Jo Daniels, a clinical psychologist at the University of Bath says that “research shows that keeping routines, but with some variation – having different exercises and tasks at different times – is really important.”
- Reach out to your contacts to check how they are – it’s a great time to find out what people in your network are doing and what they need; make connections around what’s positive, new, and perhaps where you can help each other.
- Use Zoom technology to conduct virtual face to face/coffee/drinks, perhaps host a virtual happy hour late on Friday afternoon to chat about the week gone by with colleagues and friends over a beer or G&T. Put Zoom details on your calendar invites and replace face-to-face with the cloud-based video conferencing app.
- Share articles, tweets, vlogs on how cope with the lock down with your network, it tells them you are thinking of them and it helps people cope and cheers them up.
- Ensure you have all star status on your LinkedIn profile – look at your LinkedIn profile right and see that beneath the section with your profile photo is “Profile Strength.” When you reach All-Star rating, it means your profile is optimized for success.
- Undertake some personal development – there’s a mass of online courses, many are very low cost or free, so a tight budget is no excuse. You can learn almost anything by following YouTube tutorials, then are TED talks, a range of podcasts and good old-fashioned books. You’ll need to be persistent as with anything new but do a little each day and you’ll soon see progress.
- Take exercise, spend an hour outside on your own, and at same time visualise how good you will feel once you get a new job. Exercise will boost your endorphins, making you feel happier and more resilient. And a tip from veteran personal trainer Mr Motivator – set the timer on your computer or phone to alert you every 45 minutes then move, stretch, check your posture and resettle.
- Reflect, and write down all your learnings over the past 3-6 months, what’s worked, what hasn’t, what you should continue to do and do more of, what you should do less of. Reflection and meditation are great ways to achieve mental calm, and mindfulness will help you to be grateful for the many things in life that are good.
- Think about how the lockdown is impacting the way you are now job searching, seek out the positives, and plan the next 4-6 weeks to maximize those positives. If you have trouble staying focused then write a plan for each day the night before, listing key tasks, regular breaks and calls to other people.
- Limit your access to the news and social media to no more than 30 minutes per day, don’t keep reading and listening to the endless cycle of news.
- Enjoy the spring, the days are longer and you can take time to appreciate birdsong, blossom and fresh air; look out for squirrels, butterflies, bluebells and bumblebees, also there should soon be frogspawn and if you’re lucky you might spot a hedgehog or a hare, depending where you live.
All at 10Eighty hope that you are safe during the coronovirus lockdown.
