As the world gets struck by the devastating effect of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), we all want to practice safety to help us slow down the rate of the spread of the Coronavirus. We should, therefore, adhere to precautionary measures as emphasised by health care providers. I have already covered a summary note on the facts about Coronavirus disease.
Unfortunately, educating people to practise personal hygiene alone cannot do all the job since a lot of people may not follow the precautionary measures. Hence, Governments along with their state health service providers are teaming up with the World Health Organization (WHO) to put in standard measures to fight against the spread of the disease.
This may, however, include quarantining (isolating) infected persons and contact tracing to find those who may have come into contact with those with the virus. The best, in some situations, is to set barriers for citizens to practise social distancing, community or city lockdowns.
A lockdown is an emergency protocol that usually prevents people or information from leaving an area. The protocol can usually only be initiated by someone in a position of authority.
WIKIPEDIA
So the likelihood of your Government enforcing a community or city lockdown when the COVID-19 virus strikes your place is very high. In fact, that is what most countries have adopted to curb the spread of this devastating pandemic. For this reason, you should prepare well in advance to endure the resulting effect of community, city or even a state lockdown. As you harbour that in mind, you should also note that staying home during lockdowns can be very boring even when you engage in routine activities indoors.
The question to ask is “What should I do to stay productive and happy indoors when there is a lockdown?” Well, doing things that were difficult to do because of the time factor during normal business days will be very helpful to reduce boredom when tied indoors by lockdowns but not routine (regular) in-house activities. The following, in my case, are very helpful and I invite you to try them during lockdowns.
Take a good rest in bed, it’s your time!
This may not be the first on your list, but absolutely one of the important things you should try doing. All that is needed is to prepare yourself a nice bed, with a comfortable pillow and a clean sheet and try to sleep some of your worries away. This is especially beneficial if your normal work schedule never gave you enough time to rest. After all, there are no official duties to struggle with, so why not sleep?
Read that favourite book you never got time to read
If you have a few favourite books resting on the shelves of your personal library, this is the time to start chewing them. As you focus on reading such interesting books, your mind travels along and you may feel the lockdown effect less. If you don’t have any such books, try borrowing one from an immediate family member in your home.
Start a blog, write a story or create notes on passing events
Though, as mentioned earlier, you should sleep well in such hard times but, of course, sleeping has got its own limits. Instead of sleeping all your time out of the day, buy some time to think about topics of personal interest or recount your experiences and curate those ideas into educative articles to start a free blog. This could be your next side project even after the lockdown, who knows? You can simply maintain a memoir of passing events during the lockdown. Such notes will be treasures in the near future.
Complete those works you’ve postponed till now!
You’re the only person on earth who knows how long and how much of that work has been piled up without attending to them. Seize this opportunity to complete them before another one makes a move in. Do you have some ledgers to balance or complete? Have you completed that report? What about your project work? Have you completed writing your lesson notes? Well, you know what to do.
Most importantly, you could engage yourself in a cleanup exercise in your home. Remove exposed refuse in your compound and properly dispose of them. Clean specks of dirt (dust) on your couch. Check that cupboard or wardrobe, discard those junk materials and clean those spaces and the remaining materials.
Spend more time with your family and friends
Whether married or single, we all have family and friends so why not steal this golden opportunity to interact with them. Whether they are with you or not. If you stay with them in the same compound, that’s perfect. Consider engaging in a talk with them. You may also enjoy a good home-made meal with them, play some games or watch an interesting or a favourite movie together.
Do you have children at home? You may teach them (your children) some useful skills. If you have a wife, why not reflect on past moments by spending more time with her to browse your photo album or a similar gallery of personal photos? Of course, the opposite holds as well.
What about your friends and other family members who are far from your end? You could connect with them via video conferencing tools such as Google Duo, Google Meet, Skype or Zoom. You could host virtual meetups, share ideas on personal or group projects or just have fun with faces in view. You don’t want to miss those chances, do you?
Learn a new skill to face the future
Take time to research and learn new skills which are of interest to you. It could be domestic skills like cooking, speaking, singing and dancing among others. If you have a job (or are employed) in the formal sector, learn commercial or employable skills that can enhance your Curriculum Vitae (CV); such as coding or programming, writing, language training (new language acquisition or studying to enhance your proficiency) among others. You can take free online short courses from places like Alison, Domestika, FutureLearn, Udemy, just to call but a few. You can thank me later (LOL).
Do some research and learn more about COVID-19
You may not consider this as important but trust me, this will prove very helpful. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, people have been communicating a whole lot of information to others, some of which contain factual inaccuracies, misleading claims or complete fallacies (fake news). Why not take ample time to research the Coronavirus pandemic? The facts you will discover can be shared with your family and friends. These links will help;
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Ghana Health Service (GHS)
- WHO Questions and Answers on COVID-19
Well, the above note is not an exhaustive list, there are more you can do to turn the seemingly incapacitated situations into capacitated periods of beneficial activities. And remember to practice safety and stay protected against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Maybe there is something you want to tell us? Our amazing readers are ready to read your thoughts. Let’s read them in the comment section below. Scroll down to comment.
Leave a Reply