The Covid-19 pandemic is forcing people to spend more time at home than before. Many are staying home because they are jobless after a lot of big and small businesses closed shop. The unemployment rate is still much higher than that before the pandemic. The majority of those who still have jobs are working from home. Those who are still working outside come home immediately afterward. People are complying with the safety protocols to prevent Covid-19 infection and do not venture out except for unavoidable trips and errands.
Confinement at home for long periods causes stress which can lead to psychological and physical problems, from anxiety and depression to a weak immune system that makes you more vulnerable to viral infection.
You can distract yourself from stress and fight boredom by using your extended time at home productively. Invest in your wellbeing and improve yourself by learning something new during the pandemic. You can choose from a wide variety of available online classes.
So Much to Learn
If you look up your choices online, you will find that there is so much you can learn. You do not have to stop at one course. Because you have so much time on your hands, you can take as many courses as you like. Choose those that you are already interested in, and you will enjoy. This will make you more likely to focus and stay with each course to its end.
If you love music, you can take voice lessons or learn a musical instrument such as the ukulele, harmonica, guitar, piano, flute, and saxophone, among others. If you like writing, you can take a course in creative writing. You can join online workshops on writing poetry, short stories, novels, plays, or screenplays. You can also opt to learn how to write articles as content for blogs. If you are a frustrated or budding artist, there are online painting lessons using watercolor, acrylic, oil, or multimedia. If you want something more personal, join a workshop on art journaling. You can also explore pottery, sculpture, or woodworking.
You can learn a new language. This can make you feel like you are traveling to another country.
Something that will immediately benefit you and your family will be online cooking lessons. This can transform your home cooking into gourmet cooking. You can link this to your language classes if you want. That will make you experience a new culture with more appreciation.
Some courses will provide you with not only fun but also useful skills in the job market. Even if you are currently employed, you can use these for a sideline or as a safety net for the future.
If you are spending much of your time on social media, you can make the most of it and learn social media management and social media marketing. This is what businesses, big and small, need now as people do their shopping and look for solutions to their needs online.
You can learn basic programming and how to code to build websites. This is a service that businesses also need these days as their brick-and-mortar shops are closing. If you are good at analysis, you can learn the basics of data analytics. This is the examination of raw data to determine patterns and trends and gain insights. Businesses find this useful in making their decisions.
If you dream of having your own small business, now is the time to enroll in a course in entrepreneurship. Whatever business idea you have, you need to know how to make it work. You will learn all the requirements and processes for setting up a small business and running it. This includes setting up and maintaining your books and paying all necessary taxes.
You can use what you learn from the entrepreneurship course to build a business out of any other skills you master. For instance, you can build a home-based business as a social media manager, a social media marketing consultant, or a website building and maintenance service.
A New and Improved You
These are only a few suggestions, and there are many other topics in various fields that you can consider.
If you love what you are learning, you will be free from boredom and stress. You can even find a new field that you will want to pursue, not just with one class but to gain expertise. Pursuing this can provide you with new skills for new career opportunities.
Your investment in learning will not only make you feel better during confinement; it will also make you a better person in the end.
Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash