Stuck at home and have nothing to do? You can still have fun, alone or with family and roommates while staying indoors during the Coronavirus outbreak.
On most days, you should still be able to go about your routine. You can remotely work from home and be productive if your company supports that system. You should be exercising indoors, cooking your meals, and going about the day normally as much as possible.
But after a while, the clock seems to tick slower and boredom sets in. Here's how you can keep things interesting even then.
1. Bored AF (Web) and Shuffle My Life (Android): Idea Generator of Things to Do
It's not that there isn't anything to do while at home. More often, our imagination limits our options to things that we think can and cannot be done. You could put on your favorite song and dance your heart out, but unless someone suggests it, you probably don't think about it. Bored AF and Shuffle My Life generate ideas for things you can do when you are bored.
Bored AF suggests random fun activities, such as wear an eyepatch, dance to your favorite song, or have dinner with someone whose name starts with R. Tap Yes or No to keep getting more suggestions.
Shuffle My Life fleshes out the activities more. It will suggest things like learning morse code and give you a link for a website to learn it at. It also notes how long that activity is bound to take. You can even save tasks for later.
While there are plenty of indoor ideas, both apps don't always suggest only stay-at-home activities. But most of the time, you can do that activity indoors too. For example, if the app suggests going out for a meal with a friend whose name starts from R, you can turn it into a video call with that friend, while you both eat.
Download: Shuffle My Life for Android (Free)
Download: Shuffle My Life for iOS ($0.99)
2. AirPano (Web): 360-Degree Virtual Journey From Your Browser
Just because you're stuck at home doesn't mean you can't see the world. AirPano is a collection of 360-degree panorama photos and videos of some of the earth's coolest spots, offering a virtual journey right from your browser.
In case you haven't seen one before, 360-degree photos let you click and drag the camera to turn all sides, and up and down. It's like you're standing in one spot and able to see everything that the photographer would have been able to see by turning their head. AirPano collects such 360-degree photos as well as videos (usually hosted on YouTube).
You can sort photos and videos by date, country, or views, or check out collections like the best AirPano panoramas in 2019. Wait for the media to fully load before you try it. AirPano also boasts of a map that pins locations of all the 360-degree media, which is another cool way to browse.
3. Herding Cats (Web) and Monopoly (Web): Make Free DIY Board Games
One of the best ways to pass the time at home with family or roommates is to play a board game. But what if you don't already have a game? Well, you can make your own with these free DIY board games.
The Craftables offers a step-by-step guide on how to make your own Monopoly board game. It's the classic board, but you can customize the locations, houses, and colors as you like (they even made an Avengers version). You'll need some arts and crafts at hand, and improvise where you need to. For example, if you don't have a set of dice, type "roll dice" in Google (without the quotes) for a random roll.
If you don't want to go through the DIY process of making the whole game, there's a new free game you can download and print. Slinky Gibbon Games Herding Cats (With Goblins) is for 2-4 players, and each game lasts about 15 minutes. Multiple users online report that you can print it in black-and-white ink and it still looks great and is fun to play.
4. Future Me (Web): Write a Letter to Your Future Self
When you're sitting with nothing to do, your mind tends to wander. And you start thinking of how you could have done things differently, blaming your past self or making resolutions for the future. Well, how about writing a letter to your future self?
Future Me lets you send an email to yourself in the future. By default, you can send it a one, three, or five years into the future, or you can pick a custom date. Then simply start writing, talking to yourself about how things are right now and what you expect or hope it's like later. It can be therapeutic, a bit of a release for a cluttered mind.
For example's sake, have you observed how your attitude and thoughts about the outbreak and its response have changed with every passing day? Write a letter to yourself a week down the line, with your thoughts about today. Keep doing the exercise daily, and you might be surprised to see how much things change when you get the email in a week.
5. r/SideProject and r/TheSideHustle (Web): Finally Pursue Your Project
Being stuck at home isn't necessarily a bad thing. You are gaining time that you would otherwise waste in your daily commute, the watercooler conversations, and other routine activities. Use those extra minutes to pursue your passion with a side-project.
Reddit has a couple of communities dedicated to those who want to bring their side-projects alive. At r/SideProject, the idea is to have a supportive platform to showcase your ideas and your work. Plus, they give constructive feedback rather than be judgemental. It's an encouraging forum of like-minded individuals who recognize how difficult it is to pursue your passion.
Meanwhile, r/TheSideHustle is clear that it's not just your passion, but a second stream of income. Monetizing your project is more important than how strongly you feel about it, and there's no shame in that. The community provides a clear focus and gives advice from people who have already set up such side-hustles. This way, you know how to make money and not just a fun product.
Just Waste Some Time
The internet is so vast and varied that you can always find some way to entertain yourself on it. For instance, look up anything you are curious about on Wikipedia. In no time, you'll go down the rabbit hole of clicking on interesting link after link.
You could almost say that the web specializes in helping you waste time, usefully or not. After all, people build time-wasting websites to battle boredom, even with buttons that say "I'm Bored" to suggest things.