What to do during this Quarantine
The lockdown is on for the next 20 days. Most of us are either sifting through the same social media applications all the time or are simply beneath the bed sheets, sleeping the hours away. While being unproductive couch potatoes is probably the best choice for most of us, I assure you once this lockdown is over we really aren’t getting any vacations for the rest of the year (because Capitalism won’t let us :)). So, Here are a few things you can do (beyond the regular netflix and chill) and make these days more productive.
- Learn an instrument
Get that instrument that you brought in full frenzy but never learnt. Youtube is flooded with tutorials and beginners sessions for most instruments. Spare 30 mins everyday, watch a tutorial and practice. By the end of this lockdown, you will at least know one composition. Good enough?
2. Learn a Course
Coursera, Udemy, Edx have a lot of free courses to learn from an array of fields. There are art courses, photography courses, social sciences and even coding from great Universities round the world. Most of the free courses might not offer you a certificate of completion but the sort of resources they provide are very engaging.
3. Peruse Articles online
There are many E-magazines available that offer very insightful articles. Aeon and Atlantic Magazine are some that have great articles for you to read. You can subscribe to their daily newsletters and come across something new every year. With a very accessible user display and great suggestions, is a great way to kill time and also read about some really cool stuff from the social and philosophical world. Also free. Yay!
4. Read Books
The New York Public Library with its Phone Application- SimplyE offers you various books that you can borrow for free on your phone. It has a great history and fiction section and very substantiated display making it easier to read on the screen. Other sites like Project Gutenberg and Manybooks.net are also useful. Happy reading!
5. Get that Hobby going
The writing piece that you didn’t complete, the video that you left unedited, the podcast idea that you still haven’t made concrete, the painting that is still devoid of the final strokes, the book that still has 100 unread pages and a million other projects and hobbies that you left half-finished. This is the time. Complete them. You will be very proud of this decision.
6. Cook
Now most of us are home, helping with the household chores, why not take the duty to cook breakfast for a day in your own hands? There are great recipes available on Pinterest and Youtube. Try the easier ones. Myfridgefood.com lets you select the ingredients you have in your homes and gives you recipes that you can make out of them. Easy?
7. Get those Board Games out
Those board games that are somewhere in the back of your cupboards, drenched in dust with sordid covers; get them out and clean them up. Get all your family members and play together. No matter how dysfunctional your family is, this process at least serves an hour of no melodrama.
8. “Exercise”
Do not skip already. Go to Pinterest, get yourself a 7 day challenge and start exercising. There are millions of workout plans available for you to choose from. If not exercising, try out Zumba or Dance routines from Youtube. You can learn great choreographies and simultaneously exercise.
9. Video Calls to the rescue!
This is the best time to be in touch with your friends and family. Call up your childhood friends and reminiscence the old times, video call your college friends and tell them how much you miss them, Text those friends living miles away or simply call your family to make sure they are okay. Connect. This is the most important time to be there for your loved ones.
10. Complete that pending work
There is a reason why this at the end. Now all of us have some work that has deadlines by the end of this lockdown and you are obviously being a procrastinator and shelving them for later. You know what, the best way to enjoy this time will be without that anxiety. Take a day, complete it and you are good to go.
While most of these suggestions aren’t any innovative in nature but I believe are suggestive enough to at least help you try out new things. So, Happy Quarantine. Stay Safe. Stay Indoors. Make the most of this time.
