So far, I have been enjoying the lock-down. Well, I am a homebody, so I guess it was easy to adapt. However, I can’t say the same for many of my friends, they complain of being bored and gradually losing their mind. Realizing, this is the case with many others, I thought to share Productive things to do when bored at home. I have been doing most of these and I’ve been coping with being at home, so it’s definitely working for me. I hope it does for you too.
30 Thing To Do When Bored At Home
Self Care Things To Do When Bored At Home
Try Journaling
Ever tried keeping a journal? Journaling is the practice of keeping a journal or diary where you document your daily thoughts, actions and feelings.
Journaling is so therapeutic and currently, with all that’s happening, we need all the therapy we can get
Never in all 24 years, I have lived, did I for once think that a time will come when the government would issue a “Stay At Home” order. But this is our reality now. All over the world, most people are home, practising social distancing. This COVID-19 pandemic is taking a huge toll on all, the world is literally grounded. Sometimes it looks like this is all a scene from a dark horror movie. Unfortunately, it is what we are presently faced with.
While heroes in scrubs do their bests to fight this virus, it’s up to the rest of us to do our best to stay safe and equally stay sane. The latter has become a herculean task for many.
I have experienced my own bouts of panic attacks, anxiety and more. For a week, I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t concentrate on work, create contents or even have a peaceful sleep. But slowly, I began to put effort into regaining my peace and one of the ways I achieved that was through journaling.
Video Call Your Loved Ones.
While some are lucky to be social distancing with their families, others aren’t so lucky. if you are home alone, it’s easy to feel lonely and left out this period. Try to bridge the gap by constantly communicating with your family and friends. Instead of conventional calling, try video calling as it has a more intimate feel- you can see their faces, read their expressions and watch them laugh heartily.
Digital Detox
Twitter, Instagram and all can be a little too much sometimes. I first read about going on a Digital Detox when Asakemi of Asakemi.com shared her post on dealing with digital clutter.
Basically a digital Detox entails you staying away from the digital world for a while. It is very therapeutic as you get to realign yourself to find fun without being on social media. Go read Asakemi’s post to learn more about Digital Detox
Yoga
To be honest, I am new to Yoga. I started a month ago and it’s honestly such a relaxing way to spend time, meditate and also stay fit. Talk about multitasking. My favourite beginner-friendly Yoga channel is on YouTube.
There are 24 hours in a day and we have to spend the entire time at home, setting up activities throughout the day will help you utilize time properly.
In my case, I decided to incorporate Yoga into my daily routine. The time I would normally use to commute to work has now been delegated to doing Yoga.
Start Keeping A Gratitude Jar
A gratitude jar is simply a jar full of gratitude. The idea is to write down the things you are grateful for (no matter how small) and put in the jar.
During an unpleasant day, reading through your gratitude jar works like magic to remind you of all the beautiful things that have happened to you and it also gives you hope that although your day was unpleasant, there are better days ahead.
Creating a gratitude jar is such an exciting thing to do when bored at home.
I’ve been procrastinating on keeping a gratitude jar for a long time now. I keep a gratitude journal but I’ve yearned to start a gratitude jar since I read a post by Cassie Daves.
Writing about it now, makes me want to seriously start keeping one and this time, I ain’t letting procrastination get the best of me. Don’t worry I will create a blog post once I do.
Practice Positive Affirmations
One of my favourite things to do when bored at home is to practise positive affirmations.
Positive affirmations are mantras that are meant to spur you on and encourage you. Positive affirmations have been scientifically proven to help people live their best life by reducing threats and improving performance. Also, people who practise positive affirmations are more receptive to making errors and rather than stay down and beat themselves, they get up and get going. This makes it hard for people who use positive affirmation for living their best life to hardly fall into a negative mental fog.
The best way to inculcate positive affirmations into your life is to start by practising daily. And you can grow this habit using any of the following tips for practising positive affirmations.
- Have a handful of your best affirmations: write them down in your journal or stick-on notes and place in strategic locations where you are bound to see daily.
- Add it to your routines: Having routines is necessary for self-growth and personal development as a millennial. Develop a powerfully productive morning or night routine and include time for your affirmations to your routines.
Examples of Productive Positive Affirmations
- I’m not mediocre, I give my best in everything I do
- I choose to strive to live healthier, work smarter and challenge myself to be the best version of me
- I choose what I believe, what I listen to and I cut off all things that don’t add value to my life
- It’s okay sometimes to just breathe
- My mere existence is a blessing to the world
- I refuse to allow my family and friends to force me into making the wrong choices
- Always put myself first because I am worth being the number one.
- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me
- I refuse to accept any love that’s shallow and false
- I’ll protect my sanity and life at all cost even if it means walking away
- The floodgates of heaven are open to me and I tap into my blessings
- I don’t let my past shape or define me
- I know and believe strongly that God has a plan for me, that I have a purpose on this earth and I refuse to settle for less.
There are many more amazing positive affirmations you can practise.
To get VVIP access to my full list of positive affirmations for living your best life, subscribe below.
Home Spa Day
Can’t go to the spa because of the lockdown? Then indulge in a blissful home spa day. Don’t worry you probably already have most of the ingredients to give yourself a spa treatment at home.
Start off with face steam to open up your pores. Next, try out a face mask of any kind. I especially love sheet masks from Miniso.
Next, proceed to do your manicure- clean, file, paint then apply any essential oil of your choice to your cuticles and fingers. It makes you feel like you actually applied cuticle oil. If you want to be extra, you can try out a foot soak.
End your home spa day with a luxurious bath, throw on your bathrobe afterwards and sip on some Spa Water. Learn how to make yours here.
Fun Things To Do When Bored At Home.
Cook
Coming from someone who swears she hates chores, this is definitely a surprise even to me. (Insert laughing emoji)
It turns out I’ve been cooking a lot during this lockdown and I find out it’s such a cool way to pass time. However, kindly ensure you are cooking something you love, so you don’t get frustrated.
A great idea is to give yourself a treat. Since we all can’t visit our favourite restaurants, maybe try making something utterly satisfying for yourself. I’ve been craving spaghetti and shrimps and I am totally going to make that, it would be such a perfect way to show myself some tender love and self-care.
Play Games
Feeling Bored at home? Then play a game. It can be in-person with your family & friends or Online with partners from wherever or just play alone.
Productive things to do – Game ideas with family
Some game ideas you can play in groups with your family & friends are House of cards, Ludo, Dancing Competition.
If you happen to be home alone, download mobile games especially those that have multi-player mode. So you can play with random people across the globe.
I love to sometimes play games via Google assistant eg. Song quiz.
Dance, Dance, Dance
Dancing is such a fun thing to do, plus you burn calories doing this. Talk about multi-tasking! I’ve found dancing to be my go-to thing to do when bored at home. All I do is stand in front of my mirror and give myself a world-class show. lol. I can’t dance to save my life but who cares, it’s just me and my mirror. You should try it too. Plug on your headset, raise the volume high and rock that badass body of yours.
Write a letter to your future self.
Every year, I have a habit of writing a letter to my future self. I simply write on my word app, save as a document then email it to myself and set the delivery date to any year( in the future) I so wish. Do this by using the Gmail schedule option, click on the dropdown and select schedule email, input your preferred date and Gmail will email it to you when that day comes.
Create A Playlist On your Favourite Music Streaming Platform
An easy-peasy thing to do when bored at home is to create a playlist. You can be extra and me the playlist “Stay at home vibes”
Document Your Lockdown Journey.
Create lasting memories by documenting your lockdown journey. Write in a journal, start a photo-dairy or create a “Lockdown” picture folder in your gallery.
I use one my favourite apps to document my lockdown journey. The app is called CALM, it has a daily mood tracker, so each day, I log in how I’m feeling and write a short note about each day.
Host A Party with your friends and loved ones.
Many companies have become creative during this lockdown period and one of the best apps so far is the house party app. You can host a party, play games and have fun with your friends via the house party app.
Create A Bucket List
Don’t have a bucket list, now is a great time to create one. A bucket-list is a list of productive things to do or places to visit before you kick-the-bucket. The term bucket list was coined from the movie “THE BUCKET LIST” written by Justin Zackman.
Try Tik Tok
TikTok is amazing! here’s a quick story, so one evening I was terribly bored, then I decided to try Tik Tok, I did a few videos and at the end, I was laughing so hard. Tik Tok is a fun thing to do when bored at home.
If you haven’t tried Tik Tok before, don’t worry, the video below will give you a crash course.
Productive Things To Do When Bored At Home
Take An Online Course
You’ve got ample time now, so why not go ahead with that online course you’ve been yearning to take? Online courses are fun and engaging. You can learn so much from them. Enough to even switch to another career.
Currently, many institutions have made their online courses free-for-all. Harvard took this step too and now you can access most of their online courses for free. A-List of the best free online courses
Create An Online Course
Yes, you can! A great way to monetize your skills/knowledge is by teaching others. So why not create an online course, spread that skill while raking in profits too. It looks like a win-win to me.
You can create an online course and sell on various platforms, check out some sites for selling online courses.
Host A Webinar
Not cut out for the creating an online course life, then try teaching via a webinar. They are easier to setup.
Develop A New Habit
This is a great time to develop new and healthy habits. You can do that with the help of a habit tracker app such as Momentum (ios) and Habatica (Android)
Examples of new habits to develop
- Budgeting
- Bible studying
- Exercise
- Journalling
- meal Prep
- Meditation
- Sleep
- Hydration
- Healthy eating
- Affirmations
Read A Book
Need I say more? reading is life! I’m a huge book addict. When the lockdown began, I wrote and published a blog post on the best books to read this period. Check out the 10 most interesting books to read while social distancing. Reading is one of the most productive things to do when bored at home.
Learn A New Language
We all have dreams of becoming a polyglot someday. When bored at home, you can try learning a new language. Duolingo is your best friend. At the end, you will realize that learning a new language is one of the productive things to do when bored.
Organizational things to do when bored at home
- Do your Laundry
- Do the Dishes
- Revamp your home
- Redecorate your bedroom
- Reorganize your closets
- Do a social media review: Follow accounts that inspire you and unfollow accounts that induce pressure on social media. Do a clean sweep.
- Clear your device cache
- Clean up your phone’s gallery: I am very guilty of having a messy photo gallery. So whenever I’m looking for things to do when bored at home, clearing my photo gallery is always on my list.
Awesome post.
Author
Thank you for reading Onyekachi
Great list. It’s the first time I’m hearing of a gratitude jar, so maybe I’ll try it.
Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful read! Quite a lot to keep one occupied!
Good read, helpful as usual. One thing I like about your blog posts is the fact that you provide links and videos that redirects readers to other sites for clarity.