A Lockdown To Do List

Well it’s a strange little time right now isn’t it?

As someone with major anxiety, I get a little stressed out when things go out of my control. And with the UK in lockdown, not being able to do my usual routine and not being able to see my loved ones right now, my anxiety levels have been quite high.

I’ve spent a good two weeks feeling rather flat, and unmotivated by everything and doing a lot of moping on the sofa. But as it looks that we may have a good few months of this, I want to try and make something positive from it. Rather than feel that I’m stuck at home, I want to remind myself I’m safe in my home, and with a bit more time there are lots of things I’ve wanted to do but not had the time for. So here is my list of things to keep me busy, to make the most of my time at home, time with my little family, and importantly time to help my mental health. 

Rewatch the Harry Potter films – It’s been forever since I’ve watched all of the Harry Potter films. I recently watched the first one again with Reuben, but it would be good to watch them all start to finish.

Make our way through our 100 films list – Last year I bought Chris a poster with 100 must watch films on, and then his friend bought him another for Christmas, so we decided to make our way through these films together. So far we’ve only got 5 crossed off, so it’s a great time to get through a lot of these!

Read, read read – One of my new year goals was to read more, and I set myself a challenge on Goodreads to read 20 books this year, and so far I’ve only read 3. Now I have a little more time at home to slow down and chill, I’ve got plenty of books to get through!

Finish off my craft projects – I do love a good craft project, however I’m terrible at starting one and not getting it finished. I currently have 4 projects on the go, so it’s time to get them finished!

Make regular video calls with friends & family – I normally spend a lot of time going out to see friends, and we have a large family so frequently see them, so this is quite a change. So I want to make regular video calls and catch up with everyone. I’ve been doing a lot of pub quizzes with friends which has become a good laugh, and we tried to have a zoom chat with the whole of Chris’s family the other day – and as he’s one of 6 and the majority of us have kids, it was quite chaotic! 

Catch up on life admin – A rather boring task but one I have no excuse for putting off anymore. I moved into Chris’s house in May, and I still haven’t changed the address on a lot of my things, so there’s never been a better time than to get this sorted!

Sort the blog admin out – I have a lot of behind the scenes blog admin to sort that I’ve been putting off for a very long time. I’d like to write more, and these behind the scenes niggles have been putting me off for sometime. 

Finish Ivy’s baby books – I have two half finished baby books for Ivy, I want to use this time to get some photos printed for them and get things filled in. 

Do some courses – Being on maternity leave and no where to go, I have a lot of time on my hands. I’m a little worried about my job situation after my mat leave finishes, so I’ve signed up to a couple of marketing courses to bulk out my CV. Hopefully all will be well and good regarding my job, but these will be some handy skills regardless.

Continue learning BSL – I’ve been going to baby sign language classes with Ivy since she was 4 weeks old as I was keen to learn sign language myself, but I also think it would be hand for her to know. Interestingly the teacher said babies use this to communicate with you before they use speech and I wasn’t sure how much I believed this until at 5 months old Ivy started using the sign for ‘milk’ when she was hungry! It’s pretty cool, so I’d like to learn more!

Give my hair a break – Since having Ivy my hair has been in quite a bad state and has started falling out. I want to give my hair bit of a rest from using heat on it all the time, and well what’s the point in doing my hair when I’m not leaving the house?!

Attempt Couch to 5k – I’ve been saying to Chris I’ll do this for the last 3 months, and well, really I should use my allowed out once a day for exercise as a reason to start running again. I will no doubt still try and find an excuse for this…

Finish off my PS4 games – I love to game, and love nothing more than after a stressful day than to run over people on GTA… I’m really sad and like to attempt to get all the trophies on my PS4 games so want to try and get a few more in when I get a chance to play!

Spend quality time together – With everything being quite stressful and worrying, I want to make the most of being able to have some quality time together with Chris and Ivy. Sadly at the moment Chris’s son Reuben can’t be with us, but I’d like to make the most of the time we do have at home together.

Hope you’re all staying well and safe x