Things I Did to Improve My Life During the Pandemic
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
Hi there Stylish Friends,
We are in the 6th wave of the pandemic here in Japan and are facing restrictions yet again. A lot has happened in these 2 years since the Corona virus hit the world and time flew by. A lot of people los their jobs, relationships, family members and structure in their lives. Lately I have been thinking: Is there anything positive I gained from this pandemic?
That Initial Slacker Phase
When the first lockdowns hit, I did what a lot of people did: Waste time and try more things to help with wasting time. I started watching more Netflix, buying some games for my switch (Animal Crossing: New Horizons anyone?), and discovering more youtubers to watch. now this was all great, and I still very much do a lot for these things because I am going out so much less, but at a certain point, this wasn’t enough.
Rethinking My Life
Rethinking my life sounds a bit dramatic, but to some extent it certainly was just that. I noticed that the habits I had before and had developed during the pandemic found their places in my life and empty slots in my day started to form. Like a lot of people, I have always dreamt of being my own boss. I was watching a very young youtuber that was flipping Instagram pages, doing dropshipping etc and I thought: How can I pursue something like this in Japan?
1. Teaching Others
The first thing I noticed is how people were asking a lot of questions everywhere. On several occasions I was like: It’s obviously this and this! .
This got me to the part where I started teaching others things that I feel like being good at. Tips on life in japan concerning renting, negotiating, learning Japanese, where I shop, were common topics I encountered. Instagram was one of the first places where I started to experiment with these things. I made sure my content had some small things that would help others, and myself, be a better version of themselves.
For me, this was talking and writing about Fashion tips, Things I noticed in Tokyo, and writing this blog!
2. Learn New Skills
You never have enough skills. A thing that you hear often and that everyone agrees on, but not a lot of people focus on. E-commerce and affiliate marketing are some topics that have always interested me. Too much free/wasted time on my hands was and excellent motivation to start learning more about these topics. I tried to learn a bit about it while being at home, but realized that distractions where always lurking around the corner.
3. Focus on Focusing
Drinking Caffeine, But Not Coffee: G Fuel
Frustrated with how I could not focus on studying and even work, I researched on what would be best for me to improve this. One of the first things that pops up when you google How can I focus? is caffeine. Drinking caffeine is always associated with drinking coffee. The problem is: I don’t drink coffee. Even though I quite like the smell, I don’t like how it tastes. This means I had to find an alternative with the same effects. This is were Gfuel comes in to play.
Gamers usually drank a lot of energy drinks that would help them perform better, but going hard on Energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster Energy seems like a bad idea and not the most tasty alternative. I noticed Pewdiepie was talking about Gfuel and after checking out their website, I noticed they had tons of flavors and all without too much much bad stuff like sugar. After ordering a trial pack, I discovered some great fruit juice flavors and noticed the positive effect it had on my focus. I really enjoyed the drinks so I only take them before I want to focus on something.
Location and Distractions
Now that I had the help from my gamer juice, I had to get rid of that other major issue: my surroundings. You probably noticed this yourself, but ,quickly doing some laundry, cleaning the house more often, taking that quick break resulting in you deep diving into Youtube, ending up watching videos on how to maintain and algae aquarium, happens way too often. Running away from access to these distractions was the only way to be more focused.
Remote Work
The best way to not be distracted, is to move to a place where you cant be distracted by your home habits. For me, this was going to cafes. Of course, during strict lock downs, this is not always and option, but fortunately in Japan, it still was.
I went to a café with my laptop, earphones and charger and started working there! Ordering a larger drink makes you stay longer too, because it takes more time to finish one and it pressures you to stay longer because it costs more, so give it a try. I found some great places to remote work while developing this habit and I really get things done while slurping on my oversized drinks.
Blow of Steam
To focus on productivity, you must blow of steam regularly. The best way to blow of steam is definitely working out or exercise. Going out for walks, cycling or going to the gym really helps.
4. Building a Better/Healthier Body
This lead to me gaining another valuable asset in life: A healthy lifestyle. We all know it, and we all skip it. I have always been active, but never very consistent. I realized that working out helps me feel refreshed and gives me a proper reset after an eventful day.
What worked best for me is to go to the gym at consistent times, every other day. Personally this resulted me in going to the gym around 9PM 3 days a week and regularly taking walks around my neighborhood and discover the many hidden things Tokyo has to offer.
Pushing Yourself To Go
It is hard to immediately do so, so start off small. Take a walk to the next conbini (convenience store), get off a station early and walk the rest, go out for a stroll at night to discover your neighborhood, squats at home, whatever makes you feel happy. Always make sure you have fun in doing things, or it will never work out well.
No need to become a full athlete at once. Just make sure you move around a bit. Lockdowns take away all basic forms of exercise, so make sure you create habits being in shape and maintain them.
After all, being in shape gives you more energy, focus, confidence and you’ll fit better in cloths.
5. Managing Finance and Increasing Wealth
Save Money, Live Better: Lockdown
One of the upsides of spending more time at home, is spending less money on going out. Being a very social/extroverted person like myself usually resulted in spending a lot on going out eating and drinking. Being at home made me realize how big of a chunk of my monthly spending this was, so I decided to manage this better.
The first thing I committed to was putting away a part of my income for savings. After bumping up quite a bit in salary when changing jobs, I decided to put away the difference, as I wasn’t used to having that extra cash. I was already living comfortably and preventing an inflated lifestyle was definitely a thing I felt like I had to do. It doesn’t matter how much it is, but try to see if you can find a difference in spending while staying home and put that away/invest it!
Even now that things are opening up slowly but steadily, I feel like I am more aware and in control of what I spend, and it is very satisfying!
Small Habits, Big Impacts
What it all comes down to is that using your time to focus on optimizing small parts of your life. Introducing big changes to your life usually end up in you being very into it for a bit and then slowly slacking off and quitting, so make sure you implement small steps that make big difference. Start saving small, walk a couple of hundred meters instead of doing nothing, adjust your Instagram scrolling to scrolling through learning accounts, write down some goals and even your new years resolutions all help in becoming a better you during this pandemic.
If you ever need help on this, or feel lost, feel free to DM me!
