During the recent Coronovirus crisis, CNN has published articles about movies and shows you can watch during stay at home orders. The most recent was 1,000 hours of TV to watch while social distancing. While some distracting entertainment is good, is spending all your time watching shows while social distancing the best benefit? Is there a more beneficial way you can use the time you are self-quarantined?
Some may have comfortable jobs, like at CNN, and hunker down with streaming services. But many are losing their jobs and their economic future is in potential jeopardy. You may have a number of weeks or months in reserve funds but you need to think about the future. So how can you use this time to help your future?
You may not be able to go outside, except for some exercise or get basic essentials. However, there are many things you can do to better yourself and use your time wisely.
Could you learn a new skill? Turn your hobby into a business? Or start a new online business? Study something you always wanted to learn about but didn’t have the time. Maybe a new language. Write emails to friends you haven’t talked to in a while. Thankfully, if we can find a positive in this pandemic, is that it did not occur before the age of the Internet. So we are not completely isolated. We have access to a huge library of content, books, art, knowledge, etc. You are able to download books and access innumerous websites. Any subject is available at our fingertips. Instead of spending 1000 hours watching streaming, we can use the majority of that time to better ourselves and even build a foundation that can help us economically in the future.
Granted, we don’t want to present that starting an online business is a magic pill to economic security. It takes hard work just like starting any other business. But the advantage of an online business is that it has low overhead and startup costs which allow you to incubate it, or grow it organically, with little cost. It may not become a source of income tomorrow. But you can give it attention when you need to and inject more investment to accelerate growth at any time. Whereas watching shows online will not result in any investment for the future. So, sure, entertainment is beneficial momentarily, but should to be kept in its place.
