Being stuck at home during the coronavirus it is easy to get bored. Bored working from home again? Looking forward to your morning coffee when you can take a break? Then you’re probably like me. You are mentally restless and a daydreamer. And very easily bored.
So…as we are all stuck at home for the foreseeable future anyway, let’s do something crazy!
It will take less than 5 minutes a day!
Here it is…
Imagine if you spent 5 minutes every day during the COVID-19 outbreak – just 5 minutes – reading about some random new field or area – it could be anything. Imagine just how much you would learn. Ever hear of financial investors going on about the magic of compound interest? Similar concept.
This blog is therefore not just a blog. It’s a COVID-19 challenge!
You could call it boredom therapy. I have chosen to call it The Coffee Break Lessons.
Everyday, I will read a single nugget of something non-work related and post a short summary of it here to share what I have learned. Just short (max. 500 words), easily digestible factoids. After all, you only have 5 minutes to read and digest it! The aim is whet peoples’ appetite to learn more about totally random things – things they would not normally have considered learning. Ultimately, I the aim is to create an online lexicon of random and weird facts. All of which people are welcome to comment on, add to, clarify, correct, expand or even disprove.
Why am I doing this?
- I believe maintaining a child-like sense of wonder and curiosity is important. I enjoy expanding my knowledge across different areas
- I get easily distracted and need an outlet for my thoughts and curiosity – otherwise I will waste hours aimlessly surfing the net and get even more bored
- I want to build an online depository of random factoids – something you can skim through on your phone for fun while on the train (or on a loo break) if coffee is not your thing. There are only so many times a day you can play candy crush.
What are the benefits?
- It makes learning fun. It’s free. It’s easy. It’s very quick. And you will have something to show for it in a short period of time.
- It’s relaxing, good for overall mental health and will focus your mind away from worry and anxiety – expanding your knowledge boosts your mood and overall happiness (which during this interrupted period in our lives can only be a good thing)
- You can do it as a couple or as a family challenge – challenge each other to follow this blog and then test each other at the end of each week
- Get involved and help build this library – contribute to the blog by offering a random factoid of your own
- Share it with your friends – turn it into a game on WhatsApp by asking them if they knew about the latest factoid and get them to offer their own nuggets – learn from each other
- Once things get back to normal again, I will present the most popular factoid (judged by number of likes and shares) on the homepage and declare the winner by email to all subscribers with (if she or she consents) the author’s name.
Follow my blog if you want to embark on this journey of random knowledge exploration with me. If you want to contribute, add something, comment or question or even suggest a post…I would be happy to hear from you. This blog is for anyone and everyone who loves learning.
Knowledge is the greatest legacy. Once the COVID-19 epidemic is over, we can look back on a library of human knowledge and see how far we, as individuals, have come and the effect it has had on our lives.
I promise you – it will be worth it. Let’s get through the COVID-19 isolation by building something special together. Nugget by nugget.