Hot Take: Improve your life while social distancing

By Arthur Wang | Reporter

Given the current circumstances, many of us have likely been inside our homes for the past few weeks and will likely be cooped up inside weeks into the future.

We may have already stocked up on canned goods and taken all the hand sanitizer and toilet paper we can carry, but there’s also the question of what to do with all that time you have now that you can’t go outside.

Yes, there’s the internet, but eventually catching up on video games or binging another series on Netflix will begin to lose its appeal.

So, what else can you do while waiting for things to improve? Well, thankfully you don’t have to leave the house to keep on learning new things. Whether it’s keeping fit or just learning a new skill, there’s still things you can do to entertain yourself during a situation like this.

As long as you make sure to keep the fire extinguisher handy and take care with knives, learning to cook can be easy due to the array of videos that are available on YouTube. Since you’re going to be eating for most of your life, it’ll pay off to learn how to make what you eat taste good without the need for someone else to help you.

Another subject to consider learning would be another language — especially in a world that is becoming more and more interconnected. While this is a much more daunting task (albeit one less likely to start fires), there’s also just as many resources available to help you learn, from language learning programs like Rosetta Stone and apps like Duolingo.

Finally, while it may seem difficult to do when you to stay inside, you can try to get some exercise done with the more free time you have. All you really need for this is some open space where you can do exercises. Even without the aid of exercise guides or instructions on which workouts to perform, just a few push ups or curl-ups can help keep you in shape.

While all of these tasks may sound like a lot of work — and that’s because they are. But you don’t have to do them all at once. Just start by doing a little bit each day perhaps five pushups, or a handful of words. Then, you can begin to learn and improve new skills even in these times. Rather than having seen the entirety of the available shows on Netflix, you’ll have gained something new.