Is COVID-19 isolation a colossal waste of time?

First, I hope you and your  family are safe and in great health in this time of the pandemic, and you are not in what we call the COVID-19 isolation. Let;’s not harp on what, when, how, why and all that information overload, overly promulgated on the telly and the newspapers.

Second, the million dollar question – What are you doing in this COID-19 isolation quarantine?

Are you using your time to do something constructive or awesome instead of lying bogged down and stressed out with news of Novel Corona and the statistics?

Are you looking at this isolation, quarantine, lockdown or curfew as wasted time or as a gifted opportunity?

I was looking at this as a paid holiday, but sadly, cannot go out anywhere. That would be an irresponsible statement, yes, kinda realised it the first day. So, let me tell you what I am doing with my gifted time.

This is not to give you a peek into my personal quarantine diary [not that I mind], but to share a few ideas to better yourself, or to pursue stuff that you have been intending to, but never found the time.

Me, I am fascinated with words and digital marketing agencies. I have been writing for a long time , probably since 2003 or 2004, wherever I can find space – internet, paper, blank walls, even on empty spaces across the columns of newspapers and magazines and of course in the recesses of my unused brain. So, the favouritism to reading and writing will be prominent in this piece, but then, each to his own poison.

No, this is not about marketing, SEO, keywords, rankings, content marketing or everything else you can think about. Let’s give Google a break.

This is just about what I am doing to overcome the Corona boredom.

I started out getting bored within the first 4 days of COVID-19 isolation and went into deep thought. I began counting the number of things I wanted to do but never could begin doing them.

Surprisingly, the count was far beyond the number of fingers I have.

I wrote them down [as I am inclined to] and prioritised them as I would – numbered them as per my passion-measure for each of them. Surprisingly, I found that, if only I had given more time and thought to them when they first occurred to my mind/heart, I would have been far better man and more successful in my profession.

And this is not even the entire list. Let me list my top fifteen:

1. Plan my finances to tide through the crisis (remember, I am not salaried). – priority 01
2. Clean up my attic, my room and my storage. – priority 02
3. Get back to some great health by detoxing & exercise. – priority 03
4. Spend a lot of quality time with family and involve kids in most of the above activities. – priority 04
5. Rejuvenate myself with some great reading. – priority 05
6. Rethink on my contribution to the society. – priority 06
7. Try a few new recipes to ramp up on my culinary skills. – priority 07
8. Up my stuck-up content marketing  skills. – priority 08
9. Write some short stories that can be converted to films. – priority 09
10. Catch up on my to-watch movie list. – priority 10
11. Up my editing skills, both the written word and the video. – priority 11
12. Change the way I speak or turn more articulate. – priority 12
13. Revamp my website with some wonderful content. – priority 13
14. Create an app that will simplify marketing, so much so that a startup can market itself without the help any agencies – save money and time and have a more focussed approach. – priority 14
15. Practice my lowly guitar skills. – priority 15

Hmm…. So, we have a 40 day lockdown (could be less officially, but I am sure it is going to take that time to come back to normal). As you may know the. Corona Virus has a 40 day life-cycle and tapers bottom to top and then top to bottom in terms of an infection cycle. As I write this, the first 10 days are gone. What have I achieved in those 10 days of COVID-19 isolation?

1. I was traveling the first 4 days, so just tucked myself in my OYO Room, got drunk a bit on whiskey and ate what was offered by Swiggy. Wasted health, money and time. This for me, as usual, trying to lead a normal life in abnormal times. The ‘abnormal’ or ‘threat’ did not sink in, I guess.
2. The 5th day, I achieved the (2) above and was tired, it took an entire day and I realised how disorganised I was. The amazing part is that I found so many books that I never thought I had, and in fact many of them were unread or partly read. Time to finish and learn. That was a treasure.
3. So, (5) is in process and I hope to learn and grow at an intellectual level. The (12) too is happening in the evenings, in addition to (10) that is keeping me in excellent spirits, and these are ongoing processes. By the way (3) is also in the process with my new found love for cycling and it gives me an opportunity to go out whenever allowed to, by the authorities. Not to mention that alcohol and all kind of narcotics are off the shelves 🙂 in this COVID-19 isolation.
4. (7) has always intrigued me, and I am cooking 2 meals a day and wife is going crazy cleaning up after me. But, I am putting a smile on my chidden’s faces and its all worth it. This in on and probably continue at least with one meal. I am done with (1), there will be jitters, I will tide over.
5. Yet to clean the guitar (15), probably not now, but will try.
6. With writing this piece, I am in the process of perfecting the (8) and (11).
7. With (11) I am also curating some stories for (9) and (12)
8. I am also giving a great deal of thought to (13) while processing the (12) loudly.

The (14) and the (15) are on the after-burner and will be starting out with them, one after another. However, I am not so sure that I Will have the time to get to (15).

My sincere apologies to the numeric references, however, I put them here with the purpose of getting more read-time. You know, things have to sink in!

Let us hear about what you have been doing during your COVID-19 isolation and we could probable grow on a few ideas, now that we have time, albeit enforced. 🙂