How to Spend Your Time Effectively in Pandemic Time?

 

The way we spend our time defines who we are.

                                                 -Jonathan Estrin

Let’s go for a story first. If anyone knows about the plague pandemic during the 17th century, plague became a pandemic in 1665. As a result, schools, colleges, and universities remained shut in London. A boy of early 20s from Cambridge university came back to his home during this holiday, started working on his projects and discovered some amazing theories related to calculus, prisms, and gravity. Later, he joined his university again two years later, submitted his works to the authority and within 6 months, he was made a fellow; two years later, a professor! Later, this boy became famous to the whole world with his name- Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most famous scientists the world has ever produced! So, you see, a pandemic and a two years break due to this produced a world famous scientist instead of wasting a real talent only because of spending time properly.

More or less, people have free time in their daily routine. It’s up to them by how they will spend it. Of course, you have to spend a good amount of time with your family and also you have to keep some time for yourself also, but it’s wise to spend the rest of it both wisely and sensibly.

In December, 2019, a new variant of Coronavirus (later named as COVID-19) was detected in China and soon it became a threat to all of the world. Seeing the devastating effect, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 March, 2020. Many countries declared lockdown situation for maintaining social distance strictly to check the ominous rate of death due to the pandemic. As a result, the daily routine of human life changed immensely. Before the pandemic, people literally used to wait eagerly for free time but as the lockdown gave an incessant time to spend, people became bored so quickly. 

But what if these times are used properly so that one can gain something instead of spending it fatuously!

Actually, there are a lot of effective ways to spend free time, especially in pandemic time. Let me help you with this. It’s totally yours to decide which you will choose! 

I am going to divide the possible ways into two parts: ONLINE EDUCATION & OFFLINE ACTIVITIES. Actually Most of them are under online activities as we know that social distance is so important to keep yourself, your family and people of your community safe during pandemics.

ONLINE LEARNING:

Online learning can be a great choice to spend your time properly. As educational institutions remain closed during pandemic time, it can be an alternative way. According to Vedamo, Mobile learning helps learners to access courses anywhere from the globe. 26% of all undergraduates enrolled in some form of distance education have some form of mobility impairment.⁽¹⁾ Also, who wishes to learn something new and wants to learn some extra skills apart from his departmental study, trust me, this is the best time to have! 

Here is some trusted online learning platform:

Coursera:

Coursera is a renowned learning platform all over the world. Thousands of International universities offer courses on various subjects like Arts, Science, Computer technology, Biology, Public health and so on. There are also short courses under coursera developmental projects. Best about Coursera is that you can get financial aid in paid courses and there are a lot of free courses with international quality and acceptance. You can check Coursera by clicking here. If you want to know anything about Coursera and its free or paid courses, you can contact me by clicking here. 

Udemy:

Another renowned International Learning platform. Udemy offers Tons of courses both free and paid from excellent instructors throughout the globe. From programming to learning languages, from arts to biology, Udemy has a huge collection of courses. Click here to know about Udemy. For updates regarding Udemy free courses and offers, you can contact me by clicking here.

LinkedIn Learning:

Previously known as Lynda, LinkedIn Learning is a project of the LinkedIn network to provide some valuable skills regarding both personal and job life. Here you can find courses on social media marketing, Strategic business marketing, Programming, Web development and so on. You can check it here.

edX:

An American massive open online learning platform created by Harvard and MIT. Courses in a wide range of almost all disciplines are provided by edX to a worldwide student body. edX includes some courses at no charge. For more about edX, click here.

Skillshare:

Also an American online learning community providing a wide range of learning opportunities. You can learn here and finish your courses upon subscription and completing the projects as required. Click here for more info.

Bohubrihi:

If you are planning to learn some skills in Bangla, Bohubrihi can be a good choice for you. Click here to know about Bohubrihi.

Apart from this, Saylor Academy, Masterclass, Ghoori Learning, Khan Academy etc. can be your choice for online learning. 

ATTENDING WEBINAR:

During pandemic time, the seminars and workshops throughout the globe have been shifted to online from offline and it’s called as-WEBINAR. Many of their access remains free. So this might be a better chance for the enthusiasts who are interested in international seminars.

TEACHING ONLINE: 

Are you good at something? Do you have skills that you are confident about? If you think so, then you can hop yourself into teaching on an online platform like Udemy, Rcampus, Learnopia or more.

EARNING BY FREELANCING:

According to Thimble, 12% of the US workforce began freelancing during the onset of the pandemic Due to the effects of COVID-19.⁽²⁾ There are some renowned marketplaces like Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Microworkers which provide jobs for freelancers with certain skills. So, if you have those skills, surely you can jump on earning with those sites.

ONLINE INTERNSHIP/JOB:

Many companies are offering jobs with a facility of working from home. If your requirements get fulfilled with their demands, you can join them. Also students can find the opportunities for online internships where they can get the chance to gain real life office experience with some honorarium.

ONLINE BUSINESS:

Nowadays online business has become popular for both consumers and sellers. It’s easy to conduct some business online. Social media platforms like Facebook marketplace, Instagram have been so popular nowadays. So you can try it on. Who knows, your small steps can reach you to the top of the market one day!

LEARNING LANGUAGES:

Learning different languages is fantastic for sure. As we know, learning language takes time, so why not this immense free time during pandemic! You can use your smartphone or personal computer for learning languages. Busuu, Grammarly, Duolingo etc are fantastic platforms to learn different languages. Feel free to try them! 

FOCUSING ON YOUR HOBBIES OR SKILLS:

We may have some hobbies inside us that are difficult to fulfill in normal time. As for me, I used to love the violin very much and cherished a dream to learn the instrument. After so many years, I got a chance to learn it and I learned it. If you have any desire to learn anything like musical instruments or others, this leisure time will help you a lot. In this case, I prefer YouTube the most.

OFFLINE ACTIVITIES:

There is also a chance for those who are not familiar with online activities to make their free time effective.

BECOME INVOLVED IN CREATIVE WORK, EXPLORE ARTISTIC SIDE OF YOUR OWN:

Writing, painting, singing, crafting can be the best example of this. According to hobby craft, online sales became 200% higher as the demand went high.⁽³⁾ This is the time to develop your skills on these if you have interests in them.

EARNING BY FARMING:

Demand for fresh foods is always high, and no surprise, it’s higher than ever in this situation. So people of rural areas can utilize their extra lands and can be involved in farming. Also urban people can be involved with farming. They can use their rooftops or balconies to grow suitable plants.

WORKING ON FITNESS:

As there is a lot of free time, there is a chance to lose body fitness which may become the cause of some chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes etc. So it’ll be a wiser step to spend some time daily on health fitness. 

SOME PRAYERS WOULD BE GOOD:

It’s bold and effective to spend some time for your God. Offering prayers will make you calm and will help you to find inner peace which is much needed during this time of instability.

In the time of pandemic, though people have a lot of time, actually it’s a difficult to focus on something. But we have to stay positive. Mental peace, patience and wellbeing are so important that we can keep ourselves normal in this horrible time. So, be positive always, keep your family safe and stay healthy!  

Mustakim Mamun
Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine
Sher-e-BanglaAgricultural University, Dhaka-1207