#EXCLUSIVE Nadia Khan Gives Us Her Top 5 Self-Isolation Tips

Nadia Khan has been working in the music industry for over 18 years. Originally starting her career in Music PR, she took on longstanding client Lethal Bizzle 16 years ago for management through her company CTRL Management.

Her own label imprint CTRL Records is focused on spotlighting female talent. She is passionate about bringing women's rights to the forefront and is the founder of 'Women In CTRL' – a platform which empowers and connects women across the music business and creative industry champions women working in the industry, and focuses on wellness and self-confidence. During this self-isolation pandemic, Nadia's decided to give our followers her top Self-Isolation, tips below!

The CoronaVirus outbreak is affecting us all in many ways. Not only is it disrupting our everyday routines, but it’s also threatening our workplaces, small businesses, freelancers and those self-employed. It is also placing immense pressures on our health services, killing our socialising, creating irrational fear and panic behaviour as a result. We’re being told to avoid contact and self-isolate, and we are waking up every day to dramatic change to the everyday routines we know.

It’s a daunting and uncertain time and being in self-isolation can become lonely and feel scary as we are away from our usual routines and people. The end goal during self-isolation is to prevent long term physical and mental health damage.

Here are my top 5 tips for Dealing with Self-Isolation:

1. Self-Care

Now more than ever we need to adopt the practice of self-care into our everyday lives. We have spent so much of our lives doing what we feel we have to or should do, and less time doing things that we want to do. With this extra time we have on our hands, we should take the time to do something for us.

Don’t feel pressurised by friends or anyone on social media to use this time to ‘start that side hustle’ or ‘learn a language’, but really take the time to learn and find activities you WANT to do Self- Care should be mini indulgences. The purpose is to do something for you. Self-Care can take many forms like physical, mental, social, spiritual, sensory & emotional. Download a FREE E-guide here explaining the different types of Self-Care and examples: https://bit.ly/FreeGuidetoSelfCare

2. Embrace Technology

As we are all stuck indoors and have lost out on going to events, social gatherings, meeting up with friends & family, concerts, cinema, restaurants, being on lockdown can take its toll. It’s important to not fully isolate yourself from friends and family and you can use technology to keep connected in fun ways. Facetime friends and family instead of a usual call, it’s a much more personal interaction and can help you feel more connected with people. If you’re working from home keep in touch with colleagues or keep planned meetings in using video technology like Zoom. Doing team meetings like this, or weekly drinks with work friends can help you feel like you’re still in touch with everyone, and knowing you’re going through the same experiences also helps.

Set up movie nights with friends- either connect via a group Facetime or try out Netflix Party which is a Chrome extension for watching Netflix remotely with friends where you can all watch the same content at the same time. Try playing games online with friends, or with real people in real-time. You can use apps on your phone like Words With Friends. Online monopoly is a good one! Or try a pub quiz with friends. Good ones are Let’s Get Quizzacal & Spectacular Pub Quizzes. Or you can play games with friends on House Party- another video chat app where you and your friends can go head to head with games like Quick Draw and Heads Up.

So although you may miss that in-person contact, you can still keep in touch and entertained with loved ones in so many ways. Push yourself to try something new.

3. Establish a Routine

If you’re not used to working from home, it can be difficult to adjust, and it’s easy to get distracted. Getting into and keeping a routine each day can really help keep you in a structure and help to not make you feel claustrophobic at home during self-isolation.

Try to stick to the same time to wake up each morning on weekdays as you would for work. Wake up, get showered and dressed so you are ready for the day. Set aside a dedicated area or space for you to ‘work’. Making defined spaces in your home can help you to feel like you can clock in and out of work. It’s important to take breaks through the day, go for a walk, or stop to make a tea or call a friend.

And most importantly make a clear stop time- it can be easy to get sucked into working and let time slip you by, you may think you’re being extra efficient and hard-working but you could lead yourself to burn out. Setting a structure to your day can help you to keep focused during self-isolation.

4. Clean up your Finances!

Now we are at home more you may find yourself spending a lot less, as you’re just focusing on the essentials like food. Work out how much money you are saving by self-isolating. If you are working from home then calculate how much you are saving from the costs you would usually have like commuting, lunches every day or that Starbucks you grab each morning. Add up how much you are saving from not going to the pub or restaurants.

Look at your usual monthly budget and go through it to understand exactly what you are spending on. Look at all your Direct Debits, Monthly Subscriptions, Paypal payments etc and anything you have coming out. See if you really are using these services and if not contact them to reduce to a lower tariff or if you’re not locked into a contract then cancel them.

Look at your credit cards- really get to know your cards and how much you have on them. Consider doing a balance transfer for all your credit card debt onto an Interest-free deal for 12-24 months so you can set a chunk of money each month to get the balance down.

Set yourself a new weekly budget, and if you have trouble handling your finances try a Monzo account- you can easily allocate spending budgets, bills pots and savings pots on the app so it makes handling your money a lot easier to manage. With your new weekly budget and all the money you are saving, think ahead to the future and that holiday you will be booking as soon as this is all over!

5. Exercise

With the social distancing policies currently in place, most of us will be spending most of our time at home. That means fewer opportunities to be active, especially if you are used to cycling to work, walking to the train station every day or doing leisure sports. Our bodies and minds still need exercise to function well and help keep our spirits up. Exercise has so many benefits, it increases energy levels, releases positive endorphins which make you feel good, and helps to keep your immune system strong and less susceptible to infection.

We should try and do a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity a day, whether that means a walk in the park or a home workout. Try and sit less through the day, take regular breaks from your computer or tv and walk around the house for a few minutes!

Stair climbing is extremely effective and time-efficient way to maintain fitness. Going up and down your stairs, a few times a day can be a great exercise boost. If you live in a flat avoid uncomfortable lift journeys with self-isolating neighbours and take the stairs. Dancing is a great way to protect your heart, maintain fitness and make you smile. Use the stress releasing magic of music and tune into a live-streamed concert or try to master that Tik Tok dance routine. Dancing also has established mental health benefits.

You could also try an online exercise or yoga class in your home if you want to do group exercise. Just do something, whatever it is to keep you moving and active.