Self Care Spotlight - Antoes

Hello Friends, nice to meet you over the wires! My name is Anthony, but everyone around these parts calls me Antoes. I oversee the daily business operations over at iHC and make sure everything goes smoothly and assist team members when needed. I hope you are all taking care of yourself and loved ones with physical distancing, spreading the word to loved ones, and of course, washing your hands. It's a very stressful time for everyone, so I wanted to share some things that I have been doing to stay at home, stay safe, and come out of this with some new perspective, skills, and hopefully healthier.

Mornings, lately, have been starting later than usual since quarantine, but since there is no commute, I still have time to commit to journaling. I find journaling really lets you unload the baggage, and move forward, some days more than others, and that's fine. I find myself referencing this excellent book called The Bullet Journal Method. This book has been beneficial in allowing me to organize my thoughts, plan my day, reflect on emotions, or vent. Journaling has become an invaluable tool for me; I hope you give it a shot!

Work time has been relatively smooth since I have worked from home in the past, but I wanted to share a couple of tips that I find helpful for separating your work from your home life. Time blocking your day, it sounds very rigid, but I promise it's extremely helpful. Give yourself rough time blocks for projects, tasks, emails, etc.. If you go over or under, that is fine, make sure to adjust your block when things change. Also, make sure to include stretch time, walk time, and breaks for food; you are just as important as the work you are doing, so take care of yourself. There is a very in-depth time blocking article by doist, if interested. Also, when your workday is done, it's done. This is easier said than done, but when you clock out, try your best not to check work emails, work-related messages, or your work will quickly blend with your life and become exhausting; give yourself time to reset.

Evenings are dedicated to family time, personal time, and relaxation. Family time usually is cooking dinner and eating together just chatting about the day and connecting over some home cooked food. Lately, we have tried our hand at growing some of our own food, and it has been relaxing and delicious. I shifted my personal time to evenings since it just works better with the current situation for me and usually consists of a workout, walking with my wife, a book, or learning some new software. There are too many things to write about here, but I’ll leave a list of software and books below. I did want to share a very cool and easy to do at home workout that was posted by Arnold Schwarzenegger a few days ago. I highly recommend reading it entirely; it's a great message and perfect stay at home workout and provides excellent stress relief at the end of the day. Also, Animal Crossing! <3