A COVID-19 to do list
After reading numerous articles of the pandemic that has caused economies to tumble and many to lose their loved ones, my biggest fear is not whether we will find a cure or not - I know we will, we have many intelligent people working towards that. My biggest fear is whether we will be able to recover, how many of us will be able to maintain our livelihood afterwards and can we deal with another outbreak like this.
Without a doubt our lives have been changed forever. The way in which we live and do things has to adapt to new norm. Here are a few tips to keep you sane during this period:
Learn a new skill on your phone or laptop
The App Store and Google Play Store has numerous applications that you can use to learn how to code, speak a new language and improve your knowledge through daily challenges that range from a minute to about half an hour long. I am currently learning French and Dutch on Duolingo and every morning while I am still laying in bed I enhance my productivity skills on Elevate a brain training application.
Start reading that book you never had time to get to
Books are always a good way to learn a whole lifetime of lessons in a couple of pages. According to Google, the average person can read 2000 words in 10 minutes. Just by putting a little time aside every day you can complete that book that will help you to become a better version of yourself.
Meditate
Meditating is simply taking some time in your day to sit and relax your mind. Every second of the day we are consumed by the busyness of our work life, trying to keep up with the Kardashians that do not even know us and just doing normal daily tasks.
Meditation allows you to eliminate all negative thoughts, bad energies and anxieties that we may especially be plagued with during this time of uncertainty.
My favourite meditation application is Headspace and it is free on the App Store.
Exercise
I recently discovered that my gym membership had been a total waste of money because in between trying to study for assessments and having a social life, walking 10 minutes to the gym simply did not fit in my schedule. So I turned to YouTube, there are various 30 minute workouts that you can try out in the comfort of your living room. You will find these particularly useful especially now that none of us have the luxury of utilising our gym memberships.
I also recommend the exercise so that you will be able to fit into your favourite work trousers after the lockdown.
Form a virtual productivity group
Getting things done may have become very difficult for those whose employers are yet to establish a virtual work platform. But for me because I have had online school for the past two weeks, I had to lose the couch potato lifestyle. I am currently using a website called Focus mate to book 50 minute productivity sessions with complete strangers from the other side of the globe. It is definitely not awkward. It really gets you to sit and commit to complete a task. You can also use WhatsApp and Instagram group chats to commit to complete a task with your friends. For example you can say between 07am and 08am we will all be reading chapters 1 and 2 of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers.
As a result of the pandemic there are many losers and winners. The first group including your oil companies and most businesses in tourism and the second, including data and Wi-Fi providers and streaming service providers like Netflix amongst a few others. When the storm calms down you want to be among the winners. As I have committed to having a productive quarantine or lockdown period, depending on which side of the world you live on, I commend you do the same.
