How to Adopt Healthy Routines During COVID-19

COVID-19 has come with a lot of challenges that have made everything hard for us. This is, however, not the time to concentrate too much on the effect of these challenges but an opportunity for us to adopt healthy routines that will not affect our mental health. People are in isolation during this time, what are you doing as a person to stay productive? What has your daily routine been? Are they positive things or negative habits that will only affect your productivity? 

You cannot achieve a meaningful thing if you do not have routines; You are likely to lose focus and especially now when most people are working from home, morale and feelings of connection are on the low and only healthy routines will come to the rescue of goals that had been set even before COVID-19 happened. What does it take for you therefore to adopt healthy routines that will later increase your productivity? 

66 days are the minimum days it takes to form a routine according to research studies conducted at University College London. This has been divided into 22 equal days. The first one being the destruction of the old routines which is an extremely hard phase and takes 22 days. Why? Because this is the phase where a person tries to detach himself or herself from the old non-productive routines; those routines that made it hard for you to achieve your goals. Was it sleep that hindered you from waking up early and going for that morning run? It will take time to adjust to waking up early making this phase the most difficult one since you will have to struggle to leave those bad habits behind. However, this is the only way to adopt a healthy routine letting go of the old bad habits. This will lead you to the second phase.

Installation of the new routines which can also be referred to as "messy middle." It is like going through an internal renovation. The habits that you had previously established are being toned down so that the new better ones can be set up. You are likely to feel stressed, overwhelmed, and frustrated in this phase; You will be going through a lot for you to achieve your goals. In the words of the Spellbinder, "for you to upgrade to greatness, you must undergo an annihilation of your weakness," this is the time for you to shine. 

The last phase is the integration of the routines. This is where everything comes together. As you enter this phase, you are more skilled and in better touch with your Higher Self. The work that you had put in reflects and becomes a reality. And these are the healthy routines we are talking about. What therefore can we learn from this framework? The change will be hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous in the end. All we can do is to stay relentless throughout the entire process; In the end, we will be able to build the habits that are necessary to achieve mastery and unlock your potential.