As you find yourself stuck inside day to day due to the coronavirus pandemic, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed, sad, confused and unmotivated. If you find yourself wandering around aimlessly, you’re not alone. To help you find joy and purpose in the coming days, check out the article below to find a list of things you can do while you’re stuck inside.
With the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in our midst, we find ourselves in a vulnerable and frightening situation. Everyone’s lives have been turned upside down, and people find themselves alone, at home, with a lot more time on their hands. If you’ve been wondering what to do with yourself, how to fill the days and pass the time, check out the list below for some ideas to keep you entertained or motivated as you distance yourself from others.
Stay Connected
Just because you can’t meet up with your friends at the movies or for dinner doesn’t mean you can’t stay connected. Check in via text or video chat. If you have certain traditions, like movie or game nights, keep them alive via webcam. It might not be the same, but maintaining your friendships and human connections is important during this time.
Read
Now is the time to tackle your to-be-read list. Choose a challenging book you’ve been putting off because of its size, or pick a lighthearted book to boost your mood. Perhaps you’d enjoy a self-help book to help guide you through this time and help you sort through your thoughts and emotions. No matter what you choose, take the time to relax and enjoy.
Educate Yourself
If you’ve always wanted to learn to speak another language or have thought about taking online courses to broaden your knowledge, now is the time. Spend your quarantine enriching your mind and bettering yourself. The situation the world finds itself in is certainly a scary one, but in some ways you’ve been given the gift of time. Use it wisely.
While you’re at it, you can also look into learning a new skill. And if you’re looking to supplement your income during this pandemic, check out my post on how to become a virtual assistant. It’s got a lot of information on how you can work from home assisting businesses online, including bloggers like myself. I use several virtual assistants to help the backend maintenance of this blog, so there is definitely a huge demand for this type of business.
Spend Time With Family
If you’re quarantined with your family, make time to create lasting memories. Play board games, read books, roast marshmallows over a fire pit, have family dinners, play catch, or do a puzzle.
Home Workout
It’s important that you keep moving. You don’t have to put on a ton of muscle or tackle a strenuous workout routine, but you should get up and move around. Do yoga, go for a jog if you can do so safely, or participate in an online fitness challenge. There are tons of them on Instagram and Pinterest. Just find something that works best for you and your fitness level.
Relax
Give yourself permission to take naps, check social media, enjoy a long shower, or have a self-care day. It’s important to remember that it’s okay to slow down during this time. The entire population is slowing down, taking a collective deep breath and figuring out the next move one step at a time.
Teach Yourself to Cook
If you’ve never been a master chef, advance your skills by preparing a recipe from your favorite cookbook, or simply browse through Pinterest for tons of ideas. Of course, I have tons of delicious recipes here on the blog for you too! If you are experienced in the kitchen, challenge yourself to create something new and exciting. Make a night of it. Sip some wine, listen to music, set the table, wear something besides pajamas, and enjoy yourself.
Spread Love
Continue to support small businesses during this time by ordering takeout, buying gift cards, and shopping online. Without support, some businesses will be forced to close their doors permanently. Support your favorites, buy local, and make sure they get to celebrate the end of quarantine with open doors.
Tap Into Your Creativity
If you’re an artistic type, create something that expresses your emotions (or distracts you from them). Paint, create music, try your hand at homemade bath bombs, write a poem, start a blog or anything else that inspires you and makes you feel alive inside. Ever wanted to to learn how to arrange flowers like a professional? Check out this online flower arranging masterclass with an option to turn your new flower arranging skill into your own business.
Have a Movie Marathon
Several viewing services are having deals right now. G, my first born fourteen year old son was just telling me about movies that were not set to release yet are available on digital now (he loves watching movies!), so finding tons of good movies/tv shows to watch should be easy. Binge your favorites with popcorn or my kids’ favorite chocolate-covered pretzels or your own fave candy or snack, or discover new characters/plots to dive into.
Take Care of Others
Check on those in your life, or in your neighborhood, that might be especially vulnerable right now. Bring them groceries, help financially if you can, or simply lend a listening ear to someone who’s frightened. It’s important that humanity gather together (though not physically) and stand united during moments like these.
Remember, it’s not about being perfect during this trying time. It’s about doing your best, whatever that looks like. Keep yourself entertained, motivated, engaged, and as happy as you can, whether that means binging Netflix, working out, or creating art to express yourself. Best of all, whatever you do, remember that we’re all in this together. Let’s all follow what the CDC has set in place to stop the spread of coronavirus so we can all help flatten the curve and beat this pandemic as soon as possible. It will only work if we all work together. The future is on our hands.
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A former school teacher, Jocelyn Brown created Hip Mama’s Place in 2007. Her motto for this blog is: get inspired, create and share! Jocelyn loves sharing about food and recipes, crafts, DIY projects and her random travels with her family. She also loves all things social media, but her latest obsession is Instagram.
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These are all great ideas. I love how you composed and listed all these, totally useful tips.
These are good suggestions. I don’t understand anyone who says they are bored. There are tons of things to do. I have been in lockdown in Spain for three weeks and I still don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done and I only sleep for 6 hours a night.
I like how you put it as a marathon haha. I think its the best time to finish the long series you been trying to finish for a long time due to the work schedule. Awesome tips.
Looks like you have great plan. Thanks for sharing all these tips really useful.
I am so over being stuck inside. These are some great things to keep me occupied.
These are great reminders. I’ve been cooking A LOT. Next, I will be uncluttering the house which I’ve been meaning to do for over 5 years,
Thanks for these great ideas! I finally have time to tackle my to-be-read list. Would be great to learn a new language!
Great ideas! We’ve been busy with house projects but we make sure to rest and relax too. It’s important.
I work from home around my son’s homeschooling adventures. Yet, not being able to leave our property has been hard to accept. Tapping into my creativity seems like the perfect way to escape for a bit. Never even considered it before because I am so busy at the moment.
During this quarantine period, I am teaching myself to try new things. I am also learning new skills and I am keeping up with my 30-day blog challenge. Hope that I will finish strong.
These are some amazing tips in this pandemic situation. I start my day with reading and I spend my time with kids and family
Staying connected is my favorite. I’ve got a lot more time connecting with my Mom online 🙂
That’s great, there are a lot of things we could do to stay both physically and mentally healthy. During the outbreak, it’s best that everyone stays indoors and makes the best use of this time! Knycx Journeying
Loving the list and examples of things that are truly doable at home during this time. BB’s Little One is looking for employment, will be forwarding the post so she can look into the VA course. Gracias for the link.B
I’am starting to do workout since and do some house chores since quarantine days to kill boredom thanks to this it would help a lot!
i def need more things to do around the house. ive been pretty lazy latley. ive cleaned but beyond that ive been watching too much tv and way too much tick tock lol.
You mean besides having intense anxiety over food shopping? Books/shows are a good distraction.
Been looking at doing some home workouts to make up for the lack of the gym, just need to find the perfect one for me
these are really great ideas, Thank you for sharing all this info
These are really great suggestion! thank you fro sharing this
A lot of things that I plan to do this period. I need to read some books , but also to relax a little bit!
These are great suggestions to help people adjust to these uncertain times. My heart goes out to all of those who have had their lives completely upended!
I think this is the best time to catch up on all pending matters, spending more time with the family, catch up with Netflix and also have adequate sleep. Don’t forget to eat healthy and exercise too! It’s all about balance too!
These are all such great ideas. I’ve been doing some reading myself. I did a lot more reading before the kids were home more though. I don’t seem to have a whole lot of extra time because of blogging and helping my kids with their work.
These are good ideas for things to do. I am still really busy even though we are at home all the time! One day I will get to some of them!
I love that you included personal development and READING. I am reading 2-3 books a week now and I am loving it!
These sound pretty practical ideas as we aim to stop the virus. Basically, we should a avoid contact with another individual
These sound pretty practical ideas as we aim to stop the virus. Keep safe by staying at home.
Great tips to keep ourselves busy while stuck at home. I haven’t been reading a lot and would love to do that.
These are all wonderful ideas. This is a great opportunity to learn something new.
i was just thinking of doing a post like this myself- basically everything you’re saying is what we are doing too ha. take care friend- hope you’re doing ok
I love all of these! Getting creative is my next venture!
a movie marathon sounds fun. or a tv series’ marathon. i just started to watch the 3rd season of Catherine the Great on Amazon Prime Video. Love it.
I decided to spend more time studying a foreign language as I cannot do it when I am at work. At present, we are not allowed to go outside and there is no choice but to stay at home. I use this opportunity to improve my language skills and improve blogging and my relationship with other people as well.
I did early spring cleaning during our quarantine. Thankfully, my fitness instructor is hosting daily zoom workouts, so I can still be active from my home. I’ve got a list of books now to keep me company until this is all over, so I’m glad that there is still plenty to do to keep the mind and body busy during these difficult times.
Since I’ve worked from home for many years now, this really isn’t much different for me. Except for the fact if I want to get up and go somewhere I could. I know its so different for other folks though who are leaving the home every day. I got into the puzzle stash today. Stay safe.
These are some great tips – I think there is so much to do if you spend some time thinking about it and you can always do something you have dreamed of learning!
I like this post a lot. I see so much belly aching out there about being stuck inside, but it’s not like we’re in a maximum security prison. There are THINGS we can DO while we’re at home.
Awesome ideas! I am usually spending my time either working, reading or studying and I love it.
I have been doing a lot of this! Reading has been a favorite of mine. My family has also done movie nights.
These are all great ideas and we all have to adjust to this new reality. i think getting caught up with cleaning is the best way to spend the downtime.