Keeping busy during uncertain times

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Being self-employed during a pandemic is most definitely an experience. When lockdown was instructed, contracts and agreements of work were understandably cancelled and it was a really uncertain time that I wouldn’t get any work in. Although homeschooling and keeping my children happy and entertained definitely kept me busy, I also spent some of the down time improving my skills and learning something new.

Learning new skills

I’ve been a blogger / content creator for many years now and although some would say I’m experienced, I am always looking for ways to improve my understanding and technical knowhow of all things digital.

During the height of lockdown, I took the opportunity to sign up to some refresher courses run by a well known search engine optimisation brand and began to learn and re-educate myself on all things SEO. It was something that I had always wanted to do, it was beneficial for me to learn and would help me in the long term with my business. There are courses for keyword research, page optimisation, SEO fundamentals and site audit. All of which are things I should probably have learnt about before I started pouring hundreds of hours into blog posts over a decade ago.

CPD for the self-employed

Taking the opportunity to learn is something that I like doing. There is always something you don’t know and I find it fascinating to learn and educate myself on topics that others in my sector already know. My ‘side hustle’ has turned into my day-to-day business and I’m always keen to add to my CPD (Continuing Professional Development) to enhance my skills and learning.

One of the things I have always wanted to re-educate myself on is web design. It baffles me how much I don’t know about the technical know-how of how to build a website. When I have a problem with my blog I always turn to my technical guru who can help me out but sometimes it’s always worth knowing how to check things and make important changes yourself. You can take online web design courses which is always a good way of adding to your knowledge and skill set.

Reflect and improve

Another way I have been keeping busy during lockdown is to reflect on sections of my blog/website and improve them. Again this goes back to learning how to implement SEO properly and improving the content I had previously written. It’s incredible what can be achieved when you have the right knowledge and understanding.

That’s how I’ve mainly being keeping busy during lockdown. It’s all adding to the greater good and keeping my mind active away from CBeebies and Key Stage 1 Maths work! Did you learn something new during lockdown?

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