This Quarantine Life: Travis Paul Martin on Putting Less Pressure on Himself in Self-Isolation, Finding Solace in Zoom Happy Hours

We continue our look inside the quarantine lives of some of our favorite people, and this week we peek inside the life of Travis Paul Martin, PR executive director extraordinaire at Skoog, cooking enthusiast, a person with amazing taste, a ginge, and an overall cool cat we call our friend. He has been in quarantine since March 16 and here’s what he has been up to.

6:00 A.M.- 6:30 A.M.

Monday through Friday I wake up between 6am and 6:30am. If it is a nice morning, I try to motivate and get up and go for a walk before my day starts. If it’s not, I usually stay in bed for a while. Catch up on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and respond to texts. I go to bed early and put my phone on do not disturb so I always wake up to texts from friends, usually group chats. I will maybe look at emails but I try not to do that until I’ve had coffee and am at my computer.

8:15/8:30 A.M. – 8:45 A.M.

I try to be in the shower by 8:15/8:30 a.m. and making coffee by 8:45 a.m. Yes, it usually only takes me about 15 minutes to get ready. I need to be showered, dressed, and at least a couple sips into my coffee before my day officially starts.

9:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M.

Every day my office does a 9 a.m. coffee chat on Zoom. We spend 15 minutes just shooting the shit, no work talk, and then at 9:15 a.m. we do a quick run down of the day. The day consists of a lot of client meetings and internal meetings which is pretty standard. It’s just all on Zoom now. I also read a ton now. I’ve always consumed a lot of news pertaining to the industries my clients are in but now more than ever I am really trying to stay up on what other brands are doing and how the media is covering them. I’m also participating in every Zoom seminar, IG Live, Facebook Live, whatever that media outlets are doing. I’ve loved the Vogue Global Conversations and the Business of Fashion series. Architectural Digest just started this AD Visits series that has been really fun and I love Whitney Robinsons IG Live chats on the Elle Décor channel.

12:00 P.M.

Around 12 p.m. I either I try and take a proper full hour lunch break or some sort of workout – a walk if I didn’t go that morning or I set up a little “home gym” in my guest bedroom. It only consists of a resistance band and a kettlebell and I just started in week six of quarantine. My boyfriend bought a treadmill for his place and he really inspired me to get my butt in gear!

5:00 P.M.

My work day ends at 6 p.m. and some days we have team happy hours on Zoom at 5 p.m. It’s just such a nice way to connect with the team and decompress.

6:00 P.M.

Once the work day is done I am either doing another Zoom or FaceTime happy hour with friends or cooking dinner. I have always loved to cook and it’s been fun to have the time and tackle some of the recipes I have been wanting to try. I throw in some prep work for dinner throughout the day so when it comes time to cook a lot of the little things are done. I’ve been cooking fairly healthy to balance the drinking and my baking experiments. I had never baked bread before so I tried doing a focaccia and a crusty white loaf. The focaccia was fantastic – it’s Samin Nosrats recipe. I’ve made it twice, I’m kind of obsessed. The crusty white bread was okay. I definitely learned some lessons and if I try and tackle it again, I’ll change a couple of things.

9:30 P.M.

I usually go to bed around 9:30 p.m. Sometimes as early as 9 p.m. and never later than 11 p.m. There have been a few exceptions where I have gotten really carried away with drunken chats with friends on House Party. But sleep has always been very important to me and it’s one variable that really affects me if I don’t get the proper amount.

Shows I am binging:

Well when quarantine started I was binging S3 of “Ozark.” Holy shit. That show is so good! I have to balance out the intense shows with something funny or reality shows. So I watch a lot of Bravo – thank God for the Housewives. I got really behind on “Homeland” and just finished. I’m pleased with how they ended the series. They kind of set it up for a possible movie which is exciting. I just watched the “Circus of Books” documentary on Netflix and I also watch a ton of “Law & Order.” I have a huge list of shows to watch but not sure what I am going to start next. I honestly have found it kind of difficult to concentrate at the end of the day so that’s why “Law & Order” and Bravo have been so good – you don’t really have to pay attention.

How do I practice self-care:

Well thankfully I started buzzing my head last fall so it’s been easy to maintain during all of this and helps me feel normal. I do miss my monthly barber visits and can’t wait to go back.

The Zoom, FaceTime, and House Party chats have honestly been a big part of self-care for me. I am a people person. I am a hugger. And I can’t do that right now and these video chats offer a sense of connection and it makes my heart happy.

And honestly the biggest self-care thing I can do for myself is to just not put pressure on myself. About anything. I try to keep my normal skin care routine but some nights I just want to crawl in bed without washing my face. Or some days I want to bake those chocolate chip cookies I have been thinking about. So I bake them and then give away three quarters of them. I just try and keep everything in balance and somedays I am successful and some days I am not and that’s just fine with me.

My quarantine style is…

Jeans, sweatshirts, slippers. I am one of the weird people that has to put on jeans almost every day of quarantine. I’m a Levi’s guy and actually find them really comfortable. They also keep me from getting too crazy with eating and drinking because the second they become too tight I rein it in.

What have I learned about myself while in quarantine?

Honestly, nothing that I didn’t already know. I just can’t wait to hug my friends and go out to fun dinners at my favorite restaurants.