Staying productive in the times of COVID-19: Your handy guide to make the most of the Lockdown

In the last few weeks, one thing that the world has been collectively complaining about is boredom. With the COVID-19 induced lockdown keeping us all indoors, it is only natural that you are constantly feeling restless, often wondering, “What am I going to do with all the free time?!” Now, self-isolation might have put the world on hold, but it certainly doesn’t mean that your life has to be on hold too. Remember the times when you wanted to learn something new but couldn’t because of your hectic schedule? Well, this is the most opportune time to go for it. With too many free hours in hand, the lockdown is a ticket to be your productive best. And with the internet and abundant online resources to your rescue, it can never get easier.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which we can not only keep ourselves occupied during the lockdown but also walk out of it with a new skill, hobby, or maybe even an online degree.

Learn a new language

Although at this point in time, we do not know when we will be able to travel the world again, learning a new language never hurts. Learning a foreign language requires dedicated hours every day for practice, something that we have more than enough of now. Online lessons by linguistic instructors on apps like Udemy, Coursera offer a wide selection of languages to pick from, whereas HelloTalk lets you talk to native speakers of the language for a one-on-one experience. With the option for audio chat, video calls, and texts, it is probably the most natural way to learn a new language.

 

Upskill for the coming times

It might be a little hard to focus on the future when bulletins constantly talk about wage cuts and the plunging economy due to the pandemic. But instead of getting bogged down by the thought, why not get ahead of the curve? Not only will it give you something else to focus on but it will also help you secure your job or even get a better one. Many online learning platforms are offering courses either for free or at drastically slashed prices to interested learners across the globe. Whether you are looking for a program that can help you upskill in your current profession or you are simply looking to learn something that has piqued your interest, you have plenty of platforms to choose from. Apart from the aforementioned platforms, you also choose a course from IGNOU, Shaw Academy, Unacademy etc. In fact even international universities like Harvard, Yale and Princeton are offering free online courses ranging from a week-long to 10 weeks long.

Pro tip: Make sure you have a good internet connection on your phone to make the best of it. Clear audio and video are pivotal to upskilling & language learning as missing even a word could mean you start lagging behind. According to Opensignal’s India Mobile Network Experience Report April 2020, Airtel would probably be the best option as it offers the best video experience as well as voice app experience in India.

Listen to podcasts

With lesser time spent outdoors and with friends, our screen-time has shot up significantly. If you think you’ve been staring at screens a little too much while isolating, here’s something productive you can do while giving your eyes some rest. Simply tune into a podcast about a topic you’re interested in and go about your daily chores. Or you can just close your eyes and relax. If are passionate about a topic and want to share your own thoughts, you can even start your own podcast. According to a report by Economic Times, Hubhopper, one of India’s largest podcast directories saw a 40% increase in the number of sign-ups from people intending to create their own podcasts.

Attain your fitness goals

Whether it is HIIT, pilates, yoga, cardio, or dance, online workout sessions are ensuring that you have a healthy lockdown! And if you are finding it difficult to maintain a productive schedule, adding fitness to your priority list can work wonders. The sedentary lifestyle that the lack of outdoor movement has brought about in the past few weeks can be taken care of by religiously dedicating a few hours to fitness. There are many fitness instructors who are making stay-at-home workouts easier by providing online sessions through their social media handles. You can check out the training sessions by Yasmin Karachiwala, Minash Gabriel, Joe Wicks, Kayla Itsines, among others to start your journey. There are also many apps like Cure Fit, Nike Training Club, iFit, Yoga For Beginners, etc. that can be effective for whatever your fitness level is.

With the nationwide lockdown in force, there’s no doubt that the internet has become the pulse for everyone who is homebound. As the average daily consumption of data increases every day, many users are also experiencing sharp slowdowns. As one of India’s favourite network service providers, Airtel has been work-horsing to provide seamless connectivity to make the lockdown a period of productivity. In fact according to Opensignal, even during the lockdown, Airtel managed to offer average download speeds of 10.1 Mbps, faster than any other network provider.