It feels like I’m in the movie Groundhog Day (or Edge of Tomorrow or that most excellent episode of Stargate SG-1).

The days are beginning to blur, it’s becoming difficult to remember if I talked to Dale on Tuesday. Or was it Monday?

A typical Monday to Friday for me at the moment looks like this:

• 5 AM – 6 AM: My early rising 18-month old daughter wakes up during this time and I take her downstairs so Zoe can keep sleeping.
• 6 AM – 8 AM: A little yoga, a little TV (usually something to do with cooking), breakfast, shower, coffee.
• 8 AM – 12:30 PM: Work involving writing, emails, project management and various calls, recordings and lives.
• 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM: Lunch with Zoe and a chance for us to catch up while the little one sleeps
• 1:30 PM – 3 PM: My daughter wakes up, eats lunch and then systematically pulls everything out of every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen.
• 3 PM – 4:30 PM: Take highly energetic daughter on a really long walk which also gets us out of the house too
• 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM: Make dinner, family time, Bluey or Play School usually ends up on the TV
• 5:30 PM – 7 PM: Dinner, dishes, bath, books, bedtime.
• 7 PM – 8:30 PM: Zoe and I get in an episode of something on TV. Usually while folding an inexplicably large amount of laundry (seriously, where does it come from?).
• 9PM: In bed reading some fiction and then sleep.

One of the most challenging things about COVID-19 has been the sheer repetitiveness of days spent mostly at home. It’s something we all must do but knowing that doesn’t make the doing of it any easier.

Like yourself, I’ve had moments where I’ve felt frustrated, angry and sad. All normal emotions to have when experiencing a global pandemic.

But I’ve been working from home for a long time and am used to overcoming the challenges that come with it. Recently I’ve found two things that have helped a lot and I want to share them with you.

1. Finding purpose in my work

The one thing that changes a little in my day is what I’m working on so I’ve tried to be really intentional about how I’m spending that work time to get the most out of it.

My purpose has been supporting you through this change and I’ve chosen to do that with activities that I feel energised about.

For example:

• writing articles like this one
• running Facebook Lives for the BootCraft community
• recording and editing podcasts with Dale
• working on improvements to BootCraft
• sharing workout ideas on here
• checking in on my communities on Facebook

On the other hand I’ve stopped using Instagram as I find it a bit of an energy suck and I felt I needed to reduce the amount of information I was taking in.

2. Embracing the suck of routine

Brought to light in Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals was how some of the biggest innovators and change-makers in history woke up and lived the same routine over and over and over again (see image below).

At first experience, doing the same thing everyday seems dull and boring but it does have another side too.

Let’s look at relationsips for a good example. A good relationship isn’t made up of grand gestures (Romcoms are lies! Except for About Time which is excellent) and is instead made up of small, consistant and often subtle actions of trust and respect that build on top of each other over time.

Embracing that this period of your life is going to be slow and repetitive takes some of the discomfort away and allows you to instead focus on what small, consistant and maybe subtle actions you can take to build trust and respect with your clients and community.

So stop sprinting in all directions to change things quickly. Focus your work time on the parts you enjoy doing and give routine a big old hug.

And if you do have a moment where you feel like you’re going to go crazy because you’re doing the same thing AGAIN, call a friend because they’re going through the exact same thing.

Kyle Wood

Kyle Wood created Bootcamp Ideas in 2010 when he was hunting around on the internet for workout ideas. He ran a successful bootcamp in Victoria, Australia and spends his spare time managing this site, adventuring (or lazying) with his wife and find new ways to make bootcamps even better.