Hamdah al Shamsi, a writer, speaker and financial coach, who spent three months working from home for the first time in her life, looks upon the lockdown period as a boon. From taking up meditation to being active on social media, uploading educational videos on YouTube to ‘Telling Tales’ on Omani culture, Hamdah has spent the most fulfilling time of her life under the lockdown. Here’s what she has to say: 

It has been a very busy three months for me, personally. I spent the whole time at home for the first time in my life which I found very interesting, in fact.  I worked on the things I could do from home and which require time alone, like mediation, prayers and studying and contemplating the Holy Quran which I had planned for a long time but never had the time to do.

At the beginning of this year, I took up a reading challenge of 30 books on Goodreads and I already finished 18 books, some of which I shared through the Book Club. In addition to that, I listened to hundred hours of audios which kept me busy during the lockdown. I also took few online courses to develop my skills.

For one, I had time to do the things I love, like cooking which I don’t have time for during my busy schedule before the lockdown Over the last few weeks I cooked my favorite recipes which I also shared with the family.

Being a writer, I did have time to write and I also did some coaching and training online. Most of my time, I spent uploading educational videos on my YouTube channel and updating my social media pages. One of the projects that I worked on during Ramadan, which I am proud of and I really enjoyed doing, was a Tale Telling initiative on my Instagram page.I would go live daily to tell a folk story with the purpose of entertaining and educating the youth about various aspects of Omani culture and heritage.   

I started a series of interviews with successful Omani women from different fields of life, which I posted on my YouTube channel, to inspire people by sharing the stories of these young women. That was something I wanted to do for a long time but never had the time for.