Where’s all the good news gone? Does your news feed have anything other than coronavirus on it? How can we transport our minds away from the pandemic and focus on how to make ourselves smile in the meantime? We’ve come up with a few ways how…
Get used to working from home
If you’re working from home, this might be a brand new venture for you. Take this time to build a solid routine for yourself to stay productive. Set strict times to start work in the morning and finish work in the evening, and remember to take regular breaks and a lunch break.
It’s very easy to stay stuck to your laptop when working from home, but short breaks can keep your brain stimulated throughout the day, and light exercise like walking will keep your body active – don’t forget to take care of yourself while you’re maintaining your workload.
Explore a hobby
In the midst of all this bad news, we as a community need to stay positive. Make time for things that make you happy, whether it’s spending time with your family at home, picking up a new hobby like painting, learning a new language or taking a course. Don’t settle for sitting on your couch all day to Netflix and chill – you have a lot of free time to learn something new. According to this fun blog by Findlaw, some of the hobbies lawyers said they enjoyed include:
- Exercise
- Cooking
- Online gaming
- Family games like Scrabble, Monopoly etc.
Stay active
Being confined to our homes doesn’t mean we can’t be active. Staying healthy is important to fight any disease away, which includes physical health. If you’re finding that you’re spending all day sat down with your laptop, then all evening sat on the couch, try to incorporate more activity into your day. You might choose to walk around your house while you’re on the phone, or find a high desk or drawer to balance your laptop on so you can stand while you’re working. If your kids are in the house, choose your breaks to play with them, like doing (or really trying your best!) to do handstands, running around the garden, and more!
Turn isolation into education
Time at home could be more valuable than you think. Is there a new skill you’ve always wanted to learn that you’ve never gotten round to? Now might be the time to do it! Work on your presentation skills in front of your family, or take a course on leadership. We mentioned learning a new language area – this is a highly valued skill to have and something that could benefit your career in future. It’s fun too! Think of the opportunities it could open up for you when working with clients abroad?
Spend time with your family
You might be in a situation at the moment where your entire family are joining you at home. If everyone is healthy, be thankful for this, and be strict with your working times to allow yourself the evening to spend with them. If your hours are flexible, start earlier while everyone is in bed, and finish earlier so you can spend the evening chatting, watching a movie together or playing games, for example.
According to our partners, Lawyer Monthly, who surveyed 258 lawyers at firms with 50+ employees, just 22% said their work-life balance was ‘somewhat bad’ or ‘very bad’. If you fall into this category, you have a prime opportunity to control when and where you work, and then when to switch off to focus on yourself and your own life.
Stay safe
The biggest way to combat coronavirus is to stay indoors. Follow the procedures and advice put in place by the government and don’t pout yourself at risk. Stay at home, stay healthy, and safe. If you do need to go out, do so only in an emergency.
Put steps in place for your career
If you were looking for jobs before the outbreak of coronavirus, why stop now? It;s never too late to go after the career you want, and it’s still possible to apply for jobs, and attend interviews via phone call or video call. So if you had a job move in mind, get ahead of the rush and apply for lawyer jobs that will no doubt come now.
