During this strange period we’re all facing, it can be hard to adjust to our new self-isolating lifestyle. Before we start the blog off with 10 positives of quarantine, we’d like to just remind everyone the importance of why everyone is self-isolating and why we’re doing this…

As we are sure you’re all aware of Covid-19 with the constant news updates, as well as social media news, we have now been instructed to stay in our homes and to only leave if going to the shop for essentials or our once a day exercise. While doing so, we are preventing the spread of Covid-19 (which has proven have a rapid infection rate), meaning that we are keeping each other safe, especially those who are at high risk and also helping our NHS to keep the number of cases manageable.

Being at home isn’t all doom and gloom though, as it actually has many positives to it…so here are 10 positives of self-isolating:

Positive No. 1 – Time with your family

During our normal life routine, most of us actually spend more time with our work colleagues than we do our own family. Don’t believe us? The ‘Independent’ decided to put this theory to the test (along with many companies) by taking a survey to see if this was true; the results were:

The survey found that the average British worker will put in 34 hours and 26 minutes of work a week, totalling 1,791 hours a year, and 84,171 hours in the course of their career.

Now I’m not a maths experts, but we can see that this doesn’t leave the average worker with a lot of free time with their family, especially if we take into consideration the additional hours of commuting home from work, having your tea, general cleaning etc.

So use this time to interact with your family by talking, purchase a few board games, sit in the garden and possibly come up with activities together on what to do throughout the day.

Positive No. 2 – Time to improve your marketing techniques

Whether you’re now working from home or not working at all, why not use this time to improve your marketing techniques? With the world forever changing the way we communicate, maybe it’s time to update your current knowledge from Adobe Software to the way you approach clients and target audiences.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Research how marketing companies are adapting their clickbait strategies
• Watch Youtube tutorials on Adobe Software
• Learn something new (if you’ve never tried video editing, why not give it a go?)
• Create surveys for your target audience or potential clients to answer – feedback is always great
• Go live on social media, creating connections with the outside world again

Positive No. 3 – Nature

Most of us wake up, go to work either working in a building or some sort of work environment, commute home and then go back inside to our homes. We don’t give ourselves enough time to reconnect with the natural world by being outside, disconnecting from our phones and just taking in the outside world.

Now there are a few limitations as to how much we can take it in at the moment, but this shouldn’t stop you from leaving your phone at home when going for a walk once a day or even sitting in the garden soaking up the sun (when it appears). Not only is this good for your psychical health, but also your mental health meaning we can now take time to slow ourselves down from our usual 9-5 routine and restore our energy.

Positive No. 4 – Working from home

At the moment a few people might be disagreeing with this one, as some of you may have only just started working from home this week and finding it a little stressful to keep yourself motivated, setting up a new routine etc, but we promise there are positives to this!

Working from home gives you a lot more freedom in the sense you are in the comfort of your own home and are able to sit whereever you feel most comfortable. Sun shining in the garden? Take the laptop outside. Feeling cold? Take your blanket to the living room with your laptop and get yourself cosy. As well as this, think of the amount of money you’ll be saving on commuting costs and the food you buy for your lunch breaks, which means you’ll have a lot more money saved for when our daily lives go back to our normal routine – bonus!

Positive No. 5 – Technology

Even though you may be at home, we still have the technology to continue connecting with our friends, family and clients via conference calls. Here at Superfly, we are all currently using Google Hangouts to interact with each other during our normal 9-5 working hours, allowing us to keep up to date with everything and offer help/advice.

Using Google Hangouts has been a great way to also connect with our clients, as usually they’d either come to our office for meetings to discuss any changes, updates, progression etc.

Positive No. 6 – Learn about yourself

Being in your own company can be a great way to learn all about yourself from what your hobbies are, what you’d want to learn and also giving yourself time to grow. With all the negative news going around at the moment and constant negative social media newsfeed, it’s easy to see the negatives of self-isolating rather than the positives.

Here are a few ideas to help you reconnect with yourself and grow:

• Do some gardening (this will keep you active physically and mentally)
• Make a bonfire on the evening with your family, this always sparks a conversation
• Start reading a book (reading at least one chapter a day)
• Start daily drawing or design challenges for yourself and even get a few friends and family involved too. This will help you stay creative and even help you improve your creative side.
• Use your one external exercise activity a day correctly by walking, running or even taking a short bike ride (but make sure you leave your phone at home).

Positive No. 7 – Home DIY

Have you been wanting to paint that bedroom wall for months but never had the time? Or have you been meaning to fix up that old bike that’s been sat in the garage the past year?…Well now you have time!

Even though a lot of shops are shut, you can still order online and receive home deliveries from websites such as Amazon or Ebay. Why not even get the family involved in crafts such as jewellery making kits, paint workshops and even gardening.

Positive No. 8 – More people are using Social Media than EVER!

From a marketing perspective, this is a great time to pick up clients or to present your content to clients in a powerful way. Even though at this moment in time people are not always looking to purchase, people are still looking and researching…so don’t stop your marketing mojo just yet.

Now is the time to boost your content, ads, visuals and make sure you are constantly RESEARCHING. Everyday is different meaning what people are looking for also changes, so don’t get left behind and keep up to date with the world.

Positive No. 9 – Get active!

Whilst being at home, this may be the perfect time for you to try out a few of those workouts you’ve been meaning to try or perfecting your yoga moves.

Staying active, even if it’s for 15 minutes a day is a great way to keep your mind awake and the serotonin levels pumping through your body. Why not check out a few workout videos on Youtube, ask a friend for tips, make work out videos to share with the world and even get your family involved.

There are many video editing tools that can be used for social media content. If you do decide you want to share your workout routines or any other activity you want to share with the world, you can use tools such as:

• iMovie
• Quik
• Blender

Positive No. 10 – Earth’s reset

During this time, we need to appreciate that with everyone staying home more, this is creating less pollution in the world, which then allows the Earth to reset itself a little. We are giving our planet and all life the chance to have a break, as some of you may have seen on the news of air pollution levels dropping, canals clearing and animals appearing and roaming the streets.

Just remember to keep each other safe by staying in doors and only leaving your home for essential shopping and your once a day exercise.. Stay positive!