Positive and healthy ways to embrace the lockdown

Lockdown sucks. The isolation sucks just as much.

With all this time spent inside, it’s easy to become bored out of your mind. When the boredom and mundanity get to be too much, we find ourselves doing the most absurd shit we wouldn’t normally do to escape the endless days of doing absolutely nothing.

Some of us revel in the feeling of doing nothing — the lack of productivity being a welcome change to some of us who are hard workaholics. And while the lack of having things to do can feel like a blessing, the lack of any feelings of achievement during these unproductive days can upset even the most resilient of us.

Here are a few tips to make the most out of the spare time that lockdown has offered:

The Ultimate Cleanup 

There lies an inherent therapeutic benefit gained when cleaning up one’s house.

As stay-at-home students, we are often confined to our rooms and sitting down for long periods of time. It’s actually quite amazing how dusty these places can get, to say nothing of the hair and dust that gathers on the floor and surrounding areas of our rooms.

But it’s not just our rooms that could use cleaning: the continuous build-up of absolute filth in the toilets and the dirt that is collectively gathering in the corners of the foyer and lining the hallways can slowly affect your state of mind. Like clipping your nails after a long time, the payoff that follows a successful house-wide cleansing can be huge, and feel like a heavyweight lifted off of your shoulders. You’ll also find that breathing inside of your own house will be easier and fresher, with less dust floating around in the air.

Home Cooking

Doing various activities with your hands can be a welcome reprieve from spending all day on the computer. One of those activities is cooking.

From baking sweet treats to formulating rich, restaurant-style meals that will become a hit with your friends (after the pandemic), there lies a sense of pride when seeing people enjoy the food you prepare, especially when they compare it to restaurant food and prefer your cooking more.

When cooking, mistakes are more than bound to happen. The meat could burn, the whole pan could catch fire, the kitchen could catch fire, and then your whole house will be permeated with the nose-melting aura of burned, blackened food. However, for all of the amateur cooking situations, it will only serve to reinforce your culinary skills with each mistake.

Cooking is a messy practice, but it’s hard to deny the feeling of satisfaction one walks away with when they nail that cheese-toastie without letting a single cheese slice fall out of the sandwiched bread and onto the pan.

Invest in Remote Work

Times are tough. However, if there is one thing humanity has on its side, it’s the advancement of technology.

While finding a job involving physical labour may be a bit of a challenge, the lack of economic growth will be compensated for in a rise in remote jobs. There’s money to be made in an ever-changing economy. With the need to avoid infecting workers and maintain a semblance of financial gain, certain locations have little choice but to convert to an online marketplace — so purchases and orders can be made over the internet.

There’s also less expense involved when you’re not having to commute to work. Being able to work in the comfort of your own home is an added benefit.