Over the course of the past three weeks, most of our daily lives and routines have been completely disrupted. One minute we were going to classes every day and seeing our friends, and now, we find ourselves in completely different situations and scenarios. While you may find yourself getting used to a new routine away from school, it is important to think about yourself and how you are treating your mind and body over these next few weeks. Boundaries are important! Think about your personal needs. Preserving some independence and normalcy wherever you are is important, and you should discuss that with your housemates. Think about taking social media breaks and using that time to start a passion project.

Cabin fever is real. While we may be stuck inside, Google Earth and museums around the world make it easy for us to travel and sightsee from our own computers. If you’re missing the great outdoors, you can take virtual tours of 31 U.S. national parks.If you have always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, take a look at Google Earth’s amazing satellite images and book that post-quarantine trip. For those city slickers interested in museums, Google Arts and Cultureallows you to take a virtual tour of exhibits in over 2,500 museums and galleries including the Guggenheim in New York, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, and the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Browse through some incredible galleries and bookmark ones to visit next year! You may even become inspired to draw or paint for yourself and make a masterpiece that can be hung on your wall (or in one of these galleries) in the future.

Let's be real—trying to replicate your regular productivity is hard, and frankly not realistic, during the quarantine. It is really easy to stay in bed and fall into a Netflix binge all day. But there are ways to create a routine bit by bit and regain productivity. Something we’ve been doing is trying to be more mindful about how we are spending our time indoors. At night, you can make a list of things that you need to do and want to do the next day. Try and be honest with yourself—make a list of four or five things that are doable in the next 24 hours. This list can involve sending out that email you’ve been forgetting about, taking pictures during a walk around the block, completing a lesson on Duolingo, or playing Minecraft with your siblings or friends. Checking off these boxes will make you feel more productive during your days in quarantine.

Quarantine doesn’t mean peace of mind for everyone. After the chaos of evacuating campus, leaving our friends behind, and traveling back home or to another destination, and painfully completing those final school assignments, it might be difficult to focus on your physical and mental health. While binging on quarantine snacks and watching The Good Place may seem like adequate self-care, you can still feel a little preoccupied. How about shaking up your body a little and clearing your mind through a few yoga practices, meditations, or workouts at home?

If you want to meditate and check in mentally, Goodful’s five-minute meditation is a good way to start.Yoga with Adriene offers a variety of different meditations, including a seven-minute meditation to start your day, how to cope with anxiety, and a session for self-love. If you don’t have any experiences with meditation, Pick Up Limes provides some good tips to make the process more productive and relaxing for you.

Boho Beautiful, Yoga with Kassandra, and KinoYoga are also some good YouTube channels with which to start your yoga journey. If you are ambitious enough to finally work on your abs during quarantine, MadFit, Pamela Reif, and EmiWong on YouTube all offer equipment-free workouts you can do at home. Blogilates not only offers at-home workout videos on YouTube but also a 14-day quarantine workout challenge on Instagram that features simple and effective movements.

Additionally, many dance studios offer free online livestreams with which you can dance along! Good Move and Dance Church are two examples among many.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, you may find that your original summer plans have been canceled, and you now have a large block of unstructured time that you may not know how to use productively. Consider taking summer classes! Maybe you want to be able to take a semester off or make sure you have enough credits for graduation. What if you want to study abroad or graduate early? They can also teach you something new and interesting that you would not have been able to take during the fall or spring semesters. Whatever your track may be, summer classes grant you the opportunity to stay ahead of your classes while keeping you busy over the summer and add some structure to your daily routine. We browsed through the catalog of summer 2020 course offerings, and Columbia School of Professional Studies is offering a wide variety of classes, including United Nations & Human Rights, courses related to arts and humanities, and about every general science and math class you can imagine. You can also supplement your online course selections with classes from potentially free learning platforms like Code Academy, Duolingo, Khan Academy, edX, and Adobe. Learn something new and stay mentally healthy over this unprecedented summer period.

Because social interaction has moved entirely online, we have some tips and tricks for creative ways to stay in touch with the people you love most. Being apart doesn’t mean you have to entertain yourself alone! By now, we’ve all heard of Zoom. You can watch a movie with your best friends over Zoom   using share screen! If you want to be able to watch a show with friends without talking over it, Netflix Party allows you to watch Netflix with your friends with a chatbox on the side.

If you’re interested in another social outlet that requires a little more of your “virtual imagination,” try Club Penguin Rewritten! Yes, Club Penguin has made a comeback, and the quarantine has made it more fun and satisfying than ever! Invite your friends to play games with you while you simultaneously build your dream home (or rather, igloo). There are other multiplayer online games that you can find with a simple Google search.

If you are used to eating meals with your friends, you can cook together over FaceTime or Google Meet and eat while you talk on the phone. This will make social isolation, well, less isolating! You don’t have to be with your friends in-person to include them in your daily routine.

When we entered this indefinite period of social distancing, we all convinced ourselves that reading would be the first activity on our quarantine to-do lists. At home, however, it can be difficult to find the motivation to pick up a new book. Whether you actually enjoyed the Core or haven’t fully finished a novel since high school, try and make reading a social activity from the comfort of your own bed. Start a book club to keep yourself accountable and stay in contact with friends! To get started, take a look at Rapper Noname’s book club recommendation list  for diverse works written by people of color or check out Penguin Random House’s advice for starting a book club. Then, gather all of your friends and set a time to meet on an online meeting platform every other week. This is a great way to keep up with one another while still doing something productive with your time. Discussing books with friends can inspire hobbies or interests in new academic areas, strengthen close friendships, help you structure your schedule during social distancing times, especially into the summer.

If you are lucky enough to be at home during this period, a way to win brownie points with your family is learning how to cook! When you are feeling hungry, we recommend looking up a recipe instead of reaching for some pre-made food. Cooking and baking are not only very productive uses of your time, but they can also be some of your most creative activities of the day. While a recipe gives step-by-step instructions, feel free to improvise a little and try something new. Get in touch with your body's cravings and see what you can whip up in the kitchen. Ask family or housemates to tag team on a cooking project with you; it is a great way to spend time together. Or if you are feeling like you need some “you” time after being cooped up all day, play some of your favorite music (check out the playlists we linked below) and cook up some comfort food. A great source of inspiration is Instagram, on which thousands of people have food accounts. Some people to check out are Josh Elkin (@thejoshelkin), Jill Glenn (@peanutbutterandjillybeans for the vegans out there), and Lindsay Grimes Freedman (@thetoastedpinenut).Bon Appétit, a food channel on YouTube, is another great resource for cooking content with a hefty side of entertainment––each chef in the kitchen has their own quirks and unique personalities. We encourage you to channel your inner chef and try your hand in the kitchen. If you’re ever feeling discouraged, remember all of the 10-year-olds on MasterChef Juniorthat are slaying the game. Let’s get to cooking!

An abrupt end to our on-campus school year meant leaving behind our favorite clubs, friends, and, for some, romantic partners. While we have all seen the memes about “quarantine baes,” there are still viable ways of combating quarantine loneliness. Obviously, you can virtually reach out to friends and connect with family, but how does one date during quarantine? If you already have a long-term “bae,” don’t forget to FaceTime and send memes on the regular. When you need a new way of expressing your undying commitment to each other, try writing actual letters. If you just started talking to someone before quarantine, reach out with an iMessage game for a low-commitment way of expressing interest.

If you were single when we left, get a friend or two to sign up for Love is Quarantine: Columbia, the self-isolation Instagram blind-dating show. Whether you meet your quarantine bae or achieve reality fame, it’s a great way to pass the time and stay entertained and connected over quarantine. And if you’re not participating in Love is Quarantine: Columbia, you can always have watch parties for it with your friends on Zoom!

Quarantine is also the perfect time to explore different genres of music! No matter where you are, who you are, and what you are doing, music can boost your mood and make you happy. If you want to discover new music, the personalized Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify is a great place to start. If you are looking to listen to music on YouTube, music in 8D literally transforms your room into a concert at Terminal 5 in New York.

If you want something to groove to while you cook or bake, Kitchen Swagger is the perfect Spotify playlist to throw on while that apple pie is in the oven. Or if you’re missing the feeling of studying or reading at a café,Café con Leche will take you back to your favorite coffee shops. If you are in the mood for some classic rock, Yacht Rock’s mellow, breezy rhythms will make you feel light and happy. Do you feel like slow dancing alone in the living room while everyone else is asleep and the lights are dim? Put on your headphones, pour yourself a glass of sparkling water, and listen to the ’50s and ’60s sounds of romance in Classic Oldies. You can even spend time creating a playlist for your friends, family, or just yourself.

If you’ve tried absolutely everything and still feel dreadfully bored inside your room, there are still ways for you to safely practice social distancing outside. While you definitely shouldn’t be crowding beaches or hitting up children’s playgrounds, that doesn’t mean you’re banned from leaving your home. With some states lifting stay-at-home orders, you could leave your home for “essential needs,” such as grocery runs or physical activities like walking outside. In states with stay-at-home orders like New York or California, you’re allowed to leave your home for “essential needs,” such as grocery runs or physical activities like walking outside. Taking a walk in a secluded area and keeping 6 feet away from people can get you a good breath of fresh air, which comes with endless health benefits , including increased Vitamin D, better concentration, and stress reduction. Another healthy way to enjoy the outdoors safely is by taking a solo drive; on the open road, you can turn up some jams and sing your heart out, contemplate the meaning of life, or just escape the stress of quarantined family life. Driving can decrease anxiety and relax you, improving your health and creativity overall. If you have a bike, bike riding helps too!

Are you sad that you can’t see the people you love? Are you concerned you will lose contact with your friends? Stop stressing and start vlogging your quarantine—that is, video blogging your thoughts, your family, and the shenanigans going on in your household to send to your friends! Hopefully, through swapping fun vlogs, you can feel less sad about not being with friends, develop your video-editing skills, and learn what your friends are up to. In response to COVID-19, Adobe is offering two months of Creative Cloud for free, so you can use Premiere Pro to document all the things suggested in this article!

Other resources for your vlogging journey are iPhone video journaling apps like Leap Second and 1 Second Everyday. These apps can help you create a video journal and allow you to reflect on the time you’ve spent with family and friends or with yourself as you engage in some of these self-care recommendations. You can put to use the time you spend inside by improving those vlogging skills. We hope you are able to continue recording moments during the summer, whether you are home, taking summer classes at Columbia, or working at an internship.