03 Nov 2023
An IOM UN Migration report said that the Gambia is one of the smallest African countries with a population of about 2.3 million people. An estimated 118,000 Gambians live abroad, the same report said, to earn a living and send money to Gambia to offer financial support to their families back home.
This financial contribution of the Gambina migrants accounts for over 20% of the country’s entire GDP.
In 2022, the World Bank said, the nominal GDP of the Gambia was $2.27 billion and its GDP per capita income in the same year was $840, according to another World Bank report.
In another report, the World Bank stated that the quantum of inward remittances to the Gambia in 2022 was over $600 million ($615,432,852, to be exact).
Several factors push the Gambians to travel abroad and work in foreign lands. But one of the primary reasons is to find jobs they cannot find in their native country. This leads to poverty due to which the families suffer financially.
Finding jobs in foreign countries is relatively easy provided you have the necessary education, skills, and experience but once you get a job, you need to put effort into continuing working. You need to ensure that your every day at work is more productive than the previous day and that you perform better than before.
But do you know how can you do this? How can you perform better at your job which is a prerequisite to excel in your career?
While you may think of many reasons, one of the most underrated reasons is how you spend your free time.
Always remember that in your professional life how you spend your free time has a direct bearing on your professional performance.
This blog will shed light on the importance of your free time and how you can spend your free time as a Gambian expatriate.
You work in a foreign land to earn a living and support those financially dependent on you through a money transfer to Gambia. Right? Don’t you think it is pretty stressful to be working in a foreign land against all the odds, and you need time to relax and enjoy?
Of course, you do!
And why you need free time to relax in your daily routine is explained below.
You have many problems in your life other than work and job. And these problems require solutions. But if you are constantly focused on your job and work, your brain will not find solutions to these problems. Therefore, your brain needs time to do nothing so that it explores options and comes up with innovative solutions.
In your free time, you need to allow your brain to be calm and serene and just forget about the worries about, for example, How To Save Money While Transferring Funds Internationally, because after all you are working to earn and support your family back home financially.
This decluttering of your mind increases its performance and boosts its strength.
In your free time, your brain prepares itself for the unknown, as life is full of uncertainties and several challenges that can appear at times. So, in such a scenario, a pre-prepared brain can handle the situation better than one that’s not because of being too preoccupied with routine matters.
Take a moment in your free time to sit back, look around, think about your life and journey and appreciate all that is good and positive.
Your mind, no matter how powerful, is not meant to work and be productive, creative and innovative all the time. And if you push it hard enough to be working non-stop, it will impact your mental health negatively. Therefore, it is essential to have free time to increase your mental health.
Let’s see how you should spend your free time abroad while you earn a living as a Gambian expatriate to send money to Gambia online to offer financial aid back home.
When you are not working, you should do the following.
There is no need to list the benefits of meditation as these are well-known and documented. But it does help you calm down, increase focus, and get clear thinking. So, allocate 15 minutes to meditation daily.
Physical exercise keeps you in shape, enhances your immunity and keeps you away from illnesses. It is essential to incorporate exercise into your daily routine, no matter how tough and busy your routine is.
Books are to your cognitive muscle what food is to your body. Needless to say, the best way to spend your free time is to read books which offer ideas, solutions, lessons for life, and so on.
Spending time with your family and vacationing with them should not depend on your free time. You must schedule it regardless of how demanding your job is.
You should look for courses and classes that relate to what industry you work in and what job you do. It will fine-tune your existing skills, teach you new things about your job and industry and well, your time is thus well spent!
With your job, you can undertake several other creative pursuits that can make your life more enjoyable and even add value to what you are already doing. But it is possible only when you manage your time effectively.
Additionally, you can:
Given the core purpose for which you have expatriated, which is to earn money and save it, you must find a service provider that helps you save on your online money transfer to Gambia. For this, your best bet can be ACE Money Transfer due to its low fees, live and market-competitive exchange rates, and several other features from just one stop.
Ans. Effective time management is the process of planning your time and controlling the time you spend on doing certain tasks. It is done to increase efficiency and be more productive in whatever one does.
Ans. A few benefits of effective time management include reduced stress, increased productivity, mental sharpness, increased focus on work, and high energy levels to perform better.
Ans. Gambian migrants need to manage their time effectively because they have a tough routine abroad and have to earn a living in a foreign land against all the odds. So, effective time management can help them with the benefits explained above.
Ans. You can spend your free time in meditation, vacationing with your family, exercising and physically exerting yourself, reading books, listening to podcasts, walking and learning new courses.
Ans. With effective time management, you reduce your mental stress which has a direct bearing on your mental health. But when your mental stress is relieved, you feel positive, happy and good, all of which increase your mental health.
