10 Things to Learn About in Your Newfound Free Time

Ew boring right? No. Extremely useful. FUN even. There is a website called MarketWatch (www.marketwatch.com). Maybe you’ve told yourself that one day you’ll learn the fundamentals of the stock market so you can someday invest. Maybe you haven’t. Either way, there is nothing to lose, this is the best site because you can even play games, where you get fake $100,000 that you invest in real stocks so you can learn how the stock market works. Kind of makes you feel like an investment banker, 100% would recommend.

Learn how to photoshop. Photoshop Mix (in the Apple App Store) is my personal fav photoshop app. It’s so easy to use and it has the best features, and it’s free. I have tried using photoshop on my laptop, but I find that it is actually easier on my phone. First of all, it’s free, whereas any Adobe Photoshop application on your laptop will be at least $20/month. Second of all, I feel like it’s a bit easier to manipulate because you can use your fingers on your phone vs. trying to use the mouse on your laptop. It’s so fun to edit photos and just acquire a cool skill like photoshop. Definitely worth dedicating an hour (or multiple days) to. 

I feel like this is kind of obvious but still worth a mention. Learn what your skin NEEDS. This is THE TIME to perfect your skincare, routine ladies and gentlemen. Experiment with those products you have lying around. I, for one, never put enough time into my skin so I have been experimenting and discovering what beauty products deserve to stay on my bathroom shelf and which need to g.t.f.o. at last. 

If you have curly hair like I do you must be introduced to MANES BY MEL. She taught me how to properly care for my hair cause apparently, I’ve been doing it wrong. This may not apply to everyone, but if you are struggling with the state of your hair, and maybe it’s just not sitting right lately, I highly recommend diving into the world of hair care on YouTube. It has pretty much consumed my life lately. Did you know Sulfates and Silicones are NOT good for your (curly) hair?!? This was news to me. There is literally so much to learn about treating hair properly, which may not be interesting to everyone, but I find it really emphasizes that we don’t just have to take care of our skin, self-care involves thinking about every part of your beautiful bod, and there is literally no better time than the present to learn about random things like this. 

Educate yourself on WORLD ISSUES. It’s not lame to be informed, and it doesn’t have to be boring either. Here’s a topic to start: Fast Fashion!!!!!!! If you know what that is, great. If you don’t… go watch one of my favourite documentaries!!! The True Cost!!!!! Amazing. It is on YouTube and it opened my eyes to one of the most damaging industries to have ever existed: The Fashion Industry. I’m super passionate about the issue of Fast Fashion because there is nothing I love more than clothes and online shopping, but as I started to learn more about the toll that the clothing industry is taking on our planet, my outlook on buying lots of things for the lowest price completely changed. Anyways…more on that another time. The bottom line is there is So. Much. To. Learn about our world!!!

Not that it’s really a skill anyone has to acquire or practice, but it is the ultimate pastime. If you have old magazines, you can make seriously impressive art. Or, this kind of ties in with a previous point of mine. Digital collages are also awesome and becoming super popular online recently. That’s one of the benefits of downloading and playing around with Photoshop Mix. Highly recommend! Such an epic pastime.

CODING. Okay so, you’re not a computer science major. But your friends who are computer science majors are graduating undergrad and walking into 100K salary jobs… so you might as well try… right? Well, this one could actually be boring but it’s useful. It also takes some rooting around, since everyone has a different learning style you really just have to type in “Coding for beginners” into YouTube and then decide from there where you want to get started. I haven’t had a lot of luck with this as of yet but I am hopeful!! #learningnewthings 

Making a cup of coffee is nice and EASY, yes, and with machines like Nespresso obviously it’s effortless to brew up a fancy latte or cappuccino. BUT seriously, why not learn to whip up a triple, half-sweet, non-fat, Caramel Macchiato with an extra shot by hand? If you’re reading this article you’ve definitely got nothing else going on, so you might as well try. Imagine how satisfying it might be to froth your own milk. Maybe then we can justify spending $5 on a drink because we’ll know how much trouble goes into making it!

I seriously do not recommend this at all. Moving on ˅

Can you hold a handstand? Hands on the ground, rest of body in the air? OMG you can?! Oh – wait you said can’t? Sorry, couldn’t hear you from 2m away. LoL. Well me neither. But if I practiced every day for the rest of quarantine, I bet I could!! Maybe I will, and I’ll probably write an article about it in a few weeks when we’re still in quarantine and I’ve run out of writing inspiration and completely lost my mind! If you are still reading, I hope you are safe and well!