SOME of us might have spent about P1,500 to P2,000 of expensive coffee just to own those yearly planners that people covet. Perhaps the others instead just bought straight from bookstores and school supplies shop.
But with quarantine season, the events, parties, and even work had been cancelled. We ask ourselves. What do we do with our planners now?
We’ve come up with a list of only some of the many things you can still do with your planner despite having to stay at home because of the quarantine. After all, parties and appointments are not the only things that needed to be planned.
1. Make a meal plan.
Living far from my family, I have personally experienced how creating a weekly meal plan is very helpful. It helps me list in details what the things I need to buy in the supermarket based on the meals I will be preparing for the coming weeks. Because of this, I can avoid food wastage and would allow me culinary experiments. In the same way, it helps me budget my money more easily.
2. Make a budget.
Aside from food budget, it would be helpful to jot down bills that you are scheduled to pay next month after the due date had been extended. This way, you won’t be overwhelmed once it’s time to pay all of them.
3. Make a to-do list.
The last thing we want to do during this whole quarantine season is to just eat, lie down, watch TV or Netflix, then repeat. Even if this is supposed to be treated as a rest for some of us, it would also be helpful for our physical and mental health to be productive and to achieve something at the end of each day. Whether learning to bake chocolate chip cookies, gardening, or teaching your dog new tricks, it would make us prouder to know that at the end of this period, we have achieved something no matter how small, aside from watching all the series and movies Netflix suggested of us.
4. Make a journal.
This pandemic will be a significant part of the world history. Many writers and historians encourage people of different background to simply note down what’s happening in their day-to-day lives. Not only as a vital source of historical information in the future, journaling is also a helpful activity for people to get over any mental stress that the quarantine may be causing.
5. Doodle.
If you’re not really the writer type, it’s also a fun pastime to doodle how your day during the quarantine was. It doesn’t need to be perfect, as long as it helps you get through the boredom while also unleashing some potential artistic side that you have.
So whether or not you spent a fortune to get that 2020 planner or you got it for free from your go-to pharmacy, don’t think that it has gone to waste.
If you’re indeed someone who knows their way through planning, a pandemic quarantine shouldn’t stop you from doing so.