It's ok to be bored. Seriously. It's been 3 months in quarantine and you feel like you have tried every possible thing there is to do. You've even searched up on YouTube 'things to do when you're bored in quarantine'. That's when you know you've hit rock bottom. But hey, it's ok, I understand the struggle. This is a list of some stuff I've been doing to keep myself busy.
1) READ!!! I am a huge bookworm so obviously the first thing I would suggest is reading. If I'm honest with you I wasn't really reading much before quarantine and I was stuck in a huge reading slump. It actually took me a while to pick up the momentum again. For inspiration, you could watch some Booktubers on YouTube like jessethereader, A Clockwork Reader and polandbananasBOOKS. Also, once you've started reading, you can keep a book review journal to rant about the books you've read. I know that's effort and if you don't want to that's totally fine but once I started doing it, I really regretted not starting it earlier as ranting about a book is so satisfying (it's also probably because I'm a complete nerd). I will be putting up book suggestions and reviews on this blog so stay tuned!
2) Practise a musical instrument or make music. Music is food for the soul so whatever instrument you own, pick it up and give it a try. If you're thinking, "I need a music teacher to learn an instrument," trust me you don't and I can testify to this. The internet will be your best friend to get you started. Search up simple tutorials on YouTube or look at pictures of chord diagrams on google and the more you practise, the more you will progress. I personally have never had a private music tutor but I still can play and sing along to the ukulele, the guitar, the kalimba (more on this in a later blog post) and the keyboard, albeit to a very basic level. If you are thinking "But I don't own any instruments," you do... it's in your hands! There are so many apps online that allow you to play an instrument on your phone or computer. The one I suggest for you Apple device owners is Garageband. It has changed my life (a bit dramatic but it's true). I record and make all my music on it and the interface is so easy to use so I would highly recommend this to everyone.
3) Do an online course. I know this is probably something you've heard from everyone but this is literally one of the most productive things you can do with your time. Search up your favourite universities and see if they have any free courses you can do. Not only could you gain a qualification but there's a plethora of knowledge out there for you dig into and maybe you could find your new passion. I recently completed an online neuroscience course and though some of the concepts were difficult for me to wrap my head around, I found it so fascinating and I've gained knowledge to apply in future situations.
4) Arts and crafts is a great idea. Trust me I am no DIY expert, but even I found some things that I like doing in my spare time. At the start of quarantine, for no particular reason, I learnt how to make homemade scrunchies and I actually made quite a few. However, I found that I didn't really enjoy it that much so I picked up knitting and I have started to knit a simple blue scarf and it's taking me forever to finish; I've only done 15cm. Now every evening when I watch TV, I look like a grandma sitting on the sofa with a shawl because I watch and knit at the same time. I'm so determined to finish this scarf! I also find that drawing is quite therapeutic and even though most of my sketches end up in the bin, I think it's nice to have that time to focus on something and distract your mind from all other stresses.
5) Try cooking maybe. In food tech, I was renown in my class for always doing something wrong and to this date, I still don't know why I was so bad at cooking. I was perfectly capable of following instructions in chemistry but in food tech I was a disaster. So in this quarantine, I made it my mission to learn how to cook some very basic foods on the stove from my mum. I'm still on my cooking journey and right now I can only make very basic Indian food but hey, we need to start somewhere.
6) Clear out old class books. All you sentimental people out there probably have a place somewhere where you have collected your primary school and high school class books but if I'm honest with you, how often do you actually go back and refer to that maths book from year 5. I know that those books have your blood, sweat and tears in them but I suggest you reconsider what books you really need to keep. I'm not saying to just chuck the whole lot out but maybe have a think about the space you could create if you throw away books you will never look at again. In the wise words of Marie Kondo, "Does it spark joy?" If not, maybe it's time to part with it.
7) Watch all my youtube videos and subscribe to my channel! You know I have to put that sneaky self plug ;)
8) Write poetry. Most of you out there are probably sighing a huge frustrated sigh right now but hear me out. Poetry doesn't have to take effort. It doesn't have to rhyme, it doesn't need to follow any rules, it's just how you are feeling at that moment in words. If you know me then you know I love to write poetry and I think it is the perfect way to release all your tension and stress and it's the perfect emotional outlet. Even if you throw it away afterwards, that's fine. Even if you look back and cringe at old poems, that's fine (speaking from experience here). It doesn't have to be perfect, it's just how you feel in that moment. Wow, that just got deep.
9) Exercise Yes this is something very obvious and predictable but trust me it is so important for us to stay active to keep fit and have good mental health. Personally, I use some of Emi Wong's videos and I do those exercises every day so now it's part of my daily routine. I also like to do sit ups to music. If you're watching something on the TV or on your laptop, do some exercises or stretches as you are doing that and because your mind is so focussed on the screen, you won't have realised how much exercise yo
u have done and it won't seem so bad.
10) Start your own blog! Maybe you have a passion or talent that you want to share with the world or maybe you just want to have your own online space. Whatever it is, I think it's great to have somewhere where you can showcase... YOU!
If you're reading this, congratulations for making it this far! I know this may be cringey and there are probably many typos but I hope you have taken some ideas away from this post. I would love to chat to you guys so please send me any questions or interesting topics to me from the contact page and maybe it will be featured on a future blog post. For updates on my crazy life, you can subscribe to my mailing list so you get an email when I upload a new blog post. Thank you for visiting my tiny corner of the internet and see you next time!
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