With no doubt 2020 has started in quite a unique and unprecedented way. The Coronavirus pandemic forced us to stay at home, and suddenly our strict and busy schedule turned into an empty agenda, a white canvas that, at the beginning, we could only fill in with grey colors, as the uncertainty of what was truly happening and not being able to see an end to it was overwhelming.

But if for some of us it was a period of uncertainty, financial difficulty, and despair for others it was an opportunity for self-discovery and meditation, starting to question whether you are in the right job, or in the right relationship or in the right mindset to thrive. It was (and still is, as of today) an opportunity to analyze ourselves and find those gaps in our lives that we could fill in to make our life more meaningful, our relationship stronger, ad to be a better version of ourselves.

In other words, it is a great opportunity for change and self-improvement… because this is the mindset of successful people, seeing opportunities where others see a problem.

During this period we started to ask ourselves “How can I fill my time?”, “How can I be more productive during this period?”, “How can I make the most out of this time?”.

If anything now you have more time, more freedom… and no more excuses!

What better time to start a new skill then? So here’s my top 5 skills you can learn during this lockdown.

Learn How to Code

If there is one thing I would highly recommend is to learn how to code. This is an invaluable skill that will become handy in pretty much every single aspect of your life.

Knowing how to code teaches you how to solve your everyday problems more quickly and efficiently. And this is because it will teach you how to look at problems in a different perspective, breaking them down in multiple easy problems.

It also opens up your mind to new business ideas.

Have you ever encountered a problem in you daily life where you said “oh man, I wish there was something to solve this problem” or “I wish there was something that could make this situation easier”. Well, that’s what Mark Zuckerberberg asked himself when he wanted to rate the attractiveness of college students, and he came up with ‘Facemash’ which then developed into the multi-million dollar social platform that we all know as Facebook. Another good example is the story of Jan Koum, a Ukrainian American entrepreneur who asked himself “I wish there was a way to text my American pals from Ukraine with my internet connection without spending a fortune with SMS”, and that’s how he came out with another multi-million dollar app that we use everyday called Whatsapp.

I can’t possibly compare myself to the above-mentioned big names, but I will try anyway… I was looking at a way to travel and at the same time trying to offset the CO2 emissions that my travel choice produced. So I started to build this travel search engine whose profit goes towards tree planting. You can have a look here at O2GO.

This skill also gives you the possibility have a side-hustle job, like a web-developer, data-analyst, programmer or any job where coding skills are required.

So… there are a lot of of programming language out there, and the one you decide to use really depends on the nature of the project you want to work on.

If you are a beginner, a good starting point is the “Holy Triad” – HTML, CSS and JavaScript, which are the building blocks of coding. There are plenty of free resourced out there, and if you are interested I have made a course on how to code. This course will take you from the very beginning of coding and will take you to an intermediate advanced level. By the end of the course you will be left with tons of transferable skills that can be applied on any project you want. My course is on Skillshare.com and you will get a 2 months free Premium subscription if you sign up through this link.

Learn To Cook

Among other restrictions, lockdown for us also meant no more restaurants, no more pubs, no more takeaways (…ish) and learning how to cook has become a primary need.

Cooking is one of those skills that we start by thinking “C’mon, how hard could that be?” until we actually try, mess up, get told off by wife/husband, intoxicate our guests, and realize that it is way harder than we actually thought. How many of us tried at least once during this quarantine to prepare a sourdough bread starter? How many of us failed? well.. I did, at least four times before getting it right (…ish). The point is, cooking is a lot more than just a quick mix and match to satisfy our daily energy need. It is science, chemistry, technique, knowledge, discipline, culture, and art. It needs a lot of practice and patience in order to master it and is one of those skills that you can only get better at.

I personally can’t think of one single reason as to why you shouldn’t learn how to cook. So, here are some reasons why you should learn how to cook:

It is a hobby: As I said above, cooking is science, chemistry, technique, knowledge, discipline, culture, and art.

Good for your health: Take-aways and fast-foods are known not to be the healthiest choice, but taking them sporadically is OK. When you cook you are in control of what you are feeding your body with, you know the freshness of the ingredients, you can control the quantity of salt, oil and butter in your dish.

Good for your wallet: Well, that’s actually self-explanatory… on average a person spends $40-50 when going out to eat, and sometimes this is only for a basic meal with a starter, a main and (maybe) a glass of cheap wine. What can $40-50 give you if spent in a grocery store? Well, for me that would be a week worth of food.

Impress your family and friends: Nothing gives more satisfaction than to impress your guests with a nice warm meal cooked with your very own hands and taking credits for your effort and creativity.

It helps you to understand more about a culture: Food is strictly related to the culture of a country, and to best know a culture, you have to start from its cuisine.

It is relaxing: I don’t know about you, but when it comes to cooking it is my favorite time of the day. Kitchen, making great foot, listening to good music, sipping a glass of wine… the perfect equation for a bit of me-time and relax.

Ok, I have convinced you to start (hopefully), but you only have a limited budget or you simply don’t want to spend any money on it. Well, don’t be daunted, there is a plethora of resources out there on the web which are free and extremely useful to get you started. Whether you are a complete beginner, or you want to master a certain technique (i.e., speed chopping, slice a fish), or specialize in a cooking niche (i.e., vegetarian, pastry), or a particular cuisine (i.e., Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Indian), this is the right moment to start.

For beginner and intermediate level I recommend you to start with some free resources like Youtube tutorials, cooking blogs, or subscribe to Skillshare – there are a lot of cooking courses there and if you subscribe with my promo-link you will get a free, no obligation, Premium subscription of 2 months. It will probably redirect you to my coding course, but if you are not interested in that, browse to the cooking session after you complete your registration.

If you think you have some advanced cooking skills and don’t mind investing a bit of money towards your cooking passion, I recommend you to sign up to one of those online cooking masterclass held by professional chefs.

Photography

Whether it is for a hobby, or wanting to get better at taking awesome pictures for your son’s birthday or your friend’s wedding, or you’re planning to sell your pictures online, or wanting to create the foundation for a side-hustle career, knowing how to take good pictures is a versatile skill.

A good picture doesn’t come out from the scene you are looking at, but it gets first composed in your mind. That’s the point of photography, capturing the shot that you have in your mind.

It all sounds easy because we get deceived by the simplicity of the action to actually take a picture… pressing a button, and we can get pretty good pictures in the auto mode. But what if we shoot in any other modality other than automatic? “the focus is wrong… delete!”, “too bright… delete!”, “too dark… delete!”, “blurred… delete!”…. Ok whatever… back to Auto mode.

Getting started is not that difficult, it all depends on understanding a few basic principles like ISO, aperture and shutter-speed, having a look at the environment where you are shooting, and adjusting those settings to find a compromise between the environment requirements and what you want to achieve.

Learn a new language

When I happen to talk to a person whose English is his/her first (and only) language, and they find out I am Italian, 99% of times I get told “Oh wow, cool… I wish I could speak Italian”. Ok… let’s face it, the majority of English speakers are lazy when it comes to learn a new language, and this is primarily because they don’t need to. English is the widely used pretty much anywhere in the world. Probably I would be lazy to learn another language too if English wasn’t my first language.

So why should you learn a second language?

It helps you when traveling – Although English is widely spoken pretty much everywhere in the world, you might encounter some situation where knowing a particular language can save you from embarrassing or tricky situation, whether you get lost in the middle of nowhere, or asking for some information to locals. It also shows a sign of minimal effort as a tourist, and this will get hugely appreciated by locals, and it helps you to understand more about a culture.

Training your brain – The area of the brain used to learn new language is also used for concentration and focus when there are distractions around you. So, learning a new language improves your concentration ability. It also promotes the integrity of your white matter as you age, so it strengthens and maintains the connections between your neurons.

Broaden your friendships – Learning a new language can also help you to establish and maintain new friendship that wouldn’t be possible due to language barrier.

Impress family and friends – Show off in front of your friends and family. You’ll never know if they will pay for a holiday for you to be their guide and translator.

There are many free resources out there. My personal recommendation is Duolingo – a free app to learn the language you want from the ground up. It is fun, only takes 5 minutes a day, it is user friendly and super helpful. Give it a try!

Learn to play an instrument

Learning an instrument has the same benefits on the brain as learning a new language (read above) and that’s already a big bonus per se.

Learning to play an instrument is not one of those things that don’t happen overnight or after a week of practice. It requires time, practice, passion and a lot of patience. At the beginning it might be daunting, because you will realize how clumsy you are when you put your hands and the output is everything but a pleasant sound. But with consistency and patience I can guarantee that after a couple of weeks you will be able to notice the difference, and that realization on how good your getting will fuel your future motivation to improve even more.

Musical instruments can be extremely expensiveness, but as a beginner you don’t need a Stradivari violin, or a Steinway and Son grand piano. You can ask to family and friends if they have the instrument you want to learn you can borrow from them, or buy a cheap one to get started. My personal favorite site is Gear4Music, where you can find the instrument that fits your budget.

As for resources, Youtube is flooded with tutorial for any kind of level. But if you are serious about it and willing to invest some money in this passion I would recommend you to pay a private teacher.

So, whether you want to play just for fun, put up some gigs with friends, entertain guests or train your brain, learning to play a musical instrument is definitely a good investment of your time.

If you want to know more about these skills or have any questions (resources suitable for you, more information, etc…) drop me an email that you can find in the About Me section, and I will point you to the right direction.