By Sophie Hutchison, Second Year History of Art
The Croft Magazine // Bored? Probably. We've been suddenly confined to our homes, unable to take part in our normal student escapades and adventures. So... what now?
Lockdown isn’t exactly what I had in mind for the Easter holidays - I was planning on meeting up with friends, going to the pub, and seeing family - but somehow now the highlight of my week is leaving the house to do the big food shop. Staying indoors all day is anything but exciting, and not being able to see friends in person can make things lonely - but all this extra time could be a great opportunity to learn a new skill, or read a book, or get some work done - after all, you won’t be doing much else!
Here’s 40 ways to entertain yourself in isolation, whether you’re looking to do something productive or just kill time.
Even though you can’t see your friends in the flesh, you can still see them online. Avoid the dry ‘what did you do today?’, ‘nothing’, ‘me neither’ conversations by organising:
- A virtual games night; see who can score the highest on Draw Something, Skribbl.io, or iMessenger games.
- A virtual wine night; getting drunk isn’t quite the same with nowhere to go afterwards, but it’s still pretty fun (also - it doesn’t count as drinking alone!).
- A virtual film night - Netflix Party lets you sync up your accounts and watch together with a live chat.
- A virtual dinner party; cook the same thing together over FaceTime and then eat it together - see whose turns out better.
- Try out every form of video chat service (Skype, FaceTime, Houseparty, Zoom) and discover which is the best.
- Play against each other in an online pub quiz - or each come up with 10 questions and make your own quiz.
- Make a quiz about yourself on buddymeter.com and then get upset when your ‘best friends’ don’t score full marks.
If you kind of like the whole isolation thing and want some alone time:
- Have a pamper evening; give yourself a glowup by doing your nails, doing a face mask, having a bath - whatever makes you feel good.
- Get a paint by numbers kit (Amazon have some really cool ones)
- Get a candle making kit.
- Get a bath bomb making kit.
- Get a soap making kit.
- Do the puzzle page in the paper.
- Bake a cake.
- Learn how to make bread.
- Get an ‘adult colouring-in’ book.
If you’re feeling productive:
- Maybe stop procrastinating and finish that essay, or start revising for summer exams
- If you’re spending a lot of time in your room, make it a nice place to be by tidying it…
- …if it’s already clean, go full Marie Kondo and rearrange your sock drawer.
- If you’ve excavated clothes you’ve not worn in years, put them on Depop or eBay and make some extra cash.
- With your remaining clothes, plan your outfits - even if you’re not seeing anyone, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dress up!
- Take up an instrument - Fender Play is free for three months, for example, if you’ve ever wanted to learn guitar.
- Cook dinner for your family, flatmates, or yourself.
- Write a diary entry every night.
- A tweet recently went viral on Twitter, claiming Shakespeare wrote King Lear whilst in quarantine during the Black Plague - whether that’s true or not, write a play, a short story, or a song.
- Learn a TikTok dance.
- Go viral on TikTok.
- Do some gardening, if you have a garden - or, if you don’t, buy some seeds and plant them on your windowsill.
- If you’re fit and healthy, offer to help a neighbour - pick up their shopping if they need a hand, or check in and give them a phone call to make sure they aren’t too lonely.
If you’re just bored:
- Try out a new makeup look.
- Pick up a book for once.
- Visit a virtual museum exhibition.
- Find out what figure from art history you look like on the Google Arts and Culture app.
- Make a quarantine playlist .
- Order a new board game and play with your family or flatmates (Grabolo is fun).
- Watch all the films on your watchlist - review them afterwards on Letterboxd.
- If you’re not usually very adventurous, branch out and watch some foreign films.
- Get on The Sims and have a house-building contest.
- Break out the Wii if you have one collecting dust somewhere and play games from your childhood.
- Write down all of the things you’re looking forward to doing once this is over.
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