Lockdown has given us all a lot of time to think. A lot of time to think. I’ve had a good few sit-downs where I’ve reconsidered almost everything that’s going on in my life. Everything from my job, to talking to more friends, to even learning. The longer I’ve stayed home, the more time I’ve had to think, and in some ways that’s been really healthy and beneficial.
Lockdown has lasted a lot longer than any of us could’ve hoped for. While restrictions are now easing, some of us aren’t in a position to leave the house anytime soon which is completely understandable – same here. I don’t see myself leaving the house anytime soon purely for my own safety, my family’s safety, and I still don’t have a car from the car crash in March. But besides that, the longer I stay home the more I realise how much I want to do but how little I can do. So I’ve been looking at ways to fill the space.
Beta’s been lovely to have around during lockdown. I can’t stress how great it’s been to have a fluffy companion with me on a daily basis. She’s been loving all the extra attention too! She’s a brilliant stress reliever and is a great friend to go to when you need someone to listen and someone to comfort you, even if she doesn’t understand what’s going on at all and just loves being stroked in her favourite spot behind her ears.
Lockdown Languages
Another thing I’ve been focusing on during lockdown is Duolingo – the language self-teaching app. I once tried it out a few years ago and completely gave up on it because I hated the notifications of being pestered by a green owl to continue learning when I didn’t want to or didn’t have time to, but now I do have time and I’ve focused on it since the start of May. I decided to begin teaching myself Korean (안녕!).
Why Korean? Because I’ve always wondered how to learn a language that’s got a completely separate alphabet to the English alphabet. I’ve always wondered how to differentiate Chinese, Japanese and Korean, because I never could! Now I can – I can spot Korean language from a mile away, and while it’s still early days, I’m learning basic words and phrases, and know their alphabet to the point where I can pronounce every single word almost correctly even if I don’t know what I’m saying.
Content Creation
And finally, during lockdown I’ve picked up my knack for content creation again. As covered in my introductory blog post, I was looking to rebrand myself after building up a brand that was used consistently over my 7 years of content creation, starting from the ground up under a different name, to fit the content I wanted to create more. Since doing so, I’ve created four total weekly videos to go alongside my regular Friday broadcasts, and weekly podcast episode on Spotify. Plenty more videos have been planned and some even recorded for the long-term future, so I’m super excited to eventually be able to release them once everything comes together!
There’s a few other areas I’d love to pick up again too, like my interest for music and beginning to compose music once again (although that might be extremely ambitious seeing as it’s been a good few years) – time shall tell!
It’s been great to now try and boost my productivity again now during lockdown, and I hope I can emerge from lockdown as a more motivated and productive person in my personal life alongside my work life.