My Life in lockdown

Hi I’m Kelly Hyde. I am a Product, Account and Project Manager at Goldstar and thought I’d share what life in lockdown has been like for me.  It goes without saying, 2020 has been a tough year having to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic. So, I thought I would tell you about my personal experiences about life in lockdown.

When It All Started

March 23rd lockdown was announced to the nation along with the slogan ‘stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’. Naturally, this turned a lot of lives upside down, as they could no longer carry out their normal day to day routines. The nation was asked to work from home (where possible), some had to be furloughed, we were all unable to see our loved ones, and you could no longer go out your house unless it was for essential journeys or you were carrying out your 30 minutes of exercise a day. For some people, they had to carry on working on the front line. I think we’ll all agree. . . . 2020 is a year that nobody would like to repeat!

How Lockdown Affected Me

I was one of the lucky ones that could continue to work from home. At Goldstar IT, our systems are cloud based so working from home was made easy. Having a desk in my spare room with multiple screens enables me to carry out my work. Then there was the added challenge of home schooling when it was announced that all schools were to close.

I have a 4-year-old daughter, that I have been teaching from home as well as juggling my work. Due to the flexibility of my work, I was able to start splitting my days by working a few hours in the day followed by working in the evening when my daughter was in bed. I was fortunate that my husband works shifts so between us, we managed but it has been exhausting and tough.

From April 27th I reduced my hours which made it much easier for us as a family, as I could focus my efforts on teaching my daughter.

Although it has been a tough time for everyone it is also good to think about the positives that have emerged from this. It has meant I can spend a lot of time with my daughter and husband which during our busy lives we don’t often do. I have been able to attend Zoho courses online to enhance my knowledge and carry on with my Prince 2 qualification.

My Lockdown Routine

I found it was important to have routine in our days to give some form of structure for us all. Below is the broad outline of the routine we tried to adhere to, obviously we had days which were more productive than others, but we endeavoured to stick to it as much as possible.

• Wake up by 8am
• Breakfast, washed and dressed by 09.30
• Zoom call with work
• School work 1 hour
• Snack time and break
• School work 1 hour
• Lunchtime
• Exercise – This might be a walk or a bike ride
• Snack time
• School work 1 hour
• Free time
• Dinner at 17.30

This helped my family and I through lockdown along with plenty of facetime calls and Zoom quizzes with friends and family. What has your life been like in lockdown and how did you manage? We would love to hear from you, so get in touch through our social media channels. Read how life has been for my colleagues Jake and Anthony in their blogs.