Staying Active
In the past month, you’ve probably noticed how incredibly difficult it is to find the motivation to simply get up and do something. It’s easy to fall into the trap of sleeping in till noon (or maybe 3pm) and spending your entire day on Netflix or scrolling through social media platforms. And sometimes, doing this is exactly what you need, particularly when life gets really busy. However, after a couple of days of doing this, it gets boring and frankly quite exhausting. If you’re wondering what to do when you’re stuck in this cycle, we have a few suggestions.
#1: Keep your body moving!
Whether this be going for a walk outside with your family or doing some at-home workouts, it’s important to keep yourself moving. Spending all day sitting is not only bad for your physical health (e.g. your eyes and back), but it’s also damaging to your mental health. Even if you’re only doing a quick 15 minute workout in your room, it’s good to get your blood flowing and give your mind a little bit of a break from work or TV. This will also make it easier to come back to the task at hand because you’ll feel refreshed and ready to get back into it. There are plenty of fitness applications that are offering free home workouts!
#2: Read or listen to podcasts
When you’re in school or working, it’s hard to make the time to sit down and read a book or listen to a podcast. Since you are pretty limited in your mobility, we suggest taking this time to get your reading in. Here are a few books at podcast that Women in Business suggests looking into:
Books
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne
Educated by Tara Westover
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Pérez
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The World According to Garp by John Irving
Podcasts
She Did It Her Way: A podcast that features different female entrepreneurs every week and discusses the challenges they have overcome to be successful.
Women Taking the Lead: This podcast is hosted by Jodi Flynn who discusses business topics such as different personality types and personal branding.
So Money: This is a great podcast hosted by Farnoosh Torabi where she discusses topics related to personal finance such as debt and saving. She helps tear down societal perceptions about women and money and helps guide you financially.
Switch, Pivot, or Quit: This podcast is predominantly focused on empowerment and encouraging you to be the best version of yourself.
#3: Using alternative resources to keep learning
We recently made a post with some resources that you could use to learn something new from the comfort of your home and we just wanted to revisit them. Here is a list of some companies that are offering you the chance to keep up with your goals while in quarantine:
FLIK: A space where female-identifying founders or leaders discover each other and connect. You can take on a 3-month remote apprenticeship under an inspiring female founder this summer!
School 16: This is a great resource if you are interested in working in tech. You can learn industry skills directly from experts working in tech roles like marketing, product, sales, etc. They even offer free workshops every week via Zoom.
Coursera: Coursera offers thousands of courses from various institutions that you can take for free to learn about topics that you are interested in.
For more general skills, you can always use YouTube. It’s a great resource and will give you a good starting place for moving forward.
#4: Using social media to your advantage
While social media has its own pros and cons, one of the greatest aspects of it is that it allows people to connect even in difficult times. We will be talking about social media and women in more detail later on, but right now, you can use social media to not only learn new things from other people, but also to teach others something you are good at. Whether that be cooking, photography, dancing, or something else, you can create a social media account and post pictures, videos, and tutorials that can reach hundreds of people. Even if you just want to do something fun like making a fashion account or a travel page, now is your time to shine! It’s even possible to capitalize on your follower base and gain partnerships with other businesses or accounts.
With all of these in mind, if you just need time to not be on overdrive and to take a step back, give yourself that break. We’ve noticed that recently on social media, there seems to be a competition of who can be the most productive while staying at home and this isn’t what we’re trying to advocate. While it is good to get up and keep your mind active, don’t feel pressured to have to do this all the time. You know yourself best so go at your own pace. We’d love to hear your ideas on how you’re spending your time at home as well!
