now is the most important time to build a schedule and stick to it. It is easy to put things off when you feel as though you have plenty of time or no deadlines. Use this time to work on building a strong sense of self-accountability. 

2. Wake up early- This is something I struggle with as well. It is difficult to wake up early when you aren’t being held to a certain work schedule(9-5). It is easy for you to sleep away the day without accomplishing tasks that could benefit you post quarantine. Use this time wisely.

3. Don’t buy junk food- If you struggle with snacking during the day or sticking to your nutrition plan, being stuck in your house will magnify these issues. Not only are we getting in less activity during the day, but we also tend to eat more calories when we deviate from our daily routine. When you combine these issues, you run into problems with weight gain and reduced productivity.

4. Prep your meals in advance- The 5 P’s: Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance…How can you expect to follow a nutrition plan if you’re winging it every day? Take a step back and evaluate what a day’s worth of eating looks like and prepare it ahead of time. If you know exactly what you’re eating and when to eat it, you’re far more likely to stick to the plan when life gets crazy.

5. Relax- This is a time of stress and uncertainty for almost everyone on the planet. The best thing you can do right now is to find ways to de-stress and relax. 

  • Make sure you’re getting a full night sleep, every single night! 
  • Take 5-10 minutes out of your day to breathe, calm down, and remember all of the things you’re grateful for. 
  • Stay off of social media and the news unless it is for work if you find yourself mindlessly scrolling, set a timer, and keep it to a reasonable limit.
  • Go outside for a walk, taking even 10 minutes a day to go outside and exercise will drastically increase your mood.

MARKI:

1. Have a simple routine. Don’t try to be all fancy and plan to do EVERYTHING under the sun. Have a simple routine that is actionable every single day. Mine is waking up (no alarm 6 am-6:30 is when I usually wake up, shower – COLD shower to wake my body up, eat food, read, listen to some self-growth podcast. and start the day) 

* ALSO dress for work! It can be easy to be lazy. I worked out of a home office for 2 years and its easy to roll in sweatpants. you feel like crap when you do this. Dress nice or at least brush your hair! LOL, that’s my rule. I brush my hair really pretty and braid it so I’m neat and clean. 

2. Still surround yourself with good people, zoom, call an old friend, call your parents. You will be surprised at how much your day can be brightened up by just chatting with someone. 

3. GO ON WALKS. Use this as an opportunity to walk more stretch your legs and get some sunshine around noon is the best time to do it. 

4. Give space – If you live with other people try as much as you can to work in separate rooms or to create space it’s easy to become wrapped up in each other’s moods habits and to be easily annoyed. Everyone needs their own time to just be themselves allow them to do that and allow yourself to be okay with it. 

5. Plan quality time. Not everyone is going to want to spend time together all at the same time….its also easy to become lazy…plan some time to do a puzzle, watch a show together, or cook dinner but plan a day and a time!