Optimists are viewing the lockdown as a period of reflection and introspection.
Here are five things you can do now, while you have time on your hands, to improve your life after the lockdown
Assess your finances
What is your short-term financial goal?
Whenever it is, it will need you to have a good plan for it to work.
Gather your bank statements from the past few months and start crunching numbers.
Also read:
Maintain your savings goals despite interest rate cut
What are you spending most of your money on? Is it worth it?
Check your subscriptions. Do you really need them?
Do you have an entertainment budget? Do you stick to it?
Be brutally honest about whether you are making good financial decisions on a monthly basis.
If, for example, your goal is to pay off some debt, you have to be willing to let go of some avoidable expenses to make room for the debt.
Can you spend R250 less on your entertainment and put it into your debt repayment?
Career
When last did you go through your CV?
Proofreading your CV can bring to the surface some spelling and grammatical errors that you had not noticed before.
Again, be brutally honest about how you have represented yourself on that piece of paper.
If you were an employer, would you give someone with a CV like yours your dream job?
Look for all your certificates and qualifications and create a safe place to keep them.
Consider courses that you can take to improve yourself in your career.
Declutter your wardrobe
A lot of people spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to wear every day.
Make your life a little bit easier by bringing order into your closet.
You may not need to colour code your clothes, but just separating them based on seasons could do a world of good.
This is also a good time to pull out the things you think you will never wear again.
Some items need to be thrown away, while others can be given away.
Quit that bad habit
From smoking to biting your nails, a habit is only as bad as your perception about it.
So it is time to decide.
If you know you don’t want to live with it a day longer, then take this time to quit.
A lot of people need the support of their loved ones in order to kick a habit.
Hopefully, you have those people around you now.
Also read:
Trying to quit smoking? There are some options available
Other people believe that they have successfully quit habits because they replaced them with better ones.
For example, painting your nails every time you have the urge to bite them.
Or reading every time you crave a cigarette.
Whatever it is, round up the family and face it together.
Read or study
If you are registered at any learning institution, it should be no revelation to you that you can get through quite a bit of material during this time.
But knowing and doing can be far away from each other.
Create an environment that will make it easier for you to study.
You may have to wake up earlier than everyone else in the house to take advantage of the freshness of the morning.
Decide how much time you are spending on the books before you start.
This way, you don’t chop and change your study time based on how you feel.
If you do not have to study, read for leisure.
Reading is said to help us improve our memory and empathy.
And you could absolutely learn a few things while you are at it.
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