Extra Time During the Age of the Virus

Ideas for those who have extra time in these virus times

Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash

First, to those who have no extra time, or who are working as always, thank you! Thank you to the health care workers, grocery store workers, Walmart and Target workers, farmers, distribution center workers, and anyone else who has to work normally or even more than usual.

To those of us who have extra time because of a missing commute, or because we’re laid off, what should we do with the free time?

Maybe it’s not free time because you now have the added duties of homeschooling your kids, or something else. But if you do have more free time, here are some ideas:

1. What’s the meaning of life? Perhaps try reading straight through the New Testament of the Bible, starting with Matthew, if you haven’t already.
2. Find a job at one of the many places that are hiring!
3. Learn something new! This could be an immediate skill that could be very marketable such as something related to artificial intelligence or software development. There are tons of free places to learn, but you could start with edX where you can audit a course from an Ivy League institution for free! Check it out here. You could also use a site like that to learn (or to learn about) software development, architecture, flying drones, engineering, or robotics. Really anything that could be immediately marketable in the workplace today, or something like AI (artificial intelligence) that could also be valuable in the workplace of tomorrow. What can you be learning that could be make the world a better place as we come out of this pandemic or ever have another one? edX is just one site, there are tons like this. Consider Coursera (free to audit classes), Udacity (free to audit classes), Codecademy (learn programming — coding — for free or pay for it), Udemy, LinkedIn Learning (get a free month), Khan Academy (always free), Pluralsight (free for April), Blinkist (non-fiction book summaries — free for 7 days for new customers, old customers might be free until April 25th: I am), and FutureLearn. Some of these places have discounts, or, better yet, are entirely free! Sometimes you have to look a little to see that things are free (like Coursera) up to the point that you want a certificate or to be graded, and then it would cost money. In many cases you can get all of the skills and knowledge without any cost, or pay a little and opt for the certificate.
4. Take up something old! We still need fun, too. Reach out to an old friend, re-pick up an old hobby, or learn a new hobby. Play games, have fun. Learn or do art, music, history, philosophy, or whatever it might be.

This virus has a horrible cost, and I’m sorry to everyone who is struggling with their health, with worsened health, or with loved ones they’ve lost or who are impacted by the virus. But what if we come out of this much stronger, much smarter, with a greater sense of truth, goodness, the meaning of life, and with a better ability to handle a crisis like this should it ever happen again? What if everyone who is furloughed or laid off either gets back to work right away in essential jobs or learns how to be creative and skills up to learn what they’ve always wanted to learn, or to learn what’s needed to be learned (like machine learning, datascience, deep learning, robotics, and self-driving car technology) in the future of the economy?

Should we make it our goal to hit the ground running when we come out of this? I see this virus as a great reset, and perhaps at the end of it a ton of us will be in a better place than where we once were. Maybe not in terms of economics, or in terms of the people who are no longer with us, but in terms of ourselves. Let’s improve ourselves, somehow.