I completed two certification courses online, wrote articles for Shiksha, and practice drums daily: Bisharah, RBS

With everyone taking lockdown measures and not knowing to what end will it last, the best way to make use of it is to make sure that you don’t waste your time unnecessarily. In this article, you will find out how to utilize your time more effectively and what all differences did I experience during these lockdown days.

The first thing that was new to most of the students were online classes that had to be attended from home. Of course, this may not be something new in foreign countries but this sort of learning technique is not widely adopted in a country like India. What I was able to gather from my friends is that most of them loved the online learning classes. The reasons were that students were a lot relieved and found the timings and the learning processes to be flexible, unlike the brick and mortar learning sessions where they felt they were in a cage most of the time.

Still, lots of students had questions about the issue of clearing doubts with the professor which was much easier in a brick and mortar session. But even then, this is not a problem at all as when the students had any doubt, they can let the professor know then and there as there is a separate window open for chatting with the professor. It’s just like using Whatsapp. Besides, attending the classes from home also made the students feel that they weren’t under pressure the entire time.

Of course, online classes still had its disadvantages. The entire session is solely dependent upon internet connectivity. This is okay if the network infrastructure is well built but in a country like India, this is still to be achieved. Few students complained about this issue. Also, a sudden shift from the brick and mortar session to online learning may not suit well for the students all at once.

Most commonly, there was the issue of concentrating for long hours looking at the computer screen which causes straining of eyes and headaches which can be serious for students suffering from migraines.

Talking about managing leisure time, this has never been easier in my life. In fact, there are a lot of ways in which you can turn your leisure time into productive time if you like. Till this date, I have completed two certification courses online from Coursera, I am continuing to write articles for Shiksha.com, I am reading a book written by Mark Manson, 1 chapter per day and I practice the drums daily.

This is what I have to say about my leisure time. Similarly, I know you guys will have hobbies and interests in you. If you would like to go for certification courses, consider this as the best time because there is nothing else to distract you from doing it. The next goal that I have is to learn the German language as well as prepare for the GRE exam, both of which can be done online.

The major difference is that, not only myself but everyone around the world is spending time with their family now. This automatically leads us to be more productive than before, including helping our mother occasionally in the kitchen. Believe me, if you would like to learn a few recipes of your interest, this is a good time for that too. Also, we get to share our best and worst moments of our college life with our family now because usually when we are in college, these things don’t happen as we are busy running around meeting deadlines, securing the best grades, skipping breakfast and lunch sessions, etc.

So, remember what I said. Try to make the most out of this lockdown session and stay safe!

About the Author:

Bisharah Saeed is a second-year Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) student at Rajagiri Business School. He has a Bachelor's degree in Automobile Engineering. Bisharah has over 10 months of work experience at Amazon.