It has been over a month since the CCB (Covid-19 Circuit Breaker) started, and it is interesting to note that over the course of past weeks, I have been living a better quality life than I expected.
On a typical weekday, my day starts at 8 am when the morning sun shines into my room through my frosted window. To make sure that I can wake up on time, I set my air-con to turn off at 6 am and my alarm at 7 am, thus effectively I have one hour to snooze and give a heads up to my body that it has to wake up.
When I finally wake up, I will slip on my room shoes and drink some water before whipping up a breakfast. It's usually a wrap or sandwich, typically with fish, cheese and some veggies. I like to serve it with scrambled egg or half-boiled eggs, yogurt with nuts and a cup of drink. My morning drink varies from black tea, green tea, roasted barley tea to juices and soy milk. I don't drink coffee.
In the mean time, I will prepare the ingredient for lunch. Some food needs thawing, soaking and marinating. Not sure if you agree with me, but I think veggies and roots taste better if you soak them in water for an hour before cooking them.
Most of the time I eat my breakfast at the desk while doing my work. I always have a jar of water at my desk because it reminds me to drink water throughout the day and sipping water keeps me focused. I don't on the air con when I'm working in the day.
I'm usually still full by lunch time, so while I cook my lunch, which is usually done in 15 - 20 mins, I will spend the remaining time taking a short nap, or just lying on the bed keeping up with the news feed, reading the updated comics on Webtoons or sneaking in some chess games on Chess.com
I eat my lunch at the desk when I'm doing my afternoon work. I realised that this helps me to eat slower, but this seems to be a bad habit (really?) to many people.
If I get to end work on time and it's not raining, I will put on my runners and jog to the park, else I will just go straight to prepping dinner. The park is just about 1.8 km away from my house so to and fro nets a 3.6 km. The sunset in the park can be breathtakingly beautiful. I treat it as a reward for my run because I hate running. Occasionally, I will finish the whole park trail of 4.3 km which adds up to a total distance of 8 km.
Whenever I go for a run, I will visit the supermarket on my way home because I don't like to make extra trips. This is where I spend the most of my money for the past month since I cook almost all my meals.
When I reached home, I will prepare dinner right away and do stock taking for the food I bought. Yes, I have a Google Sheet to track the amount of food I have and their expiry date. This prevents me from buying duplicates, helps me with meal planning and avoid food wastage.
I like to have dinners before showers because I rather be dirty than hungry. I love the contrast of entering into a cool room after a hot shower, so I always on the air con in the room before heading to the bathroom. If it's laundry day for me, I will do the laundry after shower. It's nice to note that every since CCB I only have to do my laundry once every 4 days.
I'm usually sick of using computers after a long day staring at one, which motivates me to opt for reading a physical book or having a ghost video call with my friends ( it's a video call but we get on with our own chores so we don't really see each other on the screen, yet we refuse to switch to voice call, weird huh?) Since the CCB started, I have read 26 books. Interestingly, I didn't read much on Economics and Finance, instead, most of the books I read are on productivity, personal growth, slice of life, and Japanese fiction. I love Japanese thrillers.
After some reading time/ social interaction, I will practise some pieces on my keyboard. I'm switching between Japanese and English pop songs. I make it mandatory for me to practise for at least an hour every day since the CCB started, and I have never missed a day so far. I'm good at focusing and my attention span is long. Sometimes I can practise for 3 hours straight without realising it.
If it's a laundry day, I will line the clothes after my practice. Lining allows the clothes to last longer, and keeping it in the washing machine overnight makes the clothes stink.
I have been aiming to turn in by 12 am, it never works. There's always something to tempt me. I need to read manga before sleep. It's like a bedtime ritual. If I don't read manga and keep my phone away with lights off, I will just have random thoughts and stay awake for the next few hours even if I'm really tired. Manga is a necessity to me. I never get a full 8 hours of sleep, which may be why I always take a nap
So that's the typical day I live for the the past month. I'm an introvert and works well independently so the social distancing and the work from home lifestyle works really well for me. The lack of socialising and lesser distraction at work left me to be more productive, live a healthier lifestyle, and have lower expenses. I get enough rest, less stressed, eat healthily and have time for regular exercise, which is really a luxury, because in my line of work it's not uncommon to work beyond 12 hours, leaving little time and energy for the fun stuff
I don't have any expenditure other than food and bills. And my cooking definitely improved a lot, thanks to the YouTube tutorials
Of course there are things that I missed dearly, like swimming, playing tennis, watching theatre productions, as well as catching up with close friends over good food that I can't make.
There are other things I wish I could do during this rare period but somehow there's always a line of excuses to avoid it, or maybe it's just because I am so used to routines. Here's some stuff that I have been wanting to do but failed to take action:
- Learn Japanese
- Attend a coursera course or studying something online
- Try a new exercise, maybe follow a workout video
- Learn how to make videos
- Learn how to take photos with manual adjustments
- Get some strength training
- Declutter my stuff
- Write more blog posts
- Catch up on movies and JDramas that I have missed when corporate life took over
Just keeping a note and let's see if I manage to get started on any of them before I have to return to office. It's interesting to note that most of the stuff I want to do is related to learning and creating. I think that's an attitude I want to have even after 10 years into the work force. Nonetheless, attitude or ideas are useless without actions. I need to start working on something.
While life isn't exactly satisfying because there are many things I want to experience, it is definitely peaceful, and a peaceful life in the midst of chaos is already a blessing. I appreciate that my family is in good health, I can still chat nonsense with my friends and my sources of income are not being affected. I'm also grateful that I have received decent education and grown up in the age of technology, which are the main drivers why I can still live a normal and peaceful life when various systems are in distress.
This lifestyle is not going to last. Once everything goes back to normal my life will be as hectic as before and the next time I have the chance to live like now would be after my retirement / financial independence.
Perhaps this will be a good motivation.
Many thanks for reading.
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