A day in the life of my quarantine: Read Jimmy Fallon's diary

Going stir-crazy in quarantine? You’re not alone. Celebrities are cooped up in their homes across the country just like the rest of us. As we collectively navigate this uncharted territory, USA TODAY presents Quarantine Diaries, which give readers a peek into how our favorite stars are spending their time at home.

Our first diarist is Jimmy Fallon, who has been delivering nightly weekday segments of “The Tonight Show: At Home Edition” on YouTube. Each episode highlights a celeb and their favorite charity, and so far, Fallon has put a spotlight on Feeding America, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Save the Children. Here’s what a day in the life of Fallon’s quarantine looks like with his wife Nancy and their two young daughters. – As told to Andrea Mandell

Staying Apart, Together: A newsletter about how to cope with the coronavirus pandemic

6:03 a.m. My kids come in the bedroom and wake me and my wife up. I try to tell them to go back to sleep, it’s too early.

6:08 a.m. The kids are back in the room, and this time they mean business, either holding a loud toy or playing games very loud, so I realize I’m going to have to get up. My head is foggy so I say, "OK, play Aladdin and Jasmine while I get it together." Then we start making breakfast.

9 a.m. I’m all about Zoom. My whole house, everyone is on Zoom. I have meetings, my kids have meetings. We sit around with laptops and we all have meetings. They have play dates on Zoom, they have online schooling. We have yoga mats set up for my daughters to do yoga with the teachers, and then my wife and I try to do it along with them. It’s pretty embarrassing, but it’s something. You gotta exercise. It’s either yoga or I take the dog for a walk.

11:30 a.m. I talk to our producers and writers. We talk about what’s happening in the news and what everyone’s heard so we know what we’re talking about when we do our show. Then we find out who’s on the show, if I’m going to interview anyone. If not, I always have my kids and my wife, who is also my camera operator. (Editor’s note: Fallon’s first week featured guests including Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jennifer Garner. Friday’s guest is J. Balvin.)

12 p.m. We’ve been making the same type of things over and over again. My wife usually handles breakfast and I’ll do a basic lunch, which is nothing crazy - just like, "Hey kids, do you like hotdogs?" They'll say, "Again?" Dinner, I’ll do fish and veggies and stuff like that for them. We did order in from local restaurants even if we didn’t feel like eating it, just so we could freeze that food and also support local businesses. I’m really good at reheating.

There’s also been a lot of banana bread in my house, because all our bananas keep going brown. We probably have three loaves of banana bread here. I don’t even know if I like banana bread, but someone has to eat it.

2 p.m. I interview celebrities, whoever is working closely with a charity. I’ll talk to them about their charity and how they’re doing their quarantining. I usually try and do that from a quiet room in my house, but I don’t think there is one. Maybe I’ll do the next interview from the bathroom with a lock on the door.

2:30 p.m. I check in on the kids. We’re doing like a “Little House on the Prairie” home school in my house. We’re doing arts and crafts. I really feel like Pa Ingalls.

I try to think of some fun things for the kids. We have a trampoline in the backyard or my wife will do treasure hunts around the house. We play a lot of board games. You get creative after Day 8. My kids are good with cleanup but there are toys all over the place. Every 20 minutes we’re cleaning something up or putting something away or stepping on a Lego.

3:30 p.m. I have a meeting with the monologue writers. We go over some jokes that I know will not get laughs because there’s no audience here except for my wife. Now and then she gives it up, she’ll laugh at something. But she's wearing so many hats.

4 p.m. I send all my footage to our producers. I do the whole show from my phone. Somewhere in the day, I tell my oldest daughter Winnie, who’s 6, to make a sign for the show with the logo and make a sign for the featured charity. She’s my graphics department. The little one, Frannie, who’s 5, doesn’t really understand we’re doing a show. She just wants to play.

6 p.m. Our editor looks at the footage and then gives me a rough cut around 6/6:30 p.m. We all look at it, review it and give notes. We send the show to YouTube around 7 p.m. and it takes at least an hour to post it, making sure the charity donate button attached. We want to make sure all that stuff works.

We feed the kids around 6 p.m. and try to get them down around 8. Then I’m exhausted. I always appreciated teachers, but boy oh boy. That is the one thing I am not. Thank goodness for my wife, thank goodness for teachers.

9 p.m.: We usually watch some kind of mindless TV where we don’t have to think too much. “Below Deck Sailing Yacht” I love. The last episode of “Survivor” was fantastic. If you want to binge, check out this season of “Survivor.” It’s really good.

10:30 p.m. Whenever we can fall asleep, we fall asleep. How am I feeling? I watch the news every morning and kind of leave it at that. I try to play with my kids and keep laughing. I look at funny clips online if I’m feeling too nervous. I just try to stay calm and really stay positive and know we’re going to get through this. These next two weeks are pretty intense. We've just got to focus on one day on at a time.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Quarantine diary: Jimmy Fallon gives a look at a day in his life