With the weather declining and COVID-19 cases rising, it’s good to find alternatives to going out to risk the virus and to avoid being bored.

Learn a new skill

Skills—whether it’s learning to do something that looks fun, like juggling, learning a language or bettering oneself—are always good to challenge the brain and keep it active to prevent boredom. Begin by setting aside distractions and make a goal; focus helps the brain learn faster. Most new skills take time to learn and repeating the task over and over again helps make the learning stage go quicker. 

Some new skills to consider learning that comply with current guidelines and restrictions are juggling, sewing, dancing, baking, drawing, yoga and painting. Videos on YouTube and other sites offer tutorials for skills to learn at home. This allows for a safe way to promote creativity. 

Express creativity 

Writing is a relaxing way to relieve stress and express creativity. This is a low budget way to pass the time and do something new. Writing stories, poems or even journaling may cure boredom. If writer’s block comes up, pre-made prompts, storyaday.org, for example, and fill-in-the-blank books offer alternatives. 

Playing with siblings, another way to express creativity, also helps to get out the built-up energy from laying around. Some ideas to do with siblings include: obstacle courses, escape rooms, drawing contests or baking. These only take house-hold items to create and allow bonding time while expressing creativity. 

Change of scenery 

Looking at the same things when stuck inside from the weather or the virus gets old and changing up the look of the room is a good thing to do with extra time. Moving the furniture around in a room changes it up and allows for a cheap task to do with time to spare. If budgets allow, it’s optional to buy new furniture or decorations for a room to really change up the look. 

Goals for the future

Parents, teachers and other adults almost always seem to ask ‘what do you wanna be when you grow up?’ so why not sit down and look at all options and possibilities. Planning for the future gets intimidating so making the time to read about possible career options comes in handy. 

Of course, plans and goals for the future aren’t always career focused and putting together other goals proves its benefits. Goals help one keep themselves on track of becoming the person they want themselves to be. 

Research

Researching and questioning sounds boring, but researching topics that aren’t as well known shows benefits. It allows for a deeper understanding of a fuzzy topic, which deepens the understanding. Research doesn’t just have to be on school subjects or academic-related things, whatever topic needed. For some people politics may be fuzzy so researching it helps individuals understand their rights and how it operates. 

Boredom comes pretty fast when restrictions have been in place since March, but whatever way that someone chooses to cure their boredom, be safe and respect rules.