While it might seem almost distasteful to suggest that a global pandemic costing trillions to the global economy and millions of lives has been anything other than catastrophic, the fact is that there have been considerable upsides. If we want to make the world a better place and make our lives better in the years to come, then it's worth taking stock of what changed for the better over the past year.

Less Pollution

When all the cars were removed from the roads, the quality of the air became noticeably better, particularly in city centres. Now that Londoners and other city-dwellers have an idea of what they're missing, it's likely that we'll see public support for more aggressive pollution-reduction measures. Good news for everyone who breathes!

Wake-Up Call for Future Pandemics

Prior to 2020, many of us had difficulty imagining that a disaster of this global scale could ever unfold. We'd already been numbed by a series of scary-sounding headlines about Ebola, bird flu, and H1N1, and many of us scoffed at the idea that we'd be locked down for weeks - never mind for months on end.

There's every possibility that more deadly and contagious viruses might arrive in the future, and we'll need to be able to learn lessons from this pandemic so that our institutions can react to the ones coming down the line.

New Entrepreneurial Spirit

The lockdown produced an unprecedented boom in new business registrations, with nearly half a million new businesses (468,371) coming to be over the course of 2020, according to research published by Rotherham-based printing company instantprint. Much of the growth came from online sales, which boomed as customers moved away from the high street. Interestingly, more than a quarter of the new businesses registered can be found in London (123,462).

Better Work-Life Balance

With more of us working from home, we've developed greater flexibility to arrange our work lives around our personal lives. That means more time to see the family, and fewer missed dinners. For many, this might be a major consideration when considering a career in the future.

More Time for Health and Fitness

If you've been using the time you would have spent commuting to work on your personal fitness, then you might have managed to make significant improvements over the course of the past year. The same thing applies to your eating habits - now that you aren't picking up food on the go, the chances are that you're eating better. This is especially so if you've been learning to cook over lockdown, too! Of course, not everyone has managed to do this - there's been a marked increase in obesity over the lockdown, as we chow down on takeaways just as a means of entertaining ourselves.

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