The fight against corona virus has drastically changed our lives. Because of the quarantine regulations, millions of us are locked up in our apartment with 10 packs of toilet paper, our Netflix subscription, and not much to do. As most of our activities are happening online, there isn’t a single minute in our day when we are not digitally connected.

Notifications and updates follow us 24/7, which can easily lead to anxiety. With our mind constantly stimulated by new information, we can linger in the illusion of productivity, but in the long run, these ‘activities’ have little to zero benefits.

See the quarantine as an opportunity to reorganize your life

If I want to be completely honest with you, at the beginning of the lockdown I probably spent 3-4 hours with mindless scrolling per day. Those precious hours flew by checking my social media accounts and jumping from news headline to headline. And the majority of these actions were habitual. We used to do them when queuing in the supermarket or sitting on a bus going to work, just a few weeks ago.

Now ask yourself. When was the last time you put aside your smartphone, turned off the wifi and chose to do nothing instead? When did you take a walk home, instead of the multitasking your way on the speed train, before COVID-19 forced you to do so?

According to this article on Ideo,

”moments of boredom often allow us to take our biggest imaginative leaps”

and it is scientifically proven that turning off our brain at times can actually increase our creativity.

In that sense, the COVID-19 lockdown is providing us an opportunity to reflect on ourselves, let go of our entrenched bad habits and reorganize our daily routine.

In the following, I share with you 3 advice that I found particularly helpful.

1. Let your mind wander

When working from home 5 days a week, the line between your working hours and free time can become terribly blurred. That is why it is important to establish new habits, like going for a walk every morning or put your phone to airplane mode in the evening, so you can consciously create time for daydreaming and disconnect from work.

For the past weeks, I set up some boundaries for myself like only reading news from credible sources, or only using Instagram for 30 minutes a day.

The result? I have fewer headaches and feel less distracted. Because I decreased the digital information flow, I am more present in the reality around me and notice things I haven’t before. Like the beautiful color of my boyfriend’s eyes, or the incredible architecture in my neighborhood. Baby steps can go a long way.

2. Embrace boredom

Researchers suggest that doing something repetitive or plain boring can actually help your brain functioning better. Because when you get bored, you ignite a network in your brain that is called the "default mode."

With the words of Manoush Zomorodi,

“in the default mode is when we connect disparate ideas, we solve some of our most nagging problems, and we do something called autobiographical planning. This is when we look back at our lives, we take note of the big moments, we create a personal narrative, and then we set goals and we figure out what steps we need to take to reach them.”

So next time you’re doing the dishes or ironing your clothes, do not turn on Facetime or begin to multitask. This way, you empower your brain and it will be easier to come up with your magical, divergent ideas when you need them the most.

3. Empty your mental trashcan

Technology is great, and it makes our lives easier in many ways. Therefore I am not suggesting to throw away your laptop or cancel your Netflix subscription, but rather being in charge of your own habits.

Now is the time to pick up those old hobbies that you always wanted to, but rarely managed before the quarantine. Plant flowers on your balcony and dedicate time to take care of them. Write a love letter by hand. Put on your favorite face mask and enjoy it soaking into your skin. These things sound so simple, yet we rarely do them anymore.

With meditation apps like Headspace or Calm, you could top this effect and do a reset on your thoughts, completely emptying your mental trashcan.

Overall, by shifting some of our small habits from fatiguing to actually fueling us, we’ll feel way more balanced and energized than we used to. And that is something we’ll need when life will go back to normal.

It’s 6:30 AM and you hear the alarm. Your heart is already racing out of your chest. You immediately reach for your phone and check your messages. And Instagram. How many new followers did you get? What are you going to post today? Or maybe, you already woke up an hour ago so you can prepare that picture-perfect porridge for your Insta Story. Sounds familiar?

Then you are also familiar with the sad truth. That these clutches of digital compulsion don’t give you a good start of the day. When you start the day by drowning your brain with information (let it be an email thread or your Instagram Feed), you do not notice what it's like to be actually awake for the day. You forget to say good morning to yourself.

Be in charge of your habits

Some people argue that smartphones are ‘the cigarettes of our era’, in a sense that they are the kind of addiction we intuitively know is unhealthy, but still continue to use, because that is the general norm we perceive around us. According to a recent report by Emarketer, an average US adult will spend more time on mobile devices in 2019 than on TV, that is, nearly 4 hours. It’s a scary number, and if I want to be honest with you guys, my metrics would probably hit the fence even more.

Now see: if we look at our smartphone and the constant stimulation we get from it as an addiction, at least we know that addictions can be cured. Some call it digital detox and go really radical about it. I wouldn't. Let’s just imagine how you can spend a day with fewer digital distractions. From the moment you wake up until the time you go to bed, try these easy tips and be in charge of your smartphone usage, instead of your social media apps controlling you.

Morning glory

Our brain should take some time to switch from sleeping to active mode. Instead of your phone alarm, switch to an old-fashioned alarm clock, so you don’t need to reach for your phone first thing in the morning. When you wake up, imagine that your mind is like a clear blue sky without clouds, and give yourself some offline time to feel the morning you woke up to.

Check in with yourself. How do you actually feel? What are your goals for that specific day? Is it an important day, when you need to give the best version of yourself? Is it a day when you have a fully packed calendar and perhaps you’d need to achieve a little more than what is realistic?

Whatever the case is, use your brain capacity wisely. Listen to your favorite album on Spotify, do a morning yoga session, make breakfast for your partner. Focus on yourself, your surroundings, your feelings. The notifications, the likes, the to-do items will wait for you at your desk anyway.

During the day

Do you know the feeling when you are texting someone, and if he/she don’t text you right back you then you start to come up with things like, ‘Is he mad at me?’ This is just your mind playing tricks with you. Your brain needs constant stimulation and dopamine-releasing hits, and that prevents you from being focused and productive. If people don’t reply to you for hours during the day on social media, that is fine. Maybe they are just busy and focusing on something else. And you should be, too.

They say that the average attention span (that is, the amount of concentrated time a person can spend on a task without becoming distracted) is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to 8 seconds now. That is less than the nine-second attention span of an average goldfish. However, most psychologists agree that the ability to focus and sustain attention on a task is key for performing well at work. And well, you don’t even need to be psychologist to confirm that.

Deleting social media apps from your phone (maybe one at a time) can be a solid start. If you feel that is too radical, go for a reality check first, and try apps like Checky or AntiSocial, or the new activity dashboard on Facebook or Instagram. They will give you the harsh facts when it comes to just how addicted to your phone you really are. With Facebook and IG’s built-in dashboards, you are able to set limits on how much time you’re spending on Instagram or Facebook. Plus, you can set up a feature called Daily Reminder to alert you to when you’ve hit that limit.

Finishing off at night

Getting home after a long day, you need to slow down little by little and make your mind quiet. It is a time for reflection and socializing with the people around you. If you are a parent, apps like OurPact allows you to limit screen time for your children so you can spend more quality time together.

Finally, when it comes to sleeping, a bluelight filter is a real game-changer for a better and deeper sleep. Apps like NightOwl, or Apple’s built-in Night Shift option schedule phones to emit less blue light, which can cause people to stay awake.   

What are your ideas when it comes to healthy smartphone usage? Let me know in the comments!

Being a visual person, Instagram is by far my favorite social media channel. It doesn’t only provide the chance to connect with like-minded individuals from all over the world, but it lets you stalk your next employer from an insider point of view, or it can also be a huge source of inspiration when it comes to travelling and discovering new places. Even with its limitations, it can widen your horizon in many ways. From unknown holiday destinations to new job possibilities, there’re so many ideas you can gain from this online community.

1. Look up your future employer/employee

When sending your job application to a new company, you are curious about a thousand things. Besides the salary and the vacation scheme, you’re also keen on knowing what types of colleagues are there, and what’s the general vibe in the office. That’s why after sending in my resume, I dive right into the given company’s Instagram feed. This tactic probably works best with startups, but can also be applied to bigger companies. Most businesses use Instagram as a channel to offer a sneak peek into their social events and company culture, making it a perfect place for outsiders to get a feel of the brand and the people behind it. A great example of this is IDEO or Lunar.

IDEO’s Instagram Feed is a good example of strategic employer branding.

Needless to say, it also works vice versa. Whenever I am doing recruitment, I tend to stalk the relevant candidates on Insta, see what they are into in their everyday life, and most often follow them through our company profile. This way recruitment can also help our company’s follower base grow – from the relevant crowd.

2. Get major travel inspiration

Got yourself into the holiday mood, and you are free to pick the destination? Do yourself a favour, and before you land on Skyscanner with all of your excitement, conduct a 20-minutes inspirational research on Instagram. This can be done in various ways. If it is a last-minute trip that you’re boarding tomorrow, you can browse through the live stories by location or relevant hashtag, to see what is going on in your desired area.

If it’s a vacation where you get to decide on a destination and able to do some planning in advance, then dive into the feed of your favourite travellers and travel blogs. Accounts like @whatifwetry or @tranatravels are a major inspiration of mine. When I really want to go off the beaten track, I usually follow the steps of @nicischindler or @hobolaptop, some of my favorite wanderlusters. When you search for hashtags, make sure that you are specific (and creative) enough to get some relevant results. For example, instead of #italy, try to look for #cinqueterre, instead of #holiday, try to type in #girlslovetravel or #sunsetlovers, and so on.

Nokken in Copenhagen.

By using Instagram as a kind of travel guide, I already ended up in a hobbit village just 20-minutes from downtown Copenhagen, a beautiful thermal spa in Budapest, or a magical spot in medieval Bruges. And I wouldn’t know any of these places if it wasn’t for my Insta Feed.

3. Be part of a community of like-minded people

In general, hashtags focus attention, increase commitment and the effectiveness of posts, profiles, and marketing campaigns. In a world where we tell our stories through them, #liveauthentic, #traveltheworld, a strategic approach to hashtags is crucial to fully exploit their potential. General hashtags might have bigger search volume, but they also mean more noise and competition. Don’t get lost in the hashtag factory, choose your tags accordingly to your specific goal.

Western Australia with #passionpassport.

Take advantage of the fact that these days it is possible to follow not only users, but also hashtags on Instagram. This feature enables you to follow handpicked topics, specific moods and styles, not to mention that it is also a great tool for keeping track of your competition in a particular niche.

In the case of a strong and beloved brand like Envii or Daniel Wellington, the name of the brand used as a hashtag itself can bond a larger community. However, if you view from an SEO perspective for your profile, it's more ideal if you find (and successfully distribute) a search tag that binds users of similar topic to a particular subject. Good examples of this are #passionpassport, #darlingescapes or #enviime.

Now tell me, who else should I follow? This is your turn to throw in your IG accounts!