8 ideas of things you can do during these difficult days

8 ideas of things you can do during these difficult days Apr 1, 2020 - Marcel Odena

COVID-19 has changed everything. We had built a society that was apparently robust, mature, immune, and a virus-like COVID-19 was enough to put every country in the world in check. The ease with which the virus spreads by the respiratory route makes it fearsome, and hence one of the main recommendations is confinement, staying home until this happens. Go out to the streets means exposing yourself to contagion, having health problems, even dying, and filling hospitals.

There are saturation problems in many hospitals, so a recommendation is to be confined in order not to get it and worsen the situation in hospitals. Great recognition from these lines to all the people who are working in hospitals, residences, etc. They are really being the heroes of our society.

In this disastrous and surreal situation it is sometimes difficult to figure out what to do, right? It’s hard for me to figure it out, so let these ideas serve as simple ideas, each one has to see what to do at the moment.

1. Write

Writing is healthy for your mind, it helps to make ideas sprout from your brain, it helps to share your ideas with others.

What can you write about? Writing is an arduous task, so my advice is to write about something you feel like. The friction of writing is already high enough that you have to write about a subject that you do not feel like. Write about whatever your body asks you to do, put a blank sheet of paper, close your eyes and start writing.

Once you are involved in writing, once you have a certain habit you can consider writing about various topics, things you know and want to share. Surely for your company it would be very good if you write about certain topics. Why? because it is a way of making important aspects of your industry known, it is a way of telling the world how you solve certain problems in your sector, etc.

Writing has several benefits :

  • It helps you to think, to bring up ideas.
  • Connects you to other people who vibrate with those ideas.
  • If you master a topic, it helps you position yourself as an expert in the field.
  • Writing allows you to get noticed, allows your business to get noticed, so readers will discover what you do, and this is the prelude to opportunities.
  • Leaving an article on your website or blog is a chess piece on the board, it has an attraction, search engines like Google will find the article, they will discover what topic you are talking about, and when someone searches on that topic they will show you your article. That’s how simple it works, that’s how difficult it is sometimes.

So now that you are home confined, now that certain routines that you used to do when you were going to work in a specific place have changed, now that you maybe have more time, now may be a good time to start writing. Do not be afraid, do not fear for the final result, write and do not stop, without pressure, nobody will laugh at you, the important thing is that you walk, that you find your style, your way of writing, that you find the topics that excite you.

I once heard my dear Jeff Sauer say that the best thing to learn how to write was to create a blog with WordPress, write for a year and then delete the blog. The whole journey is only to learn how to write. Then you start again seriously!

You can write on your company’s blog if you have it, you can write an article on LinkedIn, if you want, I also invite you to publish your article on this blog if it is about B2B Marketing, etc.

2. Create an email marketing system to connect with your audience

Imagine that someone discovers your company thanks to an article you wrote long ago talking about a very specific topic in your industry and providing solutions and your point of view.

Imagine that this reader is in love with your article, so much that he/she would like to follow you, receive by email your next articles, and not only the new ones but also a selection of your best articles that already existed before knowing you.

Does your company have a system so that this reader can subscribe to your blog or newsletter?

If the answer is no, I recommend that you consider doing so.

If you already have an email subscription system, I recommend that you spend some time thinking about how you can improve your contribution to this reader. Ideas: Do you have a process in place to periodically send an email to this reader with the best articles? Select your best articles and order them in a sequence that is easy to learn, just as you would like to receive and read them. This is a good time to spend time on this and improve it. When the crisis ends, and hopefully one day it will end, all this work will be time well spent.

3. Read

Reading is for the brain as food is for the stomach. Now that we are homebound, it is a good time to read.

Take a walk around your flat, go to that shelf where you store your books or those shelves, let yourself be carried away by instinct. It is not you who chooses the book, it is the book that chooses you (probably this is not true, but I like to think this way). Let yourself be seduced by a subject, by an author, and decide to read that book.

We all know the procedure, find a good place, a suitable time of day and read. If you like what you’re reading time will fly by.

If it is a novel you will fly to other spaces of the imagination.

If it is a book on topics of your work you will be able to discover many ideas, and now that you will be more receptive you will see how one idea leads to another, how things occur to you. And after all, you will have a good time.

Paper or Electronic Book? If you have the paper book on your shelf, I think there is nothing to say. If you don’t have it, now is a good time to buy the book in electronic format and read it on the device you have (smartphone, tablet, computer, ebook reader, etc.).

I rather like paper books, but now that we are confined, if necessary, I will read it digitally. Discussing why I like it on paper would give for another article, and I guess the final conclusion would be that it is an irrational issue.

4. Rethink Your Work

This task is perhaps the most uncomfortable to do and at the same time inevitable.

  • What is the meaning of my job in these moments of crisis?
  • How can my company help society at this time?
  • How does my product help society at the moment?
  • Could I do something different to help at this time?

It is inevitable for me to ask myself these questions. The answer is not always comfortable or easy, but I think it is a good exercise.

It is to be hoped that this situation of confinement and the global crisis will end one day and then everything will return to the meaning it had before. Right?

5. Get trained, take a course in something you like

You can do an online course on a topic that you like and at the same time that helps you in your day-to-day work.

Or…

You can take an online course about something that has always attracted you and at the same time you have always said to yourself: “leave it, this is not the right moment”.

Now is your chance, we are in exceptional times, in crisis, everything is liable to be questioned. If your instinct tells you to take a course to train you in a new discipline, follow it. After all, what can you lose? A few hours and little money.

Today there are tremendously good courses at a very reasonable price. There are even free courses here and there. Platforms like Udemy, Domestika and the like make this mission very easy.

6. Listen to music that gives you goosebumps

Eat for your stomach. Read to your brain. Listen to music for your soul.

Listen to those songs that make you feel good, that make you vibrate, that album that you could listen to countless times.

Delight yourself with those magical sounds that break boundaries. Those sounds you don’t know what they have that make you excited. Everyone must find their own.

Delight yourself with those formidable lyrics that you like, that make you sing. Those letters that give off wisdom.

Add emotion to your life. Add passion. Put music on it.

7. Start that project you have always wanted to do

You always had the excuse that you did not have time, that with the day to day it is impossible to start a project.

Now is the ideal occasion. We are homebound. A lot of routines that we had have disappeared, recovering a lot of time that you can take advantage of now to start working on that project that you have always carried in your heart, but perhaps because of the lack of time, perhaps because of fear you have never dared to start.

Start it now. Put the first stone. Be brave. Be smart. What do you have to lose?

What do you have to gain? It is not known, but at least you won’t be able to say that you did not try.

8. Do Physical Exercise

Exercise every day, stay in shape. It is not just for your body, it is also for your mind.

Being locked up for weeks at home is not easy. Besides, we do not know for sure how much longer we will have to remain locked up.

Doing a little exercise at home will surely help you.

Depending on your interests and the space you have, you can do one type of exercise or another, but I recommend you do something. I do Pilates, 10-20 minutes every day in the morning, and you feel different to start the day. In addition, very little space is needed to practice it.

For how long is this going to last?

This is perhaps the question that many of us ask ourselves, isn’t it? It is easy to hear on TV and radio that at least we will have to wait 2 more weeks. Well, with the nonsense we have already spent 2 weeks confined, add 2 more weeks, that is 4 weeks overall confined. What if they say we have to keep 2 or more weeks more?

In short, what has to be will be, we will face it as best we can.

I hope that some of these ideas inspire you and help you better spend your time.

If you want to contribute with more ideas, you can leave a comment at the end of this article.

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Marcel Odena

Marcel Odena

CEO at Magnetica Advertising | LinkedIn Ads Expert

Since 2013 I've been working in the Pay Per Click Advertising Industry. I manage Google and LinkedIn Ads accounts for several B2B companies. I work to deliver results to my clients as well to contribute to do better B2B marketing. I like to learn and share my knowledge at the same time.