There you are, sitting on your sofa, the clock shows another five seconds ‘till the next episode comes on, you press the button and another useless day goes by.
We all had this experience, especially during the last year. Covid gave us so much free time being stuck at home.
This time doesn’t have to be spent binge-watching Netflix. We can use these extra hours to grow and improve ourselves. There are many productive things we can do to achieve these goals. So, we’ve gathered a few of these activities you can do until we can get out of the house again, and perhaps even after.
1. Learning a New Language
You’ve always wanted to learn a new language but never had the time for it. So, whether it’s improving your French to go study abroad or studying Klingon to impress your friends, you can use Duolingo to study a new language for free or use Tandem to practice with native speakers.
2. Learning How to Cook
We can’t order take out every day, too much money too many calories. By learning how to cook you can save up on both of them. You can take a look at Bon-Appetit’s channel on YouTube or TivonEat’s website for some healthy vegan food.
3. Learn to Play a New Instrument
Studies show that playing a musical instrument improves your cognitive abilities. Spend an hour a day playing that guitar laying next to your bed and you’ll have a new skill and perhaps even get smarter.
4. Start a Home Garden
With many of us living in apartments, home gardening had become the new thing. We advise starting with some good herbs like basil or parsley. You can grow them in one of these vases from Amazon.
5. Start a Workout Routine
Let’s admit it, we’ve all gained a few kilograms during quarantine. Now you have no excuse, many gyms are offering Zoom workouts. Instead of being a Couch-Potato you can work out next to your couch. Maybe it’s called a Couch-Carrot?
6. Writing a Journal
That might be so 90’s but this is a stressful time. Studies show that writing a journal can help you deal with anxiety, reduce stress and help to cope with depression. So, if you’re feeling kind of blue alone at home, don’t be shy, write your feelings.
7. Start Painting
Painting is simply a great way to spend your time, much better than simply scrolling through Instagram. Just order some paints and a canvas if you want to go fancy and start painting.
8. Volunteering
Its always a good time to do some good. You can volunteer even from home; schools are looking for volunteers to help in-risk kids prepare for their test on Zoom you can also get a bit of fresh air helping to get groceries to the elderly.
9. Organizing Your home
We never have enough time to truly clean and organize our home. Who even thinks about cleaning the house when you’re out of it during most hours of the day? Now we have nothing to do but confront our mess. So, pick up a mop and start cleaning, you can do it in small batches or fell a whole day with cleaning.
10. Email Clean Up
OK, so we haven’t cleaned up our mailbox either. Our mailbox is full of unread emails from sites that we signed on to three years ago. Now is the time to find a couple of hours to clean up your mailbox. What isn’t important goes directly to the trash.
11. Eating Healthier
Now we don’t have to eat at the university and we can start eating on a regular schedule. We can eat more fruits and vegetables and cut down on the munchies we ate in the cafeteria. You can find a few tips here.
12. Sort Out Your Finances
Expenses are down, just the time to look into spending more wisely. Getting a better deal from your internet provider, opening a savings account, improving your monthly spending, are just some of the things you can do. Have a look here for tips.
13. Enroll in an Online Course Just for Fun
When do we have the time to study just for fun? It could be South American poetry or learning JavaScript as long as it’s something you wanted to study just for you. You can enroll to many online courses on Udemy or Masterclass.
14. Meditate
This is a troubling time; we can all feel it. Meditation has helped people to deal with this kind of situation for millennia. Researchers at Harvard have even claimed that meditation and mindfulness help depressed patients change their brain structures. So, take this time and get to know your inner self.
15. Read a Book
You never really have the time to catch up on your reading. Now you can read a book just for fun or you can read an advisory book that will help you with anything we have already spoken about here. If reading isn’t really your thing, you can always find an audio-book on Audible.
16. Watch an Interesting Documentary
We know it's technically watching TV but watching a good documentary can really expand your worldview. We don’t need to say it, but Netflix has some great documentaries but if you want to be a little bit less mainstream have a look CuriosityStream for a variety of films
17. Catch Up on Some Sleep
Yep, that’s right, catching up on your sleep. In regular times, this could look like a lazy man’s activity but research shows that good sleep is as important as food or water. This is why you need to give yourself some time to relax and just sleep. It’s a tough year, give yourself some sleep.
18. Start a Small Business
Whether you lost your job or not, now is the time to become your own boss. Many people have been starting small businesses during this time. You can start your own bakery or sell stuff on eBay. You can even use one of the skills you’ve learned with the help of this article.
19. Form a Routine
Having an organized routine helps people stay sane during this time. Having a routine is technically the best way to stay productive whether during quarantine or in regular times. Just simply choose the most important things you want to fill your day with and organize them in a simple routine.
20. Choose at Least One Thing You Want to Take with You
We all hope one day Covid is going to go away and we could go back to our regular lives. We can ignore this fact and simply hope to stay in our beds, watching TV and doing nothing. But if you clicked on this article you aren’t that kind of person.
We advise you to take the suggestions from this article not just at a way to spend time during quarantine but as suggestions also for life after quarantine. It can be a hobby or your new schedule but what is truly important is to make these things matter even after quarantine is over.
