(cheerful music)
(birds chirping)
- [Matt] So now that I
spend all my time at home,
I've made some big changes
to how I start my days.
Typically, I wake up and pull my phone
into bed first thing in the morning.
It's the time to catch
up on some light reading.
Then I head to the bathroom to freshen up.
I pee sitting down now.
It just makes me feel more stable.
Then I wash my hands.
After that, I make a cup
of coffee while catching up
on some of my favorite podcasts.
- [Donald G. Mcneil Jr.] I mean,
we're gonna come out of this
as a different nation
a different people (voice echoes)
- And then I wash my hands again.
One mindfulness practice
that has really helped me
a lot lately is to journal.
And finally, I wrap up each morning
with a pep talk from Natalie.
Nat, is everything fine?
- Ehhhh.
- You wanna just get drunk, then?
- It's literally 11 a.m.
- Yeah.
- And that is my new morning routine.
So, in all seriousness,
I actually have struggled quite a bit over
these past few weeks.
I wouldn't say that is a
complete parody that you saw.
A lot of these things are true,
I've been consuming too much media,
I've been too sedentary,
I haven't yet figured out
how to bring these habits
and routines into my everyday life
the way that I typically do.
Now, the one thing
that I've always tried
to do on this channel
is be open and honest with you guys,
not pretend to be an expert when I'm not,
and not try to pretend
like I have my shit together when I don't,
and right now, I feel
like I'm just starting
to get my shit together.
Over the past couple days,
I've been figuring out new ways
to create healthy habits,
routines and structure.
That's really the most important thing
I've been trying to figure out,
because when you're at home all day,
that leads to different
hurdles, different challenges
that you have to overcome.
And so I wanted to share with you guys
some of the things that
I've been learning.
(upbeat music)
So I've really started to cut
back on the amount of media,
especially the amount of news
that I consume every day.
For the past month or
so as we've been trying
to figure out whether or
not we need to postpone
and cancel our wedding in Italy,
which we inevitably ended up doing,
which probably isn't
too much of a surprise
considering the circumstances,
we were just glued in every single day,
checking every 15, 20 minutes,
and then even after we
postponed our wedding,
that did not change for
me, I just, every morning,
I'd wake up looking at my phone,
checking it throughout the day.
And what I've found was
that the more I checked,
the more overwhelmed,
frustrated, and miserable I felt.
And while I do think it's
important for us to be informed,
I think that there is only so much
that we can do until we
realize, okay, I know enough,
I'm doing enough to
help, I'm doing my part.
There was a great podcast
I listened to recently by Sam Harris
where he talks about these precautions
of washing your hands
and social distancing
and comparing them to wearing a seatbelt.
- [Sam Harris] Once you're motivated,
once you understand utility,
none of us have to feel anxiety
when we get behind the wheel of a car
to motivate us to clip in our seatbelt.
That gesture now is an automaticity,
and I think the same can be true
of a response to a crisis like this.
I mean, once you figure
out what you should do,
well, then you can just do that thing,
and all this ambient
anxiety can be dialed down.
- One big turning point for me
after two weeks of living
in a very messy workspace,
having camera gear
cluttered all over the place,
was to finally sort my editing desk,
getting everything organized,
finding a little bit of
clarity amongst the chaos.
(upbeat music)
(Matt coughs)
That's dust, that's from dust.
Since Natalie is now
working from home as well,
we actually set her up
a desk right over here
so she can work from the office as well,
which has been pretty cool.
- Yeah.
- And I've finally started to
rebuild my workout routine.
Now, I personally much prefer
to work out at the gym,
I've never been somebody who
likes working out from home
using bodyweight exercises.
But obviously, considering
the circumstances,
I need to adapt, I'm not
willing to sacrifice my health,
especially considering this
may go on for a few months,
so right now, I'm in this
process of experimenting.
(upbeat hiphop music)
Alright, you guys wanna see
what is on my workout playlist right now?
I always start my workout these days
with "WHAT'S POPPIN'" by Jack Harlow.
I feel like I'm late on this one,
but it's a really good song.
The great thing about these times
is that there are so many people online
creating workout routines,
different things that you can do from home
with very limited equipment.
And you know, being a minimalist,
I don't have a whole lot,
but it's going well.
I mean, it's still very early on for me
in working out from home.
I still don't love it,
there's still a lot for me to figure out,
but I think the biggest thing right now,
I'm leaning into experimenting,
trying a whole bunch of different things,
and most importantly, figuring
out what I enjoy the most,
because if I'm not enjoying it,
and if you're not enjoying your workout,
there's no way that you're gonna be able
to stick through with it.
For the record, that is Natalie's coffee.
I don't put milk in my coffee.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But there's seriously
something wrong with that.
Getting out of the house,
getting some sun, walking around
and getting as many steps in as we can
has been vital for keeping
our sanity (chuckles)
It's very easy to get cabin fever
when you're staying inside,
working from home, working out from home,
doing everything from home,
so that has given us
some peace and solitude.
The hiking trails have been just packed
and nobody is giving any
amount of social distance,
which is really frustrating,
and it actually defeats the entire purpose
of going on a hike.
We're trying to, like, reduce anxiety.
- [Nat] Yeah.
- And then we just
find ourselves stressed out.
But literally, yesterday we found out
that all hiking trails,
all beaches are now closed in LA County.
So Natalie's telling
me it doesn't look good
to tie my sweatshirt around my waist.
What do you guys think?
- [Nat] No.
- Look at this, that's hiphop, baby.
- [Nat] No.
- That's hiphop, everybody knows that.
I have been using the two day rule,
which many of you guys are familiar with.
The two day rule is when you make sure
that you don't break a
habit for two days in a row.
So you can take multiple days
off a week if you need to,
but it reduces the amount of time between,
say, going to the gym,
or in this case, working out from home,
so you don't lose track
and you don't lose momentum
when you really need it.
And I find that this
is especially important
in the very beginning
as you rebuild a habit,
it might happen when you
come back from vacation,
to keep that consistency going,
literally doing it every
other day if you have to,
every day if you can,
and then whenever you
need to, take a break.
but the two day rule has
helped me out a lot.
What'd you get?
- [Nat] Mayo!
- Mayonnaise! (chuckles)
That's a whole lot of mayonnaise, bro.
- No, it's not just mayo.
(plastic pops)
Ah!
- Oh!
- Ah! (laughs)
- [Matt] You having fun?
- It's the most fun I've had in a week.
(laughter)
- If there's anything that
I've learned, personally,
through this whole experience,
is that I needed a little
bit of time to adapt
and to adjust,
and that meant a couple
weeks without working out,
it meant, and it's gonna continue to mean,
a lot of experimenting to
find what really works for me,
and I definitely encourage
you guys to do the same.
At this time when there is so much
that is out of our control,
we need to hold on to those
things that we can control.
There are ways in which we can help
to improve our mental health,
our physical health, our relationships,
and we need to do
everything we can right now
to make sure that we're happy, we're sane,
and we are there for each other.
So let me know down in the comments
how you guys have adapted
your schedules, routines
and structure during these times.
Let me know also what kind of videos
and what kind of topics
you would like me to cover
in the next couple weeks.
I have adjusted my schedule a little bit
and pushed some videos back
just because they didn't
make complete sense
given these times,
and I'm trying to make content
that's relevant right now.
So let me know, I'll see
you down in the comments,
and yeah, that's it.
Thanks, guys, bye.
