5 top tips for personal betterment in 2021
The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be slowly approaching with the pandemic, but even in the new year many of us are still stuck inside our homes, trying to get work done as best as we can, and making the best of a bad situation.
Trying to stay positive and productive as we delve further into the new year, and need some inspiration? Well, to help get you inspired, take a look at this quick guide, outlining 5 top tips for personal betterment in 2021.
Outlining your personal goals for the months ahead
A great place to start when thinking of how to stay productive and work towards becoming the best version of yourself is to sit down and think about what you want to achieve. This could be for the entire year, for the short term, or even for the far-flung future. Staying motivated and productive can be extremely challenging if you don’t have these sorts of formative aspirations in place, and so clearing your mind and thinking of where you want to be will help you to ultimately work towards that goal in everything you do, even if you don’t realize it.
Getting a better grip on your finances
While money certainly doesn’t make the world go round, living with financial strain and burdens can make life extremely stressful and challenging, particularly when you have commitments, bills to pay, and mouths to feed. Once you’ve outlined your goals, a great next step can be taking a closer look at your finances and analyzing where your money is going each month. From there, you might be able to cancel some subscriptions/payments that you no longer are getting any use out of, and start to build up a ‘rainy day fund’ or financial buffer that can give you general confidence in life going forward. This is especially a great idea if you’re looking forward to getting out with friends following lockdown restrictions being lifted.
Investing your money for the future
Once you’ve accrued a decent amount of savings together, a great next step can be putting that money into a productive investment strategy. Not only will this help you to use the money that you’ve saved efficiently, rather than sitting and gathering dust in a minimal interest savings account, but it can also begin to formulate the backbone of your financial portfolio for the future.
New to investing, and unsure of where to get started? There is a wide range of different avenues you can choose to go down online, completely free of charge. If interested in the property market, for example, as a long-term and tangible strategy, you might decide to check out one of the many guides offered by RWinvest, in formats from video, to pdf guides and even podcasts.
Learning a new skill
Always wanted to learn how to play a new instrument, or perhaps maybe even how to learn a new language? Many of us have plenty of extra time on our hands during a lockdown, and so now could be the perfect time to get started with that hobby you’ve been putting off. There are hundreds of free resources online to help you learn, and apps can also be a great way to passively learn a skill on a daily, incremental basis as a break from the work-from-home monotony.
Sticking to a schedule
To finish, if you feel like you’re stuck in a Groundhog Day situation in lockdown, and find it difficult to stay motivated, trying to force yourself into a rigorous schedule can help quite a bit. You could try outlining the tasks that you have to complete in a given day in a checklist-style format so that you can refer back and monitor your progress throughout the week. Sticking to a tradition and a routine is extremely difficult during this current period, and so outlining what you want to in advance can help massively.
