Hello everyone!
It brings me immense joy in welcoming you all to the first post of this new year. And I do hope that y’all are doing fantastic ahead of the brand-new start that we have had.
And so, I thought why not start this year with a kick ass post on ways to spend your free time. Before I commence, I would like to assure you that our lives are not a productivity race and productivity is how you define it in your own terms. I want all my readers to glance through the fact that while reading this post, have certain nuances but rather try not to get overwhelmed by looking around other people’s lives.
Without any further adieu, let’s begin.
How we choose to spend our free time really reflects on our personality and well-being. And it’s those who spend time wisely stand miles apart than those who just complain and waste it. I am sure that you’d like to be in the former list. When you think about professional success, you think about the strategies and behaviors that people exemplify when at work. You think about what people do during the 9-5 working hours, and whether they extend those hours by coming in early or staying late. What they do when they get home, or on weekends, when they're away from the office and away from their computers, doesn't enter your mind. But here's the thing: it should.
And that’s the way you should observe the characteristics of successful people and learn from them.
1. Read Books - Reading is a lifelong skill, and successful people never stop reading new books. Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, books help give you a greater perception of the world around you. They introduce you to new characters, new environments, new cultures, new ideologies, and new ideas, and might even help you build new skills. Similarly, reading regularly helps to build your vocabulary and ups your game by giving you greater communication skills. If you have watched interviews or read articles on the daily like The Huffington Post or The Guardian for example, it is estimated that successful people allot at least an hour in their lives to books. It can be as early as 4am in the morning or as late as 1 am (completely dependent on your lifestyle).
If you’re striving to develop the habit of reading or if you’re a complete beginner, then I presume that you might be feeling lost. But in reality, don’t be, it’s not as difficult as you fear.
Commit to reading 20 minutes in a day (not a second more and not a second less). Pick up something that you were wanting to read and fix this timeframe. If you feel like you are falling apart from your habit. Have a stopwatch right next to you to keep you accountable and alert. In this way, you will be glued on to this habit. As time progresses, you will find yourselves engrossed in reading sans noticing the time. And that’s how magical books can be
If you are still confused on what to read, then I have a whole blog post curated just for your needs
2. Master a new Language – Learning a new language is fun-tastic and should never be taken as a chore at all. In the world that we are today, the market requires us to be up skilled with not just 1 language, but at least with a minimum of 2 foreign languages. And in today’s day and age, it is not that arduous to learn a language right from scratch. This is one of my favorite ways in spending my free time. The skill that you acquire is indeed priceless. It makes you stand apart from the crowd and the best part is you can do this, more so by the comfort of your room just sitting in your Pjs. You can invest to as little as 15 minutes a day to get started
If you’re my reader for a long time, you might be probably aware of the fact that I speak close to 8 languages and if you would like to know the secret ingredient on how I developed that command, then click the link down below. I am sure that you‘’ll love my tips.
3. Invest in yourself – This is one of the most reliable option that you can choose out of this whole list. Education should neither stop at school nor should be restricted to institutions. The most successful people in the world are the ones who make a commitment to never stop learning. They're always incorporating new skills for their resumes and learning new aspects of the world around them. Instructional courses aren't particularly difficult to find, either, especially in the modern era. You can peruse local forums or gatherings to find impromptu group workshops or internships. And don't underestimate the value of free online courses. If you have a free time and an Internet connection, you can start learning a new skill. To kick start this routine, you can find all that you want to learn in platforms like Allison Courses, Skillshare, Coursera, Udemy to name a few.
4. Networking is priceless - Successful people are willing to step outside their comfort zones in an effort to meet new people--regardless of any professional circumstances surrounding that effort. They're not necessarily interested in meeting people to land new sales or find a new job--instead, they simply like talking to people and meeting people, and success naturally follows them from there. The wider your network of contacts is, the more opportunities you'll have down the road. Good networking happens when you don’t have any ulterior motive, but rather for the reason of learning something new from the people you meet. You might not get along with a few, but good or bad, there is something there that can be learnt.
5.Spend some time with friends and family – Now, I know what thought would have crossed your mind. As contrary as it may seem – there are many misconstructions around the theme productivity and one such myth is, if you would like to be productive, you would have to just spend your time doing something that you love or are passionate about. This needs to be said and told too. You need to love yourself and the people around you more than you love your job. Nothing is much more than prioritizing yourself...Without YOU, everything else you create will be to dust. Take care yourself first, for everything else can wait.Focusing too much on your career is self-sabotage, no matter how counterintuitive that might sound. If you want to be successful in life, you have to prioritize your personal relationships--your bond with your friends and family. No matter how much you want to be successful and climb the corporate ladder at a swift pace, you can't neglect your friends and family in place of it.
So, there you have it folks!
If you don't spend your free time like this, it doesn't mean you have no chance of being successful. However, picking up some of these strategies can improve your abilities, improve your mindset to new levels. Start incorporating a few of them into your free time routines and you might just be surprised at the results.
Happy Practicing!
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