Ah, yes. I am yet another person hit with COVID. I’m still unsure how it happened because no one I’ve been around has caught the virus, but I digress.

I’m currently on Day 13 of isolation and waiting for my recent COVID test results. It’s safe to say I’ve had a lot of free time on my hands to sit in bed, stare at the wall, and think. That is when I’m not binge-watching a TON of television shows. 

One of the “brighter” sides of having COVID and isolating was realizing how much I needed to relax. Or rather, how I never really gave much thought to relaxing. 

My mind is always on the go, go, go, mentality. It’s almost impossible for me to sit still without thinking of the next thing I have to do, the one thing I have to buy later, the one task I forgot to do, etc. It’s tiring in this mind of mine. 

But around day 5 of isolation, I was so tired of just staring at my small screen and feeling anxious when I saw a small red badge notification. I decided to take that out altogether. Look, it doesn’t seem huge, but it is. Trust me.

I’m the type of person who quickly responds to text messages/emails. I mentally freak out as soon as I see a notification or constant reminder of how many unread emails or texts I have. So I did the following: 

1. Took off the badge reminder of how many texts I had unread.
2. Started using more of the Focus and Sleep feature on my iPhone.
3. Pushed all my newsletters to skip the main inbox and go straight to its designated folder. That way, if any important emails do come through, they show up right away versus being scattered in the middle of daily newsletters.
   
   

Those three minor changes have really done a number on me. I feel less stressed pulling my phone closer, thinking I missed something important. 

Also, with COVID, I was napping… a lot. I was in and out of sleep most of the days, which made me realize that people aren’t expecting you to respond to their text messages ASAP. (Unless it says, “HELLO I NEED YOU!!”) If they need you, they’ll call you. 

This all may seem so small and obvious, but you don’t understand how much I needed that quick tech check. I’ve been so accustomed to having my phone through everything. It’s been impossible to finish TV shows or movies because I always miss scenes since my eyes are looking down at my phone instead.

Happy to report I’ve finished about ten series and one movie. Progress. 

I’m very happy mentally right now, and I feel more accomplished this week as I slowly made an effort to do more work. Since my phone was on Focus mode, I didn’t get those pesky notifications or see my phone light up every single moment. That would’ve otherwise brought my attention elsewhere and then a downward spiral. 

I’m hoping this will stick for the rest of the year. But this is all to say, thanks, COVID?…