Italian Lockdown: Three weeks at home, and counting. Thoughts from someone with a lot of time on their hands.

Today marks the third week since the school where I work closed due to measures attempting to stop the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus. We all knew some sort of measure was necessary, but at the time we didn’t quite realise the extent of the lockdown that was to come.

Now, writing this, that day seems like a distant memory. Days continue to blur, one into the next, and it’s hard to believe it has actually been three weeks already.

If your country is just about to go on lockdown, and you find yourself afraid of what lies in store, don’t be – everything will be alright. Italy didn’t quite take the virus seriously in the beginning, and might have made some mistakes, but I think that the national lockdown is exactly what was needed.

We’re not supposed to leave the house, unless for grocery shopping, medical reasons, or essential work reasons. But, it’s not so bad.

I’ve written previously that the lockdown has become the new normal – it seems strange to call almost total isolation normal, but knowing that everyone else in the country is going through the same thing, we don’t feel alone.

Due to my job role, it’s not exactly easy to work from home. My job involves face to face conversation with students learning the English language – something that feels obviously robotic and forced, if you’re communicating through a computer. Schools are supposed to reopen on April 3^rd, but this is doubtful given the steady flow of new confirmed cases of the COVID -19 Coronavirus.

Whether or not you have to work from home, or you’re looking at having a lot of free time on your hands, I think the advice is the same – structure your day. Wake up early, have a proper breakfast, shower, and get properly dressed to start the day. Sitting around in your pyjamas and binge-watching Netflix TV shows only gets you so far, and the novelty wears off pretty fast.

At home in our house, my wife and I, have tried to organise our days since the beginning of the lockdown, as much as possible. If you ask my wife, she’s one of the first people to admit that I am not an organised person at the best of times, so this has been a challenge for me (self-deprecating humour – one of the perks of being Irish).

What initially started as an attempt to keep myself busy – working out, learning music, writing, researching, studying etc. – has now transformed into me trying to improve myself and grow personally. It has taken this time on lockdown to make me realise that I can try to be better.

I created this blog just over one year ago – a New Year’s resolution for 2019. The thought behind it was to attempt to do something productive – to show the world the paradise that is Sardinia, hence the photo above today’s post – obviously taken before the lockdown.

I bought the domain, setup hosting, etc, uploaded all the photos, and wrote the information that you see in the website menu. I then created the Blog section and put a “Coming Soon!” message. Then, nothing… I guess I allowed myself to lose motivation.

It took me a year, and a global pandemic to actually start writing for the blog. In my blog bio, I state that I’m a professional procrastinator, and this is not a lie.

This pandemic has the potential to cause a global financial recession – many countries are at a complete standstill economy-wise, but maybe this time, we can finally agree that the people are worth more than the money. Maybe, instead of worrying about investments, you can try and use this time at home as a way to invest in yourself.

When this is all over, wouldn’t you like to think that you used your time at home wisely?

Just my two cents – the thoughts of a procrastinator who is trying to turn himself around.