Personal development ideas and resources when you spend a lot of time at home

I don’t normally work from home, but for the last few weeks I have been forced to completely change my way of working. Many of you probably too. In the midst of current situation not all jobs can be done from home and I believe many of you have been sent home and waiting for the normality to resume. Finding some positivism in this new and unpredictable situation, I decided to take most out of it. What would that be?, I thought. Well, all the things that I complained not having time for before. As I am writing this post and adjusting to the new way, I am realizing that all the things I am proposing below as personal development resources are so universal and there should be a place for them in daily life, even after we go back to normality.

Learn a new skill

Nowadays more and more courses or even university degrees pop out online. The last few weeks everything has been happening online, so since we are sitting in front of computers anyway a bit more than usually, let’s use this as an opportunity to learn something new. Long before Coursera became very popular I did a few courses related to psychology and languages on this platform. They frequently have promotions and free courses and I’ve never been disappointed with them.

If you like online courses, webinars and self-care tools, planners and other self-development resources, I’d like to recommend you a mini self-care bundle that consist of exercise classes, beauty recipes, women’s’ health masterclass and many others all in one bundle.

There’s plenty of other places to go to if you want online tutorials on any hobby or skills imaginable. YouTube, Teachable or SkillShare…just to name a few. You want to learn knitting, cooking, drawing? There is anything out there you can think of.

Use my favourite travel resources to plan your dream trips

Booking.com for searching best prices on accommodation.
Discover Cars is a great website as they search both local and international car hire services, so you can choose the best deal for yourself. Make sure though, that the company has a good reputation and reviews.
Get Your Guide is my place to go for searching and booking tours and excursions, especially when I travel solo.
World Nomads and EKTA travel insurance. I like them because they have quite extensive coverage of different activities.
Jack’s Flight Club is a service that can save you hundreds of dollars on flights, it works especially well in Europe.
Trivago where you can search and save on hotels.
Go City is a perfect site for booking bucket list experiences and attractions all in one to avoid paying for multiple tickets. Easy and saves money.
Trip Advisor– amazing for good quality recommendations.
Skyscanner is a perfect website for searching flight routes and comparing prices.

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Learn a new language

I always liked learning languages, when I was a teenagers I dreamed about learning English, but my school only had German available. I was so determined that I studied words from a small dictionary. If I only had access to hundreds of free or even paid online resources at the reach of my hands….

Now it seems so easy to start learning with so many mobile apps or online platforms. I currently learn Arabic at university in Qatar, but use Duolingo and Babbel for easy and entertaining exercises. Even 10 minutes a day makes a difference, we are with our phones so much anyway. Think of all the places you can go to later where you are able to use your new skill.

Before I joined a proper course, I bought a set of 3 books with 9 CDs that give very simple and easy to understand explanations. I really recommend Living Language series as a start or for additional exercises and instructions. They also have other languages, e.g. Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and more.

Do things you never had time for before

I’ve been thinking over the last few weeks of staying at home, being asked to work from home, canceling all events and planned trips that now we have the time to do things we could not before. The situation is serious and difficult, it’s harder for some people than others, but it’s affecting everyone in some ways. I see every day people counting days of their quarantines or lock downs. It stresses me and I cannot help but think: it’s not such a big deal that you have to stay at home. Just do it.

I’m not trying to minimize the seriousness of the virus, people losing jobs or getting sick. I’m trying to say: just stay at home, help it pass and take the most out of it. And by taking the most out of it I mean do things that you complained not having time to do before. Learn something new, discover yourself.

No, there’s no excuse, being at home more than normally gives a few more opportunities to read. I prefer traditional, paper book, but a while ago I discovered Kindle reader. It’s not news, I know. I was loyal to paper books and resister for that long. I bought it with traveling in mind and not to carry books with me. Kindle however it’s great to buy books much cheaper and have them in your device, so you don’t need to wait for delivery. I compiled in one of my previous posts a list of books that are great to help you dream about traveling to far away places when you have to stay at home.

A great source of eBooks you can find on this website. They have nearly 2 million titles to choose from and many of them you can read instantly on your device. A good alternative if you don’t own Kindle or forgot your paper book. For me book shops, whether online or stationary, are like candy shops for kinds- I could stay there forever and spend too much money on too many books, because I cannot decide.

Learn photo editing

This is a tip I am also giving myself. I’m not very good at the photo editing business and you probably noticed that I don’t use any presets and all my photos are very natural. I always wanted to learn a bit more about photography and photo editing, but never had time to do it. I decided to sign up for Adobe and Lightroom a while ago and during this time I am discovering new ways to edit photos from my past travels.

Write a journal

Journaling is an excellent way to be creative or keep your mind relaxed. It is also an great tool for personal development, planning, writing don travel bucket lists or simply for putting things down on paper to ease your mind. Honestly I haven’t done it for a long time for various reasons, but now with less rushing between work and chores, I might go back to it. I love the idea of bullet journals that allow you to design your own diary. I purchased a few and really enjoyed designing them, but it was way too time consuming for me to keep up with it. I’m intending to get back to it now with more time to spare. There’s many YouTube channels for inspiration.

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