How to Utilize Lockdown Period Correctly?

In the current times, where the complete world is battling against the coronavirus, different countries have adopted to different strategies to fight against the coronavirus. Lockdown has been one of the widely adapted techniques, implemented worldwide to battle against or delay the deadly coronavirus. The lockdown time has brought along a lot too many hardships for all the sectors of economy and population. Apart from all the restrictions that we face, cut off from access to different institutions and places of work and study has been one of the biggest challenges. Many aspirants engaged in exam preparations for GATE 2022 or ESE 2021 or any other exams have been facing this as a big hindrance to achieving their educational goals.

The lockdown time has brought along in-numerous problems but on a good note, it has given us the gift of time. Time to analyze, to recalibrate our actions, change our routes and invest without any time bounds on what we really aspire to do. There are uncountable instances when we feel incapable of achieving something due to lack of time. Think of all the times you felt, you could practice more if you had a little more time. Every time you wanted to change your approach or way, but thought it’s too late. Now is the time!

In this article, we discuss how aspirants can utilize the lockdown time correctly to achieve their goals. Now that there is ample of time, all that is needed is to utilize it most efficiently and correctly to achieve all that you aspire for.

1. Accept: Until you decide to accept the current situation, as it is; you would not be able to do much about it. If you are stuck on finding someone to blame for the covid-19 situation, or to find ways to go back from it, you probably can’t move forward. The coronavirus and the lockdown time should not affect your educational goals. The sooner you accept the current situation, the better you are mentally equipped to face it.Give your mind ample space to grow, ample energy to invest in places, where it is needed by refraining from such discussions. As an aspirant, you need to accept what is going on. Acceptance is the first stage of moving forward towards achievement.
2. Analyze: Analyze your available resources. The space that you can use, the best technology you have access to, the books that you have and even the smallest of the things that you might need to achieve your educational goals. Since GATE 2022 and ESE 2021 are to be conducted in different modes, their exam preparation also needs different resources. Once you analyze your resources, you need to know where you currently stand in terms of your exam preparation: are you a beginner, starting for the first time; are you appearing for improving your rank; are you currently working or college going. After you know what your current level of knowledge is, you need to choose a route to proceed towards your educational goal. Once it is known what is to be done, what is left to do is to plan how to do it.

3. Plan: Of all the time you have got, plan how you would use it throughout the day, so that you can put your most efficient self to use. The most important thing while exam preparation in this lockdown time is to avoid monotonicity, so that you can do work on your smart goal for a longer time of the day. Make your study sessions a mix of learning, revision and practice. Interlace these sessions with some breaks for exercise, yoga and recreation, as well.
   Try to make a fixed schedule for yourself, making room for everything that you wish to do in the lockdown time. But, at the same time, keep making changes to this schedule so that it does not become monotonous to follow. For example, you can shuffle your hobbies between drawing, singing and writing, so that it does not become a boring routine, rather an interesting activity for the day. Balance time between yourself and your family, giving enough to both.

4. Balance: Since the beginning of the lockdown, many of us have been enjoying the family time we have got after a long time. Many of us found ourselves amid group activities, family dinners, cooking sessions and what not. All this is a healthy and good practice, but what is equally important is to balance the time between family and your exam preparation. What is needed is a perfect balance so that you can focus on your educational goals, while you also, do not miss out on other activities, in short, you need to set smart goals.
   Make space for your hobbies, your family, your exam preparation, your physical health and even your mental health in your schedule. There is enough time nowadays to accommodate all of this in a day’s routine, provided you have the required discipline. Therefore, next comes the discipline that is needed to be put in.
5. Discipline: Not only in the lockdown time, but rather, in general, discipline is a virtue that can help you win any battle of any magnitude. Needless to mention the importance of discipline for aspirants of GATE 2022 or ESE 2021 to achieve their smart goals. It has become even more important in the times of the Covid-19 pandemic for the successful achievement of your educational goals. With everyone staying home and no definite work to be completed, distractions have increased more than ever and it thus, becomes tuff to stay tight on your schedule.
   As an aspirant, you need to remember that the moment you lose your discipline, you take a step backwards from your smart goal. You can use the reward and punishment mechanism for yourself to stay disciplined to your schedule.
6. Environment: If you are away from your regular place of study or your study spot, before you restart your exam preparation, you need to find yourself a good lively spot. A fixed spot to do a task helps maintain a discipline and routine to accomplish it. Find a well-lit space in your home, preferably any place that receives ample natural light and good ventilation. Try to keep the place clean and tidy, all set up for the task you are supposed to do there. Untidiness attracts laziness and stops the positivity to upkeep.
   Set up the place with a list of your smart goals: your daily goal, your weekly goal and the ultimate educational goal. When you will accomplish them, you will get a sense of achievement and the confidence to move forward and achieve even more. Even in these gloomy times, little things like these can keep you motivated and the exam preparation going on. All you need to do is avoid anxiety and restlessness at all costs.

7. Avoid Negativity: To stay away from negativity to achieve a goal, is as important as having a goal in life, in the first place. In these times of Coronavirus pandemic, when negativity and anxiety is spreading many times faster than the virus itself, it becomes all the more important to stay positive to be able to stay motivated to achieve our smart goals. As aspirants, you can even avoid too much news, social media and other platforms to avoid distractions and anxiety about what is going around.
   Not that you need to be ignorant of what is happening, but, yes, you need to be selective about what reaches your brain and what affects you and your wellbeing. Thinking a lot about the future, the current situation or the global crisis might put you in a spot of feeling helpless. Exercising, yoga and meditation are yet another ways of maintaining the positivity within you.
8. Control Yourself: Yoga and meditation are gateways to your mind and body. Even though we have no control on what happens outside, whether jobs will reduce, exams would be delayed or the competition will increase. We can always control what happens inside our body and how the outside can have the minimum effect on us. Meditation, pace breathing or even yoga helps the human body to reduce anxiety, think more creatively, sit through longer spans for studying, keep the body and mind calm, fresh and inducing more energy into the body. All this happens through a systematic increase of oxygen flow in the blood stream due to exercising, yoga and meditation.
   Keep tabs on your food habits, your sleep cycle and the water intake, as it might become even tough to do that while you are at home, all the time. But it is inevitably necessary to maintain our physical as well as mental health. For maintaining a healthy mind in such times, it is also important that you stay in touch with all your friends and fellow aspirants.

9. Community: All the aspirants of GATE 2022 and ESE 2021 are going through the exact same crisis, as of now. All your fellow aspirants are on the same page, maybe a little ahead, but the difference is not that vast, that your will can not overcome it. Those of us who fight it better will survive it better. Talk regularly with your friends and fellow aspirants and find out how they are tackling the crisis and what they are doing to aid their exam preparation. Which online course did they find helpful, what is the best coaching provide maximum support for online classes or test series, and even you can join the same.
   No matter how less resources you have, if you have a will then that might just suffice. New initiatives like Concepts through Questions have come into light. These kind of online courses require least resources, just a smartphone would do.
10. Upgrade Skills: It is never a bad idea to have a backup. Use the lockdown to brush up some old skill set, work upon your old hobbies or develop a backup skill set. Working upon your hobbies also helps the mind stay creative and in good shape. It would give you additional confidence and also, help break the monotonicity in routine. This would also give you a chance to work together and learn with different groups of people, interact with them and utilize the lockdown time most efficiently.

Nothing is forever, nor the coronavirus pandemic, neither the lockdown time even this lockdown. This too shall pass. The wisest would be those who accept them, cope with them and move forward. No matter how challenging the changes would be, still aspirants would qualify, graduate and even top the exams. Left behind would only be those, who thought a lot about the pandemic and gave it more of themselves, than it deserved. Stay home, stay safe and use the lockdown time as an opportunity to work the hardest to achieve your goals of GATE 2022 and ESE 2021.

Dear Aspirants,

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