We’ve been under the shelter-in-place order for more than a month now and I’ve been reading about how staying home for prolonged periods can affect people’s moods and perceptions of time. For example, it’s common for people to feel like each day blends into the next and it’s easy to get confused about what day of the week it is. We’ve lost our normal routines and the events that help us mentally mark the passage of time. There’s no Thursday Night Football, no Friday-night happy hour with coworkers, no Sunday religious services to attend. Weekdays and weekends blur together. Monday equals Wednesday equals Sunday.

For those of us who work from home, even our daily/hourly schedules can feel like they’re losing definition. Something as simple as driving to and from work can act as an important psychological buffer between work time and home time. Driving to work allows us to start thinking about work tasks and goals for the day. Driving home allows us to decompress and transition our focus from work matters to home matters, such as making a pit stop at the grocery store or planning what to cook for dinner. What happens when that buffer time disappears? Now, my “commute” consists of walking to my desk in the living room and turning on my computer. Going home for the day means closing my laptop and taking two steps to the couch. Eat dinner, go to sleep, wake up the next day to do the same thing for the foreseeable future. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I’ll admit it’s discouraging sometimes to feel like each day is exactly like the one before it, but it helps me to hear and read about other people’s experiences. It’s a good reminder that we’re not alone and that it’s human nature to crave structure and meaning in our lives. So, if you’re feeling a bit down or a little off, it’s ok. Just do your best to keep going. Find joy in the simple pleasures of life. We’ll get through this.

This daily blog post series is our way of sharing our experience with you, our readers. We’ll talk about our daily routines, adjustments to working from home, recipes based on limited ingredients and any other topic that comes to mind. It’s our way of connecting with the “outside” world, while also giving us the opportunity to look within and reflect on what we’re experiencing and how we’re feeling. Thanks for your interest in sharing this journey with us. Stay tuned and be well.