In this period of isolation, sometimes getting out of bed is a big achievement

At the beginning of lockdown I was determined to be one of those people who improved themselves – but I should have known better, writes Christine Manby

Illustration by Tom Ford

I’ve long been a fan of charts. Whenever I begin a new book, I make myself a spreadsheet, plotting my likely daily word count against a calendar, factoring in the weekends and holidays to ensure that I’ll be able to hit my deadline. It’s a system that’s worked well for me. I haven’t missed a book deadline yet. So when we entered this lockdown, I decided that I would apply the same approach to my life outside work, to make sure that I wouldn’t waste all the empty days that suddenly lay ahead.

To that end, I made an enormous star chart, of the kind parents use to motivate pre-schoolers to use the potty and not bite the cat. On a sheet of A3 paper, I drew columns for work, for three different kinds of exercise – yoga, walking and time on the exercise bike – and a column for Italian practice. Yes, I was determined to be one of those people who comes out of lockdown “improved”. Fitter, faster and able to ask “which way to the cathedral” in three more languages. Of course I have no children.

The first couple of weeks went well enough. I managed to put a star in all five columns every day, including weekends. Thanks to Paul Noble’s Italian course, I was soon able to say “I’m not a diabetic but I have vomited,” which I’m sure will come in very handy one day.