Maybe it's time to work on the bad posture!!
There are no strict legislations in Australia about compulsory quarantine. Recently, the government only employed social distancing measures in the fight against COVID-19, that each person must keep a distance of 1.5 meters from each other. Albeit the shutdown of non-essential services, e.g., schoolings, restaurants, bars, libraries, there are no forced and mandatory quarantine as in Vietnam or some European countries (Italy, France); one is required to be quarantine here only if they (1) were in close proximity with a confirmed case, (2) recently travelled from high-risk countries, or (3) show mild respiratory symptoms that might be indistinguishable from cold or flu (just to be sure. Nonetheless, I still believe it is safer to stay at home. And staying at home can be, indeed, boring and demotivated. But worry not, here are some things that you can do, or things that I did to help cope with take the mind out of the spiral of laziness.
It's tempted to fixate on your phone, and I have definitely been there, just staring at my feeds for 9 hours a day. Although it's okay to do so, if you are just catching up with the epidemic situation, but the day will go by without anything productive, and at the end, you may feel bad about yourself that you should have done at least something. Another no is sleeping in, and as much as I love sleeping, I somehow always feel tired after a long nap and regret that I have slept so much.
As I said earlier, I love sleeping. But on some specific days, I would stick to my alarm and tried my best to wake up. First thing is to brushed my teeth, do some ritual morning stretches, and make my Americano with my trusty mocha pot that my father gifted me. The whole thing is to get used to the day with some low-energy work first, then build up on that later.
Most likely this would be the time for university-related matter. As I'm currently on a project, sometimes an online meeting should be organized to catch up with team progress and so forth. If there are no incentives (e.g., you need to be online to join the meeting and work on that project), find one! Find the joy in finishing micro-goals, instead of looking at the goal as eternally unfinished.
A good lunch makes a bright mind, or in Vietnamese we have a saying "Có thực mới vực được đạo" (funny thing is that I thought the idiom was too hilarious to be true, kind of like a counter-meme). Maybe isolation would be a safe space to experiment new cuisines, now that you have all the time you need to make a meal that is both familiar and refreshing. It's good to work on the knife skill as well, but be sure don't cut your finger as I did.
I practice. If you are fortunate enough to play an instrument, and even have it with you, it's time to get back to those songs you promised yourself that you would learn it, then abandoned it. If you don't play any instrument, any of your old hobbies would do: listening to music (with a different perspective), reading a book, coding, anything. Do things that you like is the most efficient thing you can do to make time past quickly. By using times like these, I am now completing a new piece called Fantaisie Élégiaque by Sor (real fun saying the name).
Watching movies is not a bad idea. I'm into a more diplomatic and didactic aspect of movies and such, but any movie that makes you happy would do just fine. Those lectures from The Royal Institute would be a great watch; or if you are interested in mathematics/physics, but don't have the acquired knowledge (that's me), Sixty Symbols or Numberphile are my go-to. Although I am not pursuing a career in theoretical physics or mathematics any time soon, isn't it just good to be curious and fascinated about the world?
Dinner.
I'm not a bookworm, but I'm not that illiterate either. I don't know what kind of book I will be interested in, and unlike many people, I have a hard time finding a book that I know would suit me. Thus, I adopted a simple strategy: buy what I seem to like and read the whole thing, whether it's good or not. So far, it works, surprisingly! I did not encounter any book that was so bad that was unreadable. I set my achievable goal that each day I must finish at least 30 pages, and that's how I usually get all my books read. I'm currently reading Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, taking introductory steps into philosophy. Also, I'm writing this blog.
Getting ready to sleep, though I am also a night owl (I think I have a sleep pathology). I prefer reading close to the time I sleep, since reading makes me sleepy; that is not to say reading is boring, but rather put me in a better mental state for sleeping. Don't forget to set the alarm for the next day.
Quarantine or self-isolation is a hard time for some people, as they can be easily trapped into the abyss of unproductivity and crisis. Find yourself and reflect on where you are now, be true, accept who and what you are and appreciate what you have. I am now happier once I realized what I could and could not control (more to this later on hopefully).
Stay safe.