5 Productivity Tips for Maximizing the COVID-19 Lockdown

5 Productivity Tips for Maximizing the COVID-19 Lockdown

by | Apr 5, 2020 | Personal Development, Productivity

5 Productivity Tips for Maximizing the COVID-19 Lockdown

05

APRIL, 2020

Samuel Osho

It’s Spring, but our roads are eerily quiet. Deserted streets flanked by closed shops. As we attempt to flatten a curve cresting beyond our control, we are told to self-isolate and stay at home. Social animals detest isolation, it’s like cutting water supplies to a city amid a desert.

A house bursting at its seams with panic is the last place to find logical thinking. Panic and fear are siblings, but different in their operations — the crippling effect of the former makes it a deadlier assassin. It shuts everything down. Yes, it’s like turning off the power grid that feeds the White House. It’s scary, I know. But that’s how many people feel right now.
 
But how can we turn this crisis on its head? How can we make the best use of this time?

 

5 Productivity Tips

1. Revive your relationships

Life moves so fast. You work diligently to pay the bills at the price of missing out on the warmth of relationships. This is the time to revive your vertical and horizontal relationships. Connect with friends and family.

Parents have ample opportunity to revamp weakened connections with their children.

As a couple, it’s a chance to find the romantic spark again. Your inner circle is your support system, invest more time to strengthen your bonds.

Connect with friends and family. Parents have ample opportunity to revamp weakened connections with their children. As a couple, it's a chance to find the romantic spark again. Click To Tweet

2. Redeem Lost Time

Time is a nonrenewable resource. Time cannot be created, but it can be redeemed.
This is catch-up time to complete a list of unfinished business around the house. Those abandoned house projects deserve closure. Plunge into these projects and use this extra time productively.
 
If you have a side business, take advantage of the compulsory holiday to finish outstanding tasks. Use this period to prepare for the overflowing demand that might occur after the quarantine.
Smart people replenish their knowledge bank regularly. When you are up against a busy schedule, it’s hard to keep up with books and professional courses. It’s time to finish those books and complete the online courses. Find ways of adding value to yourself with the extra time in your hands — check out study guides for professional certifications that can advance your career pursuits.

 

Time is a nonrenewable resource. Time cannot be created, but it can be redeemed. This is catch-up time to complete a list of unfinished business around the house. Click To Tweet

“Nothing can disturb your peace of mind unless you allow it to.” – Roy T. Bennett.

3. Reassure your employer

There is no better time to show your employer that you are made of gold. As you work remotely, go above and beyond. Show grit and diligence in your daily duties.

Amplify your productivity, let your employer know that working from home is not an excuse to slack. During the lock-down, gain the confidence of your boss in a way that remote work becomes a viable option for you after the pandemic.

Document your productivity metrics during the quarantine. This will come in handy when you start a conversation about working from home on one or two weekdays after the lock-down.

There is no better time to show your employer that you are made of gold. As you work remotely, go above and beyond. Show grit and diligence in your daily duties. Click To Tweet

4. Reflect on your life

Block out time on your calendar for meetings with yourself. You need time alone. A quiet moment of meditation. Before the busy life kicks again, reflect on your life. Review your core values, beliefs, principles – do they still drive your critical decisions? Take stock of your life and highlight areas for improvement. Find your true north and stay on track with your life goals.

Review your core values, beliefs, principles - do they still drive your critical decisions? Take stock of your life and highlight areas for improvement. Click To Tweet

5. Relax your nerves

For many, this is a down-time. What do you do during downtimes? You refuel, you recharge and breathe.

Your mental health is vital at this time, more than anything. Watch after yourself, remember to eat healthily and get loads of rest. Don’t be too hard on yourself, you can binge on movies and treat yourself to bouts of refreshing sleep.

Your mental health is vital at this time, more than anything. Watch after yourself, remember to eat healthily and get loads of rest. Click To Tweet

Conclusion

In a crisis, many things are out of your control, but you must remember that the way to survive is to focus on the things you can control – your attitude, your thoughts and your life.
If you have some other tips that you think will be of great help to anyone during the lockdown, kindly drop them in the comment section below. Gracias!

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Beta Life Series – Taking Risks

Beta Life Series – Taking Risks

by | Jan 28, 2020 | Beta Life

Beta Life Series

Taking Risks

Samuel Osho

When was the last time you took a step, and you felt like the hinges holding your world were about to snap?

Former heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, insisted, “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”

What could be more exciting than taking a risk?

 

What’s more fulfilling than a leap of faith that was handsomely rewarded?

I imagine it’s like cranking the ignition of the first automobile engine, and it roared to life.

It’s like sailing across the Atlantic for the first time from Europe and finding a new land called America.

It’s like pressing the shutter of the first Polaroid camera, and an image was captured. 

What’s more exhilarating than rocking in a new orbit after a quantum leap that took your breath away?

Risk takers are the ones who deserve a place on the extraordinary lane.

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, sums it up well when he said, “The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that [is] changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

You won that contract because someone was willing to take a risk on your competence.

 

When was the last time you took a risk? Your capacity will always remain the same if you refuse to increase your appetite for risk. Your dreams may not morph to reality until you are willing to take bold risks.

Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a system and culture that vehemently hates taking risks. So, a normal life often mimics the trails of an animal in a circus show.

But it’s not the fault of the system; you have a responsibility to break out of the normalcy. Not many people dare to do this, so the few that break out are often the rebels scaling into new heights of excellence.

 

Well, the most important thing is to get into the act – make a move and take a risk.

And for young people, there is no better time to take risks than now. Now is the time to take risks, make mistakes and learn.

You may win some and lose some, but one thing is for sure, you will never be the same again.

Beta Life Series – Go Back to the Basics

Beta Life Series – Go Back to the Basics

by | Jun 20, 2019 | Beta Life

Beta Life Series

Go Back to the Basics

Samuel Osho

Why bother about the union between a noun and an adjective when you don’t know what a verb looks like? 

How can you create lovely sounds when you can’t differentiate musical notes?

There is a reason why we started our journey in kindergarten. 

Kindergarten (German) means children’s garden. A garden captures the journey of a seed into tiny flowers in a nursery pot.  

In the garden, seeds are nourished, nurtured and nursed until they are ready for the unpredictable clime of the forest. 

In kindergarten, you learnt the basics. From alphabets to numbers to drawings to speech; all layers of the human faculty were stirred and engaged by seemingly simple tasks. 

Kindergarten so important and that’s why it’s at the base. Yes, it precedes everything else. 

We learn the alphabets before creating sentences.

We learn how to make bricks before we build. 

We learn logic before we start to code. 

If there is anything so important that deserves your steadied focus all the time – it is learning the basics.  

Everything can go wrong when you ignore the basics, you can’t perform at your best. 

Of what importance is the height of a skyscraper with a faulty base, it is going to collapse anyway. 

So, why not take some time and focus on the basics. 

When you master the basics, you can do exploits and replicate success. 

It’s easy to dream about being the world’s best musician when you know how the musical notes work.

And knowing nouns, verbs, and adjectives even in their disguised apparels can make a hell of a writer out of you. 

Go back to the basics. 

Beta Life Series – Why Your Passion Matters

Beta Life Series – Why Your Passion Matters

by | Jun 13, 2019 | Beta Life

Beta Life Series

Why Your Passion Matters

Samuel Osho

 A few years ago, “a passionate writer” dropped this question on Twitter for J.K. Rowling:

“What if the passionate writer is broke and can’t afford a MacBook Air?” 

And here comes Rowling’s iconic response: 

“I wrote first two Potters (Harry Potter Book) by hand and typed them on a 10-year-old typewriter. All a writer needs is talent and ink.” 

 

You must have heard countless chatters about a passion for A and J but there are no results to back up the evidence of their passion. 

Does this sound familiar? 

“Oh! All I need to be a superb photographer is a new DSLR camera.” 

The camera shows up, and nothing happens. 

“All I need is a standard microphone and I will start my podcast.” 

You got the microphone as a birthday gift, but you are yet to record a sample podcast show with it.

Passion expresses itself through drives and desires. It’s a fire; you can’t hide it; it burns and consumes everything in its path. As the tender flame glows and grows, everyone can see if it’s a blue or a red flame. 

If you are looking for excuses not to get the work done, you will find one. We often use a lack of specific tools as embroidery for our excuses. 

It’s time to stop looking for a MacBook Air before you get that book done, if you think about it enough, you will find hundreds of alternatives to get the job done. 

 

It’s great if you have the tools but it has often been observed that what stops us from becoming productive is necessary not lack of tools but an absence of passion and drive. 

Let your passion take the wheels and drive you to the finish line. And if passion can’t get the job done, you should add lots of discipline.

Beta Life – Find Yourself

Beta Life – Find Yourself

by | Jun 3, 2019 | Beta Life

Beta Life Series

Find Yourself

Samuel Osho

What makes me happy?

What am I good at?

What things do I value in life?

If you have perfect answers to these questions, then this is not for you.

 

In this pool of information overload, how do you prepare yourself for the vicissitudes of life?  

You read twelve books a day? 

Listen to twenty podcasts a week? 

Increase your “net worth” by adding famous people to your network? 

Take twenty online courses a month? 

No, find yourself first. Yes, just like Socrates said, “Know thyself.”  

You are such a big and beautiful encyclopedia that needs to be digested and understood. If you fail to uncap the diverse complexities that make you a unique being, everything else you do might be of no significant impact.

The age-long questions of self-discovery stare at us all the time. But, we can use Rudyard Kipling’s six honest serving men – What, Why, When, How, Where and Who, to untangle knots of enigmas. 

With these men and their shovels, you can dig deeper into the core of your being; you can uncover hidden treasures, and chart pathways into new lands.

 

Books are superb, podcasts are of great benefit, networking is noteworthy, and online courses are superchargers, but if you don’t know who you are, you are a ball in a spinning wheel. You will go everywhere the wheel directs you and ends up a dead ball when the wheel stops. 

Start with these three free resources:  

 

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