5 pandemic habits to recycle once we find a new normal
Looking back on 2020, lockdowns and pandemic restrictions forced many people to start new routines. Work commutes disappeared. Fitness classes were canceled. Homes became classrooms and workplaces.
Some people thrived with all the changes; others struggled.
“The experience of 2020, as hard as it was, held many lessons,” said Gretchen Rubin, author of the book “Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits.”
By reflecting on the changes and challenges of last year, you have an opportunity to recycle your best pandemic routines and build on them in the new year. Here are five habits you can keep.
1. Self-care
Pandemic habit: During this crisis, we learned that we are all connected, and that taking care of ourselves – staying safe and well – is also a way to care for our community.
Recycle the habit: Continue making self-care a priority once the pandemic has passed. If you’re someone who thinks you don’t have time for self-care, or that it seems selfish and self-indulgent, you’re not alone.
Self-care isn’t just a nap or a hot bath to escape the family. It’s about setting priorities, setting boundaries and finding purpose. Start by mapping out a typical day, from morning until bedtime. Write down the time you take preparing meals, doing your job, shopping, watching television, doing laundry, helping children with homework, caring for an aging parent or catching up on emails. (Wirecutter, The Times’ recommendation site, has reviewed the best time-tracking apps and recommends Toggl.)
2. Accountability
Pandemic habit: To avoid spreading the virus, everyone learned to be accountable to one another by wearing a mask, limiting contacts and keeping distance.
Recycle the habit: While you still need to take pandemic precautions, you can build on your accountability habit. Find an accountability buddy to help you achieve your health goals. You can check in with a friend every day to talk about healthful eating. Make a plan to walk with a friend.
If you prefer to stay accountable only to yourself, you can create accountability by using an app that sends you daily reminders, like Headspace or Calm for meditation, Noom for tracking what you eat or Fitbit to track your exercise habits. You can even hold yourself accountable through a daily journal entry.
3. Stay active
Pandemic habit: When gyms closed and fitness classes were canceled, many people had to figure out how to exercise at home.
Recycle the habit: Instead of trying to schedule one long exercise session, take small exercise breaks throughout your day. After a long meeting, take a walk. If you’ve spent all day on a deadline, take a break and do some yoga stretches. Do jumping jacks or wall pushups while you listen to the news or a podcast.
Several studies show that short bursts of exercise result in meaningful changes to your fitness and metabolic health. Start with 20-second exercise breaks three times a day. If you want to do more, take a few one-minute breaks.
4. Form a health pod
Pandemic habit: According to a poll by Axios, last summer nearly half of Americans said they had formed a pod or social bubble – a select group of friends to help them cope with pandemic life.
Recycle the habit: Don’t disband your pandemic pod when COVID-19 restrictions end. Keep it to support your health goals. Even if you didn’t have a quarantine pod, you can form a new health-conscious bubble in 2021.
Create a walking pod and meet a few times a week for group walks. Or talk to your podmates about their healthy eating goals. You can share recipes and tips, and when social restrictions end, you can plan healthy-eating potlucks.
5. Keep a crisis notebook
Pandemic habit: In the early days of the pandemic, people panicked, hoarded toilet paper and packed their pantries to deal with the uncertainty of shutdowns.
Recycle the habit: Plan for uncertainty and create a collection of legal documents that will make sure everyone is prepared for an emergency.
Start with a three-ring binder. While you should create a digital copy of all your important documents, it’s good to have a physical binder that your loved ones can grab in a crisis. The first few pages should be a “where to find it” list of your important documents – banking information, insurance papers and key contacts. But the most important document in the binder is your advance directive.
An advance directive should designate someone to make medical decisions for you if you’re unable to make them and offer specific guidance about your wishes if you become critically ill. You can find the right documents for your state on the AARP website (aarp.org/caregiving).
THE EXPERIENCE OF 2020, AS HARD AS IT WAS, HELD MANY LESSONS.
Gretchen Rubin, author of “Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits”