10 Ways To Use Working Remotely Or Self-Quarantining As An Opportunity
As we all face the reality of being unable to go to work, school or events or gather in normal ways due to the coronavirus pandemic, we can reframe our time at home as an opportunity to take stock and to tackle some projects we’ve put off. This perspective, importantly, can help keep your spirits up in this unprecedented and potentially disconcerting situation.
Amidst the things you cannot control, what you can control is your attitude.
Even in this crisis we can be grateful for all the things and people we tend to take for granted – like our families and friends, teachers and coworkers, fellow students, the coffee people we see every day, our health, fresh air, and the freedoms we have to go places and the abundance of places we could normally.
Being “stuck” at home gives us the gift of time, since we don’t have to commute or take our kids to soccer, school or events. So, it’s an opportunity to use this time to be creative and productive in other ways.
Here are 10 ways you can leverage the time you’re home and unable to socialize normally :
1. Call people you haven’t spoken to in a while: Take the time to reach out and see how people you care about are doing across the country or even across the globe, since you can use Skype or Zoom video conference for free.
2. Catch up on webinars and online courses: You may have webinars or free online courses you’ve thought would be great but haven’t had time to do, or you may find some in a brief search of your favorite sources. Edx and Coursera offer free courses from top universities, including Harvard, Stanford, or the University of London, on everything from business to health to diplomacy, for example. You can use this time at home to enhance your knowledge of your skills.
3. Do arts and crafts projects: From knitting to scrapbooking to organizing photos (even putting printed ones in albums) to mending socks, or painting a chair you’ve always wanted to paint, now you have the time to do it. Jack Canfield is a fan of vision boards, which he says help you visualize and focus on your goals, so you might make one of those.
4. Listen to podcasts or audio books: There are zillions of podcasts and audiobooks out now, many with very useful information about careers, health, business, relationships, industries, or you can listen to a novel….pick your topic.
5. Start the book you’ve thought about writing: If you’re just starting your book, don’t overthink it or worry about your writing skills at this point. Just jot down notes about what you want to write about and potential points you want to make or sources you might want to include. Nothing is committed at this stage. Start writing! Once you have some prose, what you think you want to say for a while, and you decide to take a break from writing, draft an outline of potential chapters. If you’ve already started a book, here’s the gift of time to keep writing.
6. Write blogs: Write about your experience managing this crisis in your work or school life, or with your family or community. You can publish it for free on Medium or LinkedIn, or Facebook, or many other platforms. Be sure to write it in Word on your computer and keep it for yourself too. Even if you don’t have a computer or internet access, you can write with a pen and paper. Some best-selling novelists only write that way to this day.
7. Cook or bake new recipes: If you like to cook or bake, now you have a bit more time to try new recipes. Maybe read a few recipes and take ideas from each one and then get creative – unless you have something that requires you to follow the recipe exactly. Baking generally requires more precision, for example.
8. Read a book: There are so many great books out to read. Whether you want to be transported into a story with a novel, or back in time through a history book or biography, or to get a new perspective in a business or self-help book, there are plenty of choices. You can find ebooks, or order them online to be delivered, too.
9. Clean and/or declutter your home: While you’re wiping down every surface multiple times a day anyway, now you have the time to do some deeper cleaning. Maybe wash floors, windows, clean out your closets, discard clothes you don’t wear anymore, clean pictures on the wall, dust furniture you haven’t touched in a while, clean out your refrigerator or pantry. You might also tackle your 2019 taxes and organize your finances.
10. Go for a long walk, just to walk: Walking is one of the best ways to clear your head, enjoy fresh air, get some exercise and explore your neighborhood. You don’t need to know where you’ll go, just head out and follow sidewalks. Maybe listen to podcasts or music along the way. And smile at people as you go by, acknowledging them, too. We’re all in this together.
So, you can choose. You can either think of yourself as trapped, isolated and miserable, or you can be grateful you’re healthy and have the freedoms you do have, and you can use the time to do things you’ve wished you had the time to do.
Now you have some time to do them.
