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6 Interesting Skills Learned During the Pandemic

06 Jul 2021 By: Diane Gottsman

2020 was a unique year… one that many people are ready to put in their rearview mirror, and understandably so. For some, the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it the harsh realities of losing jobs, loved ones and a sense of normalcy. However, the year wasn’t all bad. Here are six interesting skills learned during the pandemic that show resilience and good things can be found in a crisis.

Interesting skills learned during the pandemic, interesting skills, skills learned during the pandemic

How to Make Sourdough Bread

When the pandemic started and people were instructed to stay indoors, something unique happened. People began to bake. Interestingly, baking can be therapeutic and ease anxiety, which many people experienced at the height of the pandemic. Whether you used your newfound baking skills to feel better during a stressful time or simply curb boredom, it is a great skill to have now and show off at your next gathering.

How to Slow Down

While this skill learned during the pandemic may have felt forced on you at first, the pandemic truly did teach people how to slow down. For a while, there wasn’t much of a choice but to do that. The traditional hustle and bustle of life came to a screeching halt. You no longer had to rush from work to your child’s soccer game to home to make dinner. Your typical weekend plans to hang out with friends or see a show were canceled indefinitely. Life slowed down. And while this may have felt uncomfortable at first, people soon began to see the value in not rushing through life. This is a positive lesson you can use even as life begins to go back to normal. 

How to Budget

During the first two months of the height of the pandemic, 20.6 million people lost their jobs. This harsh reality brought with it a valuable lesson: how to budget and manage money wisely. Without a clear end in sight, the importance of stewarding your money well during the pandemic became essential. Now, as more people return to work, you can apply this lesson to set yourself up for financial success and stability. 

How to Build a Puzzle

2020 may go down as the year of the toilet paper shortage, but bathroom tissue wasn’t the only product selling out online and in stores. With more people at home with additional time on their hands, puzzle sales skyrocketed in 2020. Puzzles take attention and focus, so they were a great way to find peace and calm during a hectic time. If you built a puzzle during the pandemic, have it framed and keep it to remind you of the good things that came from 2020. 

How to be More Patient

Patience is a virtue, and 2020 required a lot of it. With ever-changing rules and regulations for mask mandates, social distancing and how long the pandemic would last, people had to learn how to be patient, and they had to learn it quickly. Fortunately, patience is a positive characteristic that benefits you in all aspects of life. If you became more patient during the pandemic, take it as a blessing. This is one of the skills learned during the pandemic you can use to better your life in the years to come. 

How to Get Along with More People and Less Privacy

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic brought people together in more ways than one. Schools closed and jobs asked employees to work from home. Whether you live with a significant other, your children, or your roommates, you saw a lot more of them in 2020. Communication and conflict resolution became the norm. Fortunately, these are also skills you can use in all relationships throughout life.  

There are many more things people learned during Covid, such as how to use Zoom for video conferencing, the importance of maintaining connections from afar, how to navigate differences and more. If you’re struggling with finding the good things that came from 2020, ask yourself what interesting skills you learned during the pandemic to help you live better now and in the future. 

For more information, check out The Protocol School of Texas. You may also like Navigating Greetings, Social Invitations and Vaccination Questions. For more of Diane’s etiquette tips, read her posts on Inc., subscribe to her articles on The Huffington Post, “like” The Protocol School of Texas on Facebook, and follow her on Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. 

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Diane Gottsman

Diane Gottsman is a national etiquette expert and modern manners professional, sought out industry leader, television personality, accomplished speaker, Huffington Post blogger, author, and the owner of The Protocol School of Texas, a company specializing in executive leadership and etiquette training. Diane is routinely quoted in national and international media including The New York Times, The BBC, CNN, Bloomberg Business Week, Kiplinger, Huffington Post Canada, U.S. News and World Report, and Forbes. She is the resident etiquette expert for two popular morning talk shows, SA Living and Good Day Austin. She has been seen on The TODAY Show, HLN Headline News, WGN Chicago, and CBS Sunday Morning. Her clients range from university students to Fortune 500 companies and her workshops cover topics ranging from tattoos in the workplace to technology at the dinner table and the proper use of social media.