COVID-19 - Page 2

The Mental Health Implications of COVID-19

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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to enormous repercussions for people around the world. This Excel spreadsheet from Simple Sheets will help you see the impact by country.

There are so many worries and fears that people have. There are health concerns, and then there are the financial consequences that have come with economic shutdowns.

There are also the people on the front lines of the pandemic, including first responders and medical professionals who are grappling with an unknown virus.

According to Darras Law, while we are learning more about coronavirus and the treatments seem to be getting better, and deaths appear to be declining, the mental health effects might last far beyond 2020 for many people.

From job loss to isolation, it’s important to be aware of your own mental health and to check in with the people you love.

Everyone Reacts to Stress Differently

Source:bangkokhospital.com

You may feel like you’re much more stressed than others around you about coronavirus or its effects. That’s normal, and people react to stress differently.

People also have different levels of fear in different situations. What may seem incredibly overwhelming for one person may not be as anxiety-producing for someone else.

Some of the people who may have the strongest reactions to the stress of COVID-19 include:

  • People who are considered high-risk to develop severe illness if they contract COVID-19, such as older people or people with certain underlying health conditions.
  • Children and teens.
  • Health care providers and other frontline workers.
  • Essential workers.
  • People with existing mental health concerns.
  • Individuals with a substance use disorder.
  • Someone who’s lost their job or experienced major employment changes.
  • People who live alone and are socially isolated.

If you have a pre-existing mental health condition or a substance use disorder, you may be especially vulnerable to the effects of stress such as what’s stemming from the crisis situation created by coronavirus. It’s important that you’re aware of your risk factors so you can take steps to care for yourself.

What’s Normal and What’s Not?

Again, stress is a normal reaction to certain things in life, and of course, a pandemic would qualify as a stressful situation. It’s imperative that you do give yourself some understanding if you’re experiencing stress but you also have to be able to recognize when things you’re experiencing or feeling might go beyond what’s considered “normal.”

If you have ongoing feelings of sadness or helplessness that aren’t situational and don’t go away, it could be a red flag. If you’re experiencing symptoms like problems concentrating, body aches, or changes in appetite, and these symptoms last for several days in a row, it may go beyond stress. Also if your symptoms are causing problems in your functionality in your daily life, it may not be considered just normal stress.

Managing Your Mental Health During COVID-19

Source:healthblog.uofmhealth.org

If you’re struggling during COVID-19, there are things you can do to take care of yourself and perhaps help your mental health.

Self-care is important for everyone right now.

Make sure that you have a good sleep routine and schedule and that you get plenty of sleep each night.

Regularly exercise because movement can help boost your mood and reduce anxiety. If you can find an activity you can safely and comfortably do outside, even better. Getting sunlight is good for your mental health and it’s also an important part of your physical health because it provides vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency may be linked to worse COVID outcomes.

Don’t give into the temptation to cope with stress by eating unhealthy foods, such as refined sugar and packaged items.

Be careful about your consumption of alcohol because it can make mental health symptoms worse.

Also, aim to limit your screen time. Whether it’s a TV, your phone, or a computer, too much time in front of a screen is going to breed more anxiety and also keep you from engaging in more healthy activities.

If you can turn off the news, you’re likely going to see some big improvements in your mental health just from taking that one step. Constant news about COVID-19 and other things going on in the world right now is incredibly stressful. Social media can expose you to conflict and false information as well.

Know what your triggers are and actively work to avoid them.

For example, if you’re constantly refreshing the COVID death counter on your computer, then you’re triggering yourself over and over again.

Keep a journal for a week where you write down the situations that make you feel most anxious or depressed. After that week is up, look over them and start to identify those patterns that could be your triggers.

Work on training your brain to avoid them and break the loop.

We don’t even realize that sometimes we become addicted to bad news or things that trigger us.

We then put ourselves into a negative emotional spiral. If you can be more mindful and create a replacement for yourself when you find that you want to engage in these triggering behaviors, it can help your mental health.

Source:mymcmedia.org

Get Help If You Need It

By recognizing red flags and warning signs, you may be positioned to get help for yourself if you need it. It’s important to be proactive about seeking help when it comes to your mental health because otherwise the condition can worsen.

There are many options available to you.

One option is to seek support from the people in your life.

You might also reach out to someone who’s part of your faith community.

If your employer has an assistance program, they can provide you with a referral to a mental health profession.

There are organizations like the National Alliance on Mental Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that can put you in contact with service providers and programs.

You can also talk to your primary care doctor and talk about what your options could be.

What’s most important through all of this is that you realize you aren’t alone. Be compassionate with yourself, and do what you need to do to stay mentally healthy.

7 Challenges Faced by Students During COVID-19

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The novel coronavirus has created a plethora of challenges for people worldwide, but a major victim of the lockdowns are the students and learners at all levels. As of March 28, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic is reported to be causing more than 1.6 billion children and youth to be out of school in 161 countries. This is close to 80% of the world’s enrolled students. Here, in this article, we discuss 7 challenges being faced by students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Time and Workload Management

Source:udemy.com

Everyone has to agree to this. Due to the coronavirus lockdown, schedule management and timing of activities has become the task of students themselves. With the introduction of self-paced programs, the onus is now on the student to plan out his/her study and leisure time. Such a plan may be possible for self-motivated individuals, but for those who need regular nudging from parents, it has created a huge problem of procrastination and ignorance.

2. Access to Information and Communication Equipment

Modern day learning is highly reliant on information and communication technology hardware. Such needs of a personal device have created a huge problem for households having shared devices. Moreover, due to the lockdown, even purchasing new equipment has become an uphill task. This results in the online model of education being non-democratic, thus exacerbating inequality. It makes education the sole right of the ‘haves’ over the ‘have nots’. Online education becomes inaccessible to the masses in developing countries, making education an unlevelled playing field. While the rich countries are able to cope up well, the conditions in undeveloped and underdeveloped nations are of mixed type.

Align with this, high-speed internet is still not available even in the most developed parts of the world, leave alone developing nations. With the advent of classes on Zoom, Skype, Teams, Webex etc. high-speed internet is a must for video conferencing. For the rural or developing world which is dependent mostly on mobile data, lack of connectivity has resulted in access to poor quality of videos.

3. Resource Overload Curse

That exists for real. What might seem as a ‘resource’ could simply lead some for more confusion. Although the internet has lots of content which might seem a boon for an avid learner, but with every resource in excess, comes a resource curse – the wastage. Knowledge never goes waste, time does. A quick glance through a book or a classroom lecture on a topic, say, the American War of Independence for a Class 8th student would give him sufficient details for his exam preparation. However, a Google search for the same will flood him with truckloads of information which he may not be able to digest. Instead, he ends up spending too much time on a topic, researching and reading about it beyond the scope of syllabus, thus, compromising on other topics that are part of his curriculum.

With online learning comes the complex world of social media, advertisements, marketing, e-commerce and all the distractions associated with them. A student can easily get distracted. So, a student reading a Wiki page may suddenly wander onto Facebook or Instagram. Such distractions can be detrimental for learning and can result in wastage of time and energy.

4. Lack of Interest Due to Non-Engaging Content

This is one factor that deeply impacts students. Being virtually present in an online classroom and being physically present in the traditional classroom has its own differences. A teacher can engage a student much more effectively in a traditional classroom. Whereas, in an online classroom, the student might lack interaction and attention from the teacher. Online classrooms become more of a monologue, with the content not meeting the needs of the students requiring more engaging and insightful study. Individual’s problems and their understanding can be catered to in a more holistic way through an offline model.
Testbook, an India based ed-tech startup, recently came up with a new concept of ‘live coaching’ in both web and mobile application formats. This concept ensures that a student gets a personal coach to interact with, gain conceptual clarity, solve doubts and to stay motivated and engaged.

5. Lack of Assessments Leading to Poor Learning Outcomes

No education is complete without tests and assessments. Online learning may lack a transparent, competitive and fair means of testing and assessment. The model more often depends on the integrity of students for their tests and assignments.

6. Online vs Traditional Model Debate

Source:myeducorner.com

Technology has wrapped itself all around our lives. But for online education vs. traditional ways of learning, technology boon is still a topic of debate. For a student taking online classes at home, he’d surely have a hold on abundant study material from all over the Internet. But, at the same time, the student misses on interaction with other students and does not receive direct attention from the teacher. Motivation is a major factor at play in online learning.

7. Dommed Dreams of Abroad Education

Source:globalnexus.com.au

Due to lockdown, many international universities have imposed restrictions on having students at their campus. All the enrolled students are completing their courses online. Many universities are not providing new admissions to international students. This has raised serious concerns amongst abroad-education aspirants in terms of ROI, placements and their future on the whole. Also, there is a big doubt on how effective an online course would be as compared to a fulltime on campus course. Such dilemmas are stressing out students.

The challenges faced by students in the COVID-19 crisis must be taken as an opportunity to upgrade the current education system. Bridging the gap between monotonous non-interactive, e-learning experiences and regular classroom experience, is the need of the hour in order to ensure effective and quality education digitally. Proper training must be provided to the teachers so that they are skilled enough to use the digital teaching tools efficiently and deliver high quality content. Alongside this, the digital infrastructure must be upgraded to accommodate online learning.

Impact of COVID-19 on Personal Injury Cases in 2020

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When the first news appeared at the end of December last year about a new, mysterious virus from China, few people paid attention to it. Even in China, they did not consider it a serious threat. By the end of January, Wuhan was in complete isolation, but this was still considered a local concern of China, where epidemics occur more frequently than elsewhere in the world. How we were all wrong. By mid-March, the whole world had stopped.

Perhaps for the first time in human history, the entire planet was quarantined. The number of people infected with the coronavirus was so large that hospitals had no room for patients with other problems. The whole world economy has stopped. It was important to maintain a constant supply of food and medicine and it was mostly successful. But all other businesses have been partially or completely shut down, leading to a global financial crisis.

Source:weforum.org

There is no sector that has not been affected by coronavirus-related events. Person injury cases are no different. First of all, it slowed them down a lot because hospitals and courts handled only emergencies. But people are still getting hurt and now that life is slowly returning to normal, everyone is wondering how to proceed with person injury cases. We will do our best to give you the answers in this article.

Delay of medical examinations

We all know that in order to receive compensation for a personal injury, it is required to have all the necessary documents from the doctor. Only in this way will you be able to prove the degree of injury and how much it has affected your life and work. Without it, you will not receive any compensation or it will be a very small amount of money. But as we have already said in the introduction, during the coronavirus pandemic, many hospitals that were otherwise available to us became COVID-only. This created huge crowds at other hospitals that received patients who were not contagious. If your injuries were not life-threatening, you may have decided to go home and to see a doctor later.

This is a big mistake because it is necessary for him to examine you soon after the injuries occur in order to get maximum compensation. Also, many do not want to go to the hospital at all, for fear of becoming infected with the coronavirus. This is of course your right, but your personal injury claim will then not be successful. Our advice is to go to the doctor, and follow all the advice of the World Health Organization, such as wearing a mask and maintaining social distance.

Insurance companies are trying to reach a settlement as soon as possible

The financial crisis is also hitting insurance companies hard. Imagine how much money they had to pay to insured companies that suffered damage during a pandemic. Also, tourism has almost completely stopped, so the billions of people who pay for travel insurance every year have not done so now. And of course their shares on the stock market have lost significantly in value.

All this has brought insurance companies to the brink of bankruptcy. For this reason, they want to come to an agreement with you as soon as possible, in order to save money. They hope that you will jump to the first offer and that it will pay you significantly less than it is realistic. They also want to shorten the process as much as possible and not go to court at any cost. Don’t be naive and don’t fall for such attempts.

You need a lawyer more than ever

Source:fsalawfirm.com

If you want your personal injury claim to be successful, you need a lawyer. And that’s always the case, but now during a pandemic it’s more important than ever. For the very reasons we mentioned earlier, which are the attempts of insurance companies to reach a settlement as soon as possible, you need an experienced lawyer in this field, in order for the whole process to end in your favor. Due to the situation, your face-to-face meetings may be difficult, but this will not be a problem due to the possibility of video call and email for sending complete documentation.

Visit cunninghamandmears.com to see which personal injury services are offered by lawyers specializing in this area of ​​law. The lawyer has a lot of experience and will make sure to get the best amount possible for the settlement. And also the insurance company will know that since you have a lawyer, you are ready to go to court, which will deter them from trying to offer you an unrealistically low amount of money.

Mentally prepare for a long process

Source:firstlightlaw.com

It is a long process anyway, and now it will be even longer. The courts operate at reduced capacity and generally handle urgent matters, such as bail orders and the like. So if you get to court, expect a lot of shifting and postponing the hearing and everything else. Now the hearings have started via video conference, so the situation is improving. Still, know that there is a long and exhausting process ahead of you even without litigation. It is up to you to gather all the documentation, hire a lawyer and wait.

Employment problems

Due to the situation with COVID-19, there is a recession all over the world. For this reason, millions of people lose their jobs, and it is almost impossible to find a new job during this period. This will serve the opposing side to offer you less money, as it will challenge the claim that you could not work as a result of the injury. They will state that this is not the main reason, but problems with the labor market and that they would certainly not be able to find a job. However, insist that you have lost significant money due to inability to work as a result of the injury.

Conclusion:

The most important thing is to stay calm and follow the whole procedure. It is clear to you that we are currently living in something called the “new normality” and that is why everything is different than we are used to. But if you persevere, you will succeed.

Shift To The Suburbs: How COVID-19 Changed Real Estate Trends

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At the start of 2020, real estate experts had a notion of what was up next. They’d identified a set of cities primed for real estate investments and made projections regarding sales trends. Then, COVID-19 struck and everything went sideways. The economy crashed, unemployment rates skyrocketed, and cities and towns across the United States shut down in an attempt to contain disease spread. From a public health perspective, it was a nightmare, but through the lens of real estate, things were not as disastrous as they might have seemed – especially in the suburbs.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been several key factors that have come together to keep the real estate market moving – in particular, falling interest rates. That fact, in combination with the restrictive nature of living in a city during a pandemic, has served to fuel home sales and even bolster investments at a time when other businesses are struggling.

Source:oakleysoutlet.net

A Good Time To Buy

One of the most common steps the Federal Reserve takes when the economy is struggling is to decrease interest rates. This encourages lending and, as a result, spending that can boost consumer confidence and trigger a recovery. It’s no surprise, then, that when the pandemic began, the Fed actually pushed interest rates down to historic lows, with the result being a spike in suburban mortgage applications. Anyone familiar with the housing market knew they wouldn’t see rates like this again any time soon.

Source:foxbusiness.com

Of course, lowered interest rates can’t necessarily counter job losses, which is one reason why some people have been surprised by the real estate industry’s success at this time. For example, Houston has seen some of the most significant joblessness numbers in the country. This issue has primarily impacted renters, however, allowing people with secure jobs and sufficient income to take the leap and become homeowners, particularly by moving to the suburbs.

Greener Pastures

It’s not just low interest rates that have driven the increase in homeownership. After a decline in sales during the first few months of the pandemic, suburban purchases spiked as city dwellers – tired of being cooped up in overpriced, crowded apartments – decided it was time to decamp to greener pastures. In particular, urbanites with children felt like it was untenable to remain in the cities and, for those who weren’t so wealthy as to have vacation homes to retreat to, a move was the only option.

The likelihood that people would be working from home for the foreseeable future, and that children of all ages, including college students, could be attending school from home has also played a role in these relocations. Most apartments don’t have room for a home office – and certainly not multiple home offices. Buying property was a way of making room for a new way of life.

Katy: A Case Study

Many suburbs have seen a spike in home sales, but some have had a particularly sharp increase, Katy, Texas among them. Area experts cite several key reasons for this. First, even relative to other suburbs, Katy has an abundance of green spaces and outdoor amenities that make it possible for people to exercise, explore, and even socialize with minimal risk. The city is also close enough to Houston for people working in the city to commute post-pandemic, but Katy is comparatively affordable, whereas Houston is one of the most expensive cities in the US.

Another reason that Katy has done well as a relocation destination is that it had a rapidly growing job market pre-pandemic. Many of these jobs are in manufacturing, healthcare, and other stable industries, and a number of companies have signed commercial real estate contracts there, even since the start of the pandemic.

Job prospects in Katy may be good enough, taken in combination with low mortgage rates, to encourage investors to purchase residential properties in the area. Though this isn’t a great time for rental properties in general – many landlords are struggling to fill their vacancies – larger, suburban rentals do still have an advantage. In terms of space, these rentals are much more affordable, which could attract middle income tenants who aren’t ready to buy, without forcing them to spend more money.

Finally, investors can even ensure the stability of their properties by working with a property management company. According to Green Residential, which works with Katy-area owners, they provide rent default insurance to protect owners’ income, preventing financial shortfalls. Taken together, these trends suggest that, at least in the right areas, the pandemic can still create opportunities for homeownership and real estate investment.

Source:zenithre.com

The Big Picture View

Some suburbs may be thriving in the midst of the pandemic, but it’s important for anyone looking at real estate during this time to carefully research their chosen area, as pre-pandemic conditions, along with other local traits, are an important factor. Areas with lagging job markets pre-pandemic make poor investments, no matter how far home prices fall. And in some areas, suburban home prices aren’t falling – they’re actually rising.

Given the complexity of current economic and public health conditions, it may be helpful to reframe homeowners’ suburban flight as less the result of the pandemic proper, and more closely tied to homeowners’ reconsidering what they value. Cities have always been a status symbol and, for some, they always will be. For others, though, cities were little more than an expensive default, and the pandemic has allowed them to consider other options. Suddenly, open space seems more valuable than museums, room to stretch out more valuable than public transit.

We won’t fully understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the real estate market and overall residency trends for several years, at least until the economy finds its new normal. As more people face the reality that they’ll be working remotely at least part time for many years to come, though, the suburbs are likely to remain appealing. While some will always cling to cities, some former city dwellers now have a clearer view of what life could be like. And if that’s a choice between a small apartment in a city where disease can spread unchecked with great speed and a suburb where they can enjoy their family’s company – well, that’s not a choice at all.

How to Back Up Your Social Media Video – 2020 guide

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Earlier Google’s photo backup platform automatically uploaded all the photos saved in your Android or IOS device. These included photos and videos stored in folders created by apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

Google, the world’s largest search engine, has said that it has now discontinued this feature, and now you have to save these photos yourself or turn to a specific app meant for this feature. Check out oDownloader to know more about this.

For this, Google has cited a surge in the tendency to share photographs after the onset of Covid-19. A statement in this regard said that due to Covid-19, people are sharing more photos and videos.

Google insisted that no photos that were already backed up and organized through social media apps have been affected by this change.

So to conserve Internet resources, backup and sync have been turned off for device folders created by messaging apps like WhatsApp, Messages, and Kik. In such a scenario, you can change this at any time in the settings.

How to back up your social media video?

Source:postradam.us

Social media is an integral part of our daily lives. However, the information needs to be backed up regularly. There is a difference between storing data online and cloud storage. Very few online backup providers back up social media videos.

Tools to back up social media content:

Let us find out the tools that are used to back up the social media video.

The tools are as follows:

a) Idrive: This versatile online backup service provider backs up videos on Facebook and Instagram. It stores the copies of the videos on its cloud servers.

Source:postradam.us

Backup happens automatically. So, the videos that have been added since the last backup get saved. This tool ensures that backups are manually executed, from the web interface of idrive in the user’s Android or iOS device. It offers affordable subscriptions.

b) Acronis True Image: This tool backs up social media videos at a faster speed than Idrive. This speed is possible because they have a faster network backup. It backs up videos from Facebook and Instagram in a comprehensive manner.

The users do not need to back up the videos manually on this platform. The backup is automatic. If social media gets deleted, then it restores the backed-up data to a new profile. The users need to set up Acronis Backup cloud which encrypts the data with 256-bit AES. It provides the best online backup through an Android or Ios device. It doesn’t offer any free plans. The minimum cost is reasonable.

c) Cloudsfer Social media backup: It allows people to perform scheduled and manual file transfers.

d) pCloud: It is the best Dropbox alternative available in the market. This cloud storage service backs up videos from social media. It may only save videos from Facebook and Instagram.

Reasons behind backing up social media video:

Source:jeffbullas.com

Those who are active in social media need to create videos for Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. They need to save a copy in their smartphone because the server which houses their content may go down any time. The videos which are backed up maybe reshared on any other website. Even non-mobile videos may be backed up to the cloud. To find more about creating videos, visit Clipchamp.

Backup and Recover old photos from Facebook:

In Facebook settings, you will get the option through which you can also get backup of your accidentally deleted data. Learn the complete process step by step.

  • Open Facebook settings panel

First, click on the dropdown on the top right-hand corner of your page, then open the settings.

Everyone knows how to edit Facebook photos and videos and delete them, but here you will get to know how to backup the Facebook posts and recover them after you have deleted the photos and videos.

  • Click on Download Copy of Facebook Data

Now click on the option, Download a Copy of your Facebook Data at the very last of the settings page.

  • Click download archive

Now click on the option Start download archive shown on this page. After clicking, a popup message will be sent, which will say that it will be sent to your registered email id as soon as your user data is accessed.

Click OK on this message. Shortly, Facebook will send you an email link, from which you can download your Facebook data.

Backup and Recover old photos and videos from Instagram:

Source:businessinsider.com

Step 1

First, you have to log in to your Instagram account. Then you have to go to the option containing the user details, and after clicking on the three dots you see in the above right-hand corner, you have to click on the option of the setting below.

After clicking, you have to click on Privacy and Security and then click on download data.

And here, you have to enter your email address and click on request download, and then you have to enter the password of your Instagram and click on Next. After that, you have to click on the done button under request download. From here, you will receive a mail on the email address you have entered.

Step-2

Now you have to open the mail and click on download data and open it in a browser like Google Chrome and enter your Instagram username and password here and log in. And click on download data.

Step-3

Now you have to download an app named ES File Explorer. After downloading, you have to search Instagram data in this file explorer, you will search by inserting your name, and your data will be visible, and you have to click and extract it. And you can keep this file anywhere.

Step-4

To see the file of Extrcat Instagram, you will need an application named Json Genie (Editor) from the Play Store. After that, when this app is downloaded, click on Open, click on open JSON file, you open that file from here, and then from here, you can see everything deleted and save it.

What you Should do During the Social Distancing Time

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Social distancing is one of the most important precautions to avoid the spread of COVID-19. At this point of time, gatherings and going outside for leisure purposes are prohibited in almost all parts of the world. We didn’t expect that the time will come when we’re not allowed to meet our friends, conduct parties and events, or simply eat outside with our loved ones.

Source:oecdonthelevel.com

Adjusting to the “new normal”

For most countries around the globe, COVID-19 infection rates are becoming rampant. Although scientists are rushing to develop vaccines and medications, there’s no guarantee that we can finally go back to our normal lives in the coming months. One thing for sure is we must learn how to live safely by adopting new measures.

Here are 10 things you can do to reduce stress during this time

Indeed, it seems like the world has stopped with all the things happening around us. However, we must always think on the positive side and look for ways on how to be more productive while we’re in this situation.

Can’t think of anything? Here are some safe and fresh ideas you can try:

1. Create a new routine that works best for you

Source:artofhealthyliving.com

COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed our daily lives. There’s nothing we can do about it but to adapt to this unfortunate situation while ensuring our safety. This big shift in our daily routine can make us feel uneasy for sure. That’s why you should develop a new routine that will help you cope with these drastic changes.

2. Keep your mental health in check

Source:mymcmedia.org

Now that everyone’s stuck at home, this sudden shift can be depressing and stressful for most of us, especially for those who are always outside due to work or leisure activities with friends. Not to mention that many people have lost their jobs and are now struggling to search for a new source of income. This adds to our fear and anxiety as we face a future that is full of uncertainties.

If your mental health is unstable or you feel hopeless, don’t hesitate to seek professional help. There are also free online seminars conducted by licensed psychologists. These initiatives can help you focus on how you can properly take care of your mental health.

3. Reach out to your loved ones regularly

There’s nothing more comforting than being together with our loved ones. Due to our limited movement, meeting with our friends and relatives might not be possible right now. Instead, we can take advantage of video calls, chats, and social media platforms to make us feel as if we’re beside them. Just a simple “Hi” or “How are you?” can uplift one’s mood and make a person happy.

4. Pick up an old or new hobby

Source:indianexpress.com

Is there a hobby that you’ve always wanted to try but doesn’t have the chance to do so? Now is the perfect time to start it! We can see a lot of people on social media trying out something new to overcome boredom. Some of them are also even going back to their old hobbies. Try to redeem your passion for reading books, playing board games, learning a new music instrument, or other activities you once loved.

5. Get started with online dating

Source:wannabemagazine.com

With people stuck at their homes, does it mean we’re not also allowed to find new love or meet potential partners? Definitely no! Thanks to communications technology, we can now reach out to other people no matter how far they are. Many love seekers are now using dating apps with hopes of finding a partner amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

6. Use the dating platform that is perfect for your needs

Most individuals thought that installing and using multiple dating platforms will make their love search easier and faster. The truth is you simply need to have 1 or 2 apps containing all the features that suit your preferences.

If you’re new to online dating or you don’t want to go through these platforms one by one, Click Cupid provides you with highly detailed and honest reviews about various dating apps.

7. Learn new skills

Source:ultratechlife.com

We can acquire new skills even if we’re just at home. In fact, we have more time now to explore training opportunities. There are various ways to improve our current skill set and make ourselves more knowledgeable.

Almost everyone is working from home, so no one is stuck in traffic or spending extra hours in the office. We can take advantage of this situation for our own benefit by allocating more time to our personal development and career advancement.

8. Enroll in an online course

Source:lovecourse.info

There are many online courses available from trusted institutions and professionals. Some are free or require payment for you to get a certificate of completion. Do you want to learn more about personal finances, graphic designing, writing, and many more? Consider what fields or areas you are interested in and start browsing the long list of learning opportunities that await you!

9. Reflect on your inner self and develop new goals

Despite all the restrictions imposed upon us, we can turn this moment into an opportunity to get to know ourselves better and empower ourselves to reach new heights. Probably, you can invest your time in reading books about self-esteem and personal development then apply all the things you learned from these resources.

10. Keep your body healthy

Source:thebirdrockmassagestudio.com

This seems a no-brainer answer, but keeping our body in shape is the most important thing we should do right now. Gyms are closed and going outside is limited. However, these things shouldn’t stop us from getting the exercise we need. You can do a lot of basic activities inside your home with your families, such as lifting weights and sit-ups. If possible, you can also get equipment like a stationary bike that will make your exercise sessions more fun.

Let’s make this social distancing time worthwhile

We don’t know when we can go back to our normal lives and have the freedom once again to do all the things we want outside of our home. Nevertheless, what we can do at this time is to turn this situation into our advantage and enjoy the most out of it while we ensure our safety.

Productivity Tips by Successful Lawyer Louis Lehot to Achieve More During Covid-19

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Who’s not busy? If you are like most people, we wake up to crammed calendars and a million things. As a Silicon Valley Lawyer/father/husband/writer, I am sharing my top 10 productivity tips that help get things done.

First, Write It Down. Every task and commitment should be written down, getting every engagement out of your head and into a trusted system.

Louis Lehot shares in an interview with Ideamensch, “As a lawyer for technology, life science, real estate, clean energy and innovation clients, I have to be constantly thinking of how to integrate and leverage new and better technology to do more for less, faster and smarter.”

Source:law.com

You can use a fancy app (think Evernote, Asana or your Microsoft Outlook) to capture these commitments, but you can start with a simple pen and paper.

The Most Dreaded Task: Each of us has one or more tasks on our to-do list that we dread doing. It may be an unpleasant phone call you don’t want to make or that memo you’ve been putting off writing. Whatever it is, it keeps getting pushed, and then your week gets overwhelming. End that cycle. Do it first thing instead of doing the easy ones.  Do the tough tasks first.

Silence Distractions: Distractions such as emails and phone calls, are one of the primary productivity killers. While technology should make our lives easier, it can also make it virtually impossible to maintain the kind of focused attention necessary to work efficiently. Control that technology. When you’ve got a critical task, turn off the ringer on your iPhone, silence your email alerts, and close your office door for that hour or thirty minutes.

Take Breaks: No matter how busy you are, after a certain amount of time, fatigue will begin to impair your effectiveness. Periodic breaks, even during the most hectic days, can help a lot. A simple stretch, walk around the block will help you be both mentally and physically which in turn leads to, more productivity.

Source:beta.workingnotworking.com

Delegate: Many people hate to ask for help. It often seems more trouble to explain a task to someone else than just to do it. But not everything must be done by you. Evaluate that to-do list carefully. What jobs could someone else do, thereby freeing you up to focus on the things? Doing only the things you can and allowing somebody else to contribute by doing those other tasks.

Say No: “No” is a complete sentence. Practice saying it. Saying ‘no’ helps you stay productive and focused on the things that matter most. It’s true, you can’t be productive if you agree on too many commitments. Requests for your time are coming from all directions. The continues phone calls and emails make staying productive difficult. It is important to learn the Art of Saying No.

Set Boundaries: Boundaries are important to having and keeping healthy relationships. A strong sense of self-esteem and having a healthy life go hand in hand.  Know what you won’t accept then do tolerate it in your life. Identify where you continue to over give or always say ‘yes’ when you want to say ‘no’, you will suffer.

Nourish Your Mind: I try to start my day with guided meditation, gratitude, and forgiveness practices. “I use apps like Omvana on my phone. I embrace technology-based solutions, and I love finding new “hacks” to enable growth.” Amplifying positive thoughts, expressing thanks, counting blessings, and removing negative charges through forgiveness, helps me stay focused on the present. Indulge your mind in learning something new! Humans need to use their full cognitive capacity. Growing, evolving and learning is a major player to us feeling energized and present.

Source:patch.com

Think about taking a class or online or read a new book. Personally, I am a huge fan of videoblogs in addition to podcasts for communicating on legal, business and leadership topics. Earlier this year, I started my YouTube video blog series #AskASilcionValleyLawyer.

Nourish Your Body: On weekends, I make superfood green veggie smoothies with my daughter to ensure healthy nutrition when starting each day.  “My favorite ingredients are spinach, leafy green and rainbow chard, avocado, celery and a pinch of ginger. I try and eat fresh foods, with plenty of vegetables, avoid sugar, processed foods, and minimize alcohol, a challenge for wine lovers. While I consume copious amounts of expresso coffee throughout the morning, I try and balance the caffeine with at least a liter of water per day to stay hydrated.”

Make Time for What’s Important: It’s full speed ahead with getting the kids to school and into the office. Remote work is here and here to stay and will be an increasing trend with the need for social distancing. Still, I value face-to-face communication with teammates with clients and sets meetings with clients and team members where possible between 9 am to 11 am and 2 pm to 5 pm. “I prioritize going out of the office several times a week to attend events, host meals, and visit with those in my network that I admire. It’s essential to be seen by clients, and they appreciate my emphasis on communication, ensuring that they stay abreast of the issues that matter.  In the pandemic, that is translated into socially distanced walks, and video and group call.”

Get Some Rest: Getting to bed at regular times and consistently affording yourself a full night’s sleep isn’t always easy, but striving for the very same is a vital part of the balancing act.

Be Thankful: When confronted with negative thoughts and anxieties, thanking the universe for the many opportunities afforded and blessings received bits of help. This commitment to gratitude helps overcome the inevitable challenges that will be encountered. Life is short. Success is leased and feels that rent is due every day. Staying present is the key to being productive.

Be Nice to Yourself: Be patient, kind, and understanding to yourself. Treat yourself like a close friend, someone you love. You are doing more than enough. Find the time to give to yourself and allow yourself to take in a lot more compassion. You are doing a worth it –tell yourself that.

Tips for Managing the Reopening of Your Workplace

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Whether you are managing the reopening of an educational establishment, such as a kindergarten, school, college, or university, or a workplace environment, such as an office, retail outlet, or factory, you should consider how you are going to support all your stakeholders. Regardless if your stakeholders are children, students, staff, or customers and clients, you should consider their different needs. Staff may be anxious about returning to the workplace after an extended time working at home, children are likely to have worries about returning to school and customers may have lost confidence about shopping in stores. As a manager, there are certain things that you could consider to support people with the return.

Communication

Source:hrtechnologist.com

Communication is a key way that you can help make people feel as safe as possible. It is good practice to engage with everyone, whatever the situation – children, parents, experienced staff, established customers. It is important that everyone is kept up-to-date with the measures that managers and leaders have put in place to keep everyone as safe as can be. This should help provide reassurance that management has risk assessed the situation and has put things in place to minimize risks of spreading the Covid-19 virus. It is also helpful to allow for two-way communication, allowing staff, parents, customers, and children to raise their concerns so that you provide communication about how you are addressing these concerns. This communication can help you build trust and confidence.

Just as importantly, as well as providing reassurance, your communication should make sure that everyone is aware of the measures so that they can abide by them. You should communicate clearly the new rules and procedures to stakeholders, you may need to publish new staff or student guidance, posters may be needed to explain rules to everybody, including customers, children, hotel guests, etc. You should make sure that your communication is accessible to all. For example, if working with younger children, you may need to provide visual messages and when working in a multilingual environment, you may need to provide communication in various languages.

Linguation.com can translate your posters, policies, and information sheets, making sure that all your stakeholders fully comprehend the control measures put in place in the workplace.

Building on current good practice

You should build on whatever you are currently doing well. Evaluate your practices during the lockdown and build on the good things that you already have in place. For example, you could find that welfare calls to staff or families during lockdown has helped build positive relationships. You could continue with these to support the transition back to the workplace / educational establishment. Perhaps you moved to online meetings and these worked well. You might like to consider keeping online meetings in a place where possible, reducing risks for staff even if they are working in the same building.

It may also cut down on traveling time to meetings, which could help with staff work-life balance. The same with online training; many staff enjoyed this and liked the benefits of not having to travel to training. Could this be retained as we return to the workplace?

Supporting with the transition back

It will be difficult to expect everyone to return immediately to their previous routines. People may need time to build up to usual routines. In schools, for example, time may be needed for a more creative curriculum, building in time to reflect and discuss events. Younger children especially may need activities which remind them how to share and take turns. In the workplace too, staff may need time to adjust to the expected work routines and may need a certain amount of flexibility, perhaps an adjustment in work patterns or workspace. It could be that some members of your work community have suffered personal trauma during the crisis, including bereavement. Managers should consider what support they could give in this respect. Does the workplace have a counseling service? If so, do employees know how to access this?

Building staff expertise

Managers and leaders may need to make sure that their staff has the ability to support others. For example, if staff in kindergartens, schools and universities are going to support the mental wellbeing of children and young people, they may need some training on how to do this. It could be that they need a focus on supporting with bereavement or on dealing with anxiety. This may also be the case with managers in the workplace supporting employees. Moreover, managers may find that they are supporting employees worried about the current economic crisis and worried about job security as an added concern. Furthermore, staff may also need training and guidance about recognizing when specialist support is needed and how to make a referral or where to signpost to an appropriate specialist.

Managers may also consider training for all staff on resilience building and self-care. Again, training and support may need to be offered in a variety of languages in a multilingual environment, allowing all staff or students to access the materials effectively. Again, some agencies provide the translation of training materials in a large number of language combinations and at reasonable prices. If you have a multilingual workforce, you should make sure that the training is accessible to them easily.

Managers and leaders – remember to look after yourself

Source:mancosa.co.za

Last but not least, remember to look after yourself! Whatever your place of work, managing the Covid-19 situation in the workplace is likely to be difficult and at times stressful. If you don’t look after your own health and wellbeing, you are not going to be very effective in supporting others. Make sure that you look after yourself and seek support from other senior colleagues should you need to. Moreover, you should maintain a positive work-life balance. This is important and doesn’t mean you are any less committed to work. On the contrary, it should help you function better at work and, as well as looking after your own wellbeing, you will provide a good model for your employees.

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