Monday 31 August 2020

Coronavirus pandemic: 4 new post-lockdown habits

Quarantine, no doubt, has changed us – but not just for the worse! This article on vox.com, entitled “Quarantine has changed us – and it’s not all bad”, struck a chord recently as we were gradually coming out of lockdown. Note that I was originally going to publish this blog post much earlier, around the time the first lockdown restrictions were being lifted, but am only now getting around to it. I am positive, though, that it’ll still make for uplifting reading!

The following habits emerged during lockdown, and many people resolved to maintain them: 


1) Reducing consumerism

The most popular response to which habits to keep post-lockdown was the intention to reduce consumerism. The pandemic has led many of us to realise that much of our previous consumer behaviour had really just been about instant gratification, rather than enduring happiness. Reduced consumerism incidentally chimes with the principles of minimalism: being confined to our homes has prompted a large-scale rethink about our excessive, often mindless consumption of goods and services.  

 

Much of our consumer behaviour is just about
instant gratification, rather than enduring happiness
(image source: shop in Florence, photo by Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler)
 

 

My personal experience: 

Once it became evident that opportunities to meet friends and colleagues would take a virtual format for some time to come, I also realised that placing orders for new clothes or accessories was, in a way, pointless. Did you know, by the way, that the business for the sale of dressy tops and shirts (as opposed to bottoms), due to the extensive use of video work calls, has been booming over recent months?

 

2) Slowing down and putting less pressure on ourselves

Of course, not everyone has been able to benefit from the slower pace of life necessitated by the lockdown; yet for those who have been able to enjoy it, it felt pleasant. It has led to the wish among many to build additional space into post-pandemic life, too – for reflection, more relaxation, a focus on what really is important. Gearing down does us good! Many of us have resolved to put less pressure on ourselves in future. 

 

My personal experience: 

I carried on translating, but was able, finally, to slow down a bit as far as other, non-work commitments were concerned: by no longer rushing out to yoga at Emersons Green Village Hall every Monday and Wednesday evening; by not getting up early for parkrun on Saturday mornings; by not having to cook lunch in a rush on Sundays, as had often been the case previously to make sure my son wouldn’t be late for football. Don’t get me wrong: I do miss all these things! In a way, though, it did feel nice, just for once, to gear down.

 

Gearing down does us good!
(image source: David Schwarzenberg on Pixabay)


 

3) Prioritising family and friends

In a recent blog post related to the pandemic I noted that work isn’t the main thing in life. The acts of solidarity and human warmth which we experienced during the lockdown have been extraordinary. For what really matters in life is these things: kindness, empathy, love for oneself, and love for others. We all have come to appreciate the family members and friends who’ve been there for us during this taxing time. 


My personal experience:

As a family we spent a certain amount of time together, yet also kept busy with work commitments, business tasks, school work and household chores. Being busy is, of course, good and can even serve as a distraction when the world around you seemingly is falling apart.

At one point I started contacting one person per day to check in on them and ask how they were doing. In the end, though, it turned out that the lockdown hadn’t been long enough for me to make contact with yet more of the people who I have the privilege of knowing and mean a lot to me!

 

The pandemic has given us a glimpse of a future with cleaner air
(image source: sky over Lake Lugano, photo by Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler)



4) Ethical action and activism in our highly interconnected world 

As a result of the lockdown, we have seen the effects of climate change slow due to massively decreased carbon emissions from vehicles. The pandemic has given us a glimpse of a future with cleaner air. The outlook on climate change hasn’t been as upbeat as this for a long time! Many of us have set the intention to finally get a grip on reducing our carbon footprints, but also to donate more money to charity, buy from independent shops, and engage in political activism.

 

My personal experience: 

Many small businesses have been suffering severely because of the pandemic. I’ve resolved I’m going to buy more often from smaller, independent businesses in my area such as Melanie’s Kitchen in Downend or the Chapel Arts Café in Bath. During a recent mini-break in Dartmoor, my husband and I bought a large-scale photograph of Haytor from independent photographer Rob Hutchinson, both because we loved the photo and to support his work.


The pandemic has wrought havoc, human tragedy and economic turmoil across the globe, yet there are some reasons for optimism and even to feel cheerful. A recent article on vox.com sets out new habits that many people have vowed to maintain post-lockdown. Can you relate to them, too?

 

Read about 4 more new post-lockdown habits in my follow-up article “Coronavirus pandemic: 4 more new post-lockdown habits”.

Friday 28 August 2020

10 useful tools for translators

Handy time-saving, efficiency-increasing tools are not as out of reach as we may think. Some of these tools are freely available. Or they’re so good that, once we’ve tried them, we’ll want to use them all the time, even if that means paying for them to have access to their more advanced features.


During my current staycation, I finally got around to checking out a number of tools which I know several translators regularly use and highly recommend. They were described in an article on Alina Cincan’s blog some time ago. I am grateful to Alina for putting together the article and to my fellow translators for recommending them! I’ll list my favourites (in random order) below:


NaturalReader – a smart text-to-speech reader that will read texts to you in natural sounding voices (free to use for 20 minutes per day). Choose your favourite voice amongst several options for English (US), English (UK), German, French, Italian, Swedish or a few other languages.


LockHunter – a useful file unlocking programme, which allows you to identify, unlock, delete, copy or rename a locked file and to kill any locking processes on your computer.


Count Anything – a handy word-count utility for Windows, which supports the following file types: MS Word (.docx, .rtf), MS Excel (.xls, .csv), MS PowerPoint (.ppt); OpenOffice Writer (.odt), OpenOffice Impress (.odp), OpenOffice Calc (.ods); and HTML, XML, Text and PDF.


Everything Search Engine – a sophisticated file name search engine for Windows, which rapidly and reliably finds files and folders by name. For example, search for dm:today to locate any files and folders that were modified on your computer today.


Google Keep – a versatile note-taking app for photo notes, voice notes and checklists. It syncs between, e.g., your PC and your smartphone. It is possible to set up audible reminders or colour code notes.


Canva – a fantastic graphic design tool for creating customised graphics for social media or blog posts, posters or other visual content. Its basic features are free to use, although paid subscription options offering additional features are also available.


Flipboard – a convenient news aggregation site for the curation of articles, blog posts, videos and other pieces of content according to topics of your choice. A great site that’ll make it easy for me to quickly find articles on topics I often translate about, such as autonomous driving or AI!


Noisli – a fascinating programme for listening to background sounds that will help you focus while you’re working and that can even be mixed. I was intrigued by the sounds imitating the background noises of a coffee shop! Its nature sounds are similar to the nature sounds I regularly listen to on iTunes.


KeePass – a secure and proven password manager. Passwords are stored in an encrypted database, which can be unlocked with one master key. I’ve been using KeePass for managing my passwords for a while now, but was thrilled to find it was mentioned by a colleague in Alina’s article.


IntelliWebSearch – a must-have internet search tool for Windows which is designed to save translators, interpreters, editors and terminologists time when using the web in their work. Not new to me either, but I’m mentioning it because I, too, highly recommend it.


This blog post lists 10 handy, proven tools for translators, described in an article on Alina Cincan’s blog some time ago, which I familiarised myself with recently and which I warmly recommend. Some of them are freely available, or they are so good that, once you’ve tried them, you’ll likely be happy to pay for them.
 

 

(A German translation of this blog article is available here.)

 


Thursday 27 August 2020

Getting out of the rut: An unusual COVID-19 staycation plan

I’m staying put. I’ve stopped translation work for the summer break, and in usual circumstances there would have been endless possibilities as to what to do. My two children are enjoying a whale of a time in Germany with their two cousins, other members of my family and their friends in the village where I grew up, and my husband has headed over to Germany to stay with his mum for a bit, before he’ll travel back to the UK with our children. Until then, I’ll have plenty of time to myself.


With the pandemic still wreaking havoc across the globe, I don’t feel like going on holiday right now. I decided not to travel to Germany with my husband as I’d seen my family there only a few weeks ago. I’d have loved to explore Scotland further this year, and I am still keen to visit Milan. I’m also generally not a beach-and-hot-and-sunny-weather person at all, so am always relieved anyway whenever the beach holiday option is not on the table. So I’ve decided to stay put. I feel safe at home. I enjoy being at home.

 


 

Working hard, resting hard 

How to fill a COVID-19-induced staycation? I came up with an unusual plan: I’d both indulge in holiday-type activities on the one hand, and work on my business on the other hand, and I’d do this on alternate days! When I mentioned to my brother-in-law what I was up to, he remarked – perhaps rightly so – that it sounded like this wasn’t going to be a holiday at all. Fair enough, and yes, it certainly wouldn’t feel like a normal holiday. Yet, in these strange times what of anything that we all currently do feels normal?
 

I’d realised I was really craving this time to be spent at home in this way, so I could work on my business (rather than just in it!). I’d been neglecting this side of running a freelance translation business for what felt far too long. No doubt at the end of it I’d feel glad to have taken this staycation not just to relax, but also to achieve something that would catapult me slightly forward in my job. Get me out of the recent rut. And help me adjust the direction I was heading in with my business.


A theme for each working-on-my-business day 

I gave each of my working-on-my-business days a theme (but would quickly realise that just one day wasn’t going to be enough!): on my “website day” I’d carry on revamping my website. My “marketing day” would be dedicated to updating my CV, sketching out my next marketing campaign etc. On my “tools and software day” I’d familiarise myself with the latest version of memoQ, my translation software, and explore new tools (to be described in my next blog post). Another day would simply be a “decluttering day”, on which I’d tidy up my hard drives and cloud storage spaces, sort browser bookmarks etc. So far, so good.

 

The luxury of having plenty of time and living slowly 

Every second day, by contrast, would be reserved for holiday-type activities: participating in Jala Flow Yoga live sessions via Zoom at 9.30 a.m. on weekdays (Hatha yoga, Vinyasa Flow yoga and Yin yoga to choose from). Losing myself in a good book (such as currently “The Salt Path” by Raynor Winn). Having a massage. Writing blog articles. Meeting a friend for a socially distanced walk in the park. Listening to YouTube videos. Cycling to Bath to sit in a café. Having plenty of time to sit outside on the patio and read the newspaper. Simple pleasures.


With the pandemic still raging and posing a massive threat, we’ve probably all thought twice about what would be appropriate for us holiday-wise this year. And pandemic considerations aside, there also is something to be said for not splashing out, even if we could afford it, as I read in a minimalism-related article recently. It was a thought I felt I could relate to: living simply and not just within, but perhaps even under our means can make a difference to how we perceive what we experience, whether during a staycation or at other times.


This year, the year in which COVID-19 struck, I’m adhering to an unusual holiday plan that will do not just me, but also my business good. It’s designed to help me adjust the direction I’m heading in with my business. But it is also giving me ample time to engage in activities that I would probably have pursued on a “normal” holiday anyway.