How to spend your days in lock-down effectively
Now the world is experiencing hard times fighting with Covid-19, but still scientists are not fully confirmed how does this disease spread and they are taking steps based on previous pandemic experience. One of the most important decisions is to keep maintaining social distance and stop free movement. Moreover, suggesting temporary shutdown of university, school, business and religious centers helps to protect people from getting infected. Almost 20–30% world population is now in a lock-down. Most of the countries advice their citizens for self-isolation and recommend not to go outside without emergency reasons. Now, universities are closed, and employees have been instructed to work from home. Most of the people are experiencing very bad times and many of us are not familiar with this type of movement restrictions. Here in my short blog, I will give some ideas on how students and people can use their isolation time effectively under the lock-down.
Finish all homework and assignments:
If you are a university or college student, try to finish all your homework. It’s the best time to finish all of them, because once the lock-down is over, you will want to go out and hang out with your friends and relatives.
Take care of health by eating well:
Now is the perfect time to take care of yourself. In normal time you are usually busy with your daily life, studies, work and you can’t take proper care of your health. You may often eat outside for your business and it is not healthy for your body. Now you have plenty of time and you can cook yourself and make food you like to eat. Eating healthy is very important now because we all know that, there is still no vaccine for Covid-19 and only our immune system can fight with that virus. A healthy diet reduces our risk of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, as well as depression and anxiety. So, eat more fruit and vegetables.
Sleep well:
Sleeping is essential for our bodies to repair cells, clear toxins, consolidate our memories and process information. Just like our schedules for eating, working and exercising, it’s important to sustain a regular sleeping routine. For most people, between six to nine hours of sleep a night is enough. Going to bed and waking up at a similar time each day can help maintain a sense of normality, and help you follow the plans. Now you have enough time and you can use it to make a good habit of sleep. One important advice is to put away your electronic device before going to bed since the effect of the blue light on our body retinas can disrupt our sleep quality.
Physical exercise:
Exercising releases chemicals in the body that make us feel good, and it’s also been linked to better sleep, reduced stress and anxiety, and improved memory and cognition. Now you can find some time (at least 10–20 minutes) for daily exercise to keep yourself fit. There are many resources available on the Internet that will teach you how to exercise at home.
Stay connected:
Most of you spend time inside of your houses and it is good that by the grace of advanced technologies you can stay connected with your friends and family members. Regular communication is very important in this pandemic situation to keep mental health fit for both sides. You can call, send text, video call them. Besides also you can connect with them by social media. For example, you can make a virtual dinner party or show your cooking by video call.
Learn new skills:
You might want to learn new skills however you can’t usually do it because of the lack of time. Now is time to spend all your energy to learn that new skill. It might be something related to your studies or your other passion. Besides, there are many online platforms that are offering very lucrative courses for free or with big discount. For example, you can learn programming, playing guitar or cooking new dishes.
Finish all of TV/web series:
Due to lack of time you couldn’t possibly finish some of the TV/web series, but now is the time to do so. Besides, if you are like me, you can also finish all the hit movies from last year that you haven’t watched yet.
Spend time for cleaning:
Now is the perfect time to clean your room, fridge, kitchen and entire flat/house. It also helps to keep you busy for at least some time. We all know that good environment helps to maintain mental peace.
Stay calm and keep washing your hand:
The most important advice in this current pandemic situation is to keep washing your hands (at least for 20 seconds) as frequently as possible. Don’t panic, everything will be fine. Help yourself and your neighbors. Amplify good news stories and honor caregivers working tirelessly to resolve this situation.
Finally — stay safe, stay healthy.
By Alamin khan (Integrated Engineering student, TalTech)
