When in quarantine, it's easy to lose track of the days. Sometimes I wake up and I don't know if it's a Monday or if it's a Sunday. Or I'll sleep so long that I can't remember if it's the same day. But it's important, now more than ever, to stay healthy and keep yourself on a constant schedule. I know that's hard, but the more organized your life is, the better you'll feel about your days and the way your life is going.

That's why I've made a quick list with a few important quarantine tips. If you follow these, I think it'll make your life a little easier, and you'll feel a little better.

1. Most importantly, follow a schedule: it's easy to wake up at 2:00 pm and watch YouTube or Netflix until 9:00 or 10:00. But I personally feel horrible if that's how I spend my day. I feel like I haven't done anything, and I'm wasting my life. So each night, plan out what your next day is going to look like. Write down any tasks you want to accomplish, what meetings you have the next day, and at least one self-care item that you want to accomplish. That could be anything, from organizing your room, to listening to music, to putting on a face mask, to vacuuming, or anything else you want to accomplish. We do have more time during quarantine, so it's important to make time for self care. Another thing you can add is something that YOU like to do, like playing the piano, baking brownies, drawing, or any other hobbies you have. If you plan out what you want to do every day, you'll go to sleep feeling like you made the best out of a difficult situation and used your day productively.

2. Follow healthy eating and sleeping habits: since you have some more time than before, make sure you're sleeping for at least 8 hours. Make it a goal to be asleep that long, and if you know you have to wake up early the next morning, try your hardest to sleep early and compensate for that. This also means to keep your meal schedule constant. Make sure you're eating a breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and some healthy snacks in the middle. Personally, I've been eating a lot of oranges, because they're light and don't take long to eat. And finally, try to take some time out of every day to exercise. This doesn't mean you have to do weight training, you could just go for a slow stroll with someone you're quarantining with or do a quick 10-minute ab exercise every morning. Moving around even a little bit will make you feel more refreshed and energetic throughout the day.

3. Stay in touch with your friends and family: out of sight, out of mind is an incredibly real thing. Make sure you're taking time out in every day to spend time with not only the people you're quarantining with, but anyone else that's important to you. Even if it has to happen virtually, talking to other people will make you feel better about the lack of change in your life. And remembering that you matter and there are always people who are there for you will also be really beneficial in making you feel good.

4. Look for change: it's hard to stay positive and keep things interesting at home. But there are still many opportunities to shake things up. Everyone has their own unique way of doing this, but for you it could mean cooking a dish from a different cuisine every day. Or it could mean looking for an online internship or job, or even volunteering. There are still many opportunities to volunteer online, and if that's not your cup of tea, you could make and donate masks, or deliver groceries to highly vulnerable neighborhoods. This could also mean making different types of tea every day, or watching movies from different genres. Anything that you like to do that will prevent you from feeling like you're living the same day over and over again.

5. And finally, avoid stress: it's no secret that we have much more time on our hands because of quarantine. So you have the perfect opportunity to spread out your school or work assignments so that you're never rushing to do anything at the last minute. Break up your bigger assignments and start them now, so there's no stress later and you aren't staying up late to finish assignments like you did before quarantine. If you do find yourself stressed, take some time to meditate, do yoga, or make yourself some tea. This is the best time to take care of yourself.

And that's it. Hopefully these help you continue to be healthy and happy during quarantine! I know it's difficult, but staying positive and noticing the new opportunities quarantine provides can really help in continuing to stay motivated during this time.