Into nation-wide lockdown we go, and I am sitting here puzzling on how best to spend my curtailed free time.
Without making this thread too personal to the point of it not being helpful to others, I’d like your assistance in providing suggestions of things that one might be able to do for a month or so that ideally fits as many of the below criteria as possible.
Most original idea earns themselves a solution.
Criteria:-
Time limit of four hours per day
Can be done either indoors or in pitch dark
Earns or improves a skill, or has some other personal benefit
Stress-relieving, at least to the user
Not psychologically or financially detrimental (I spend the other 20 hours doing all those)
I’m going to run. I hate running and my conditioning sucks. So I’m going to do that since the gym will be closed. And I’m not sure Boris can keep his promise of ending the lockdown here in England on December 2nd.
I’m confused now too. If you are indeed stuck in the Land of Hope and Glory, my commiserations. If you have a partner, then all six of your checkboxes are sorted. If you’re by yourself, I would suggest learning a musical instrument if you don’t play already. Yes, I know it costs a fair amount of money to buy something halfway decent, but you don’t need to break the bank.
I also suggest spending some of those four hours a day deciding how you intend to evade the blackshirts and survive on your wits as Airstrip One descends into a sinkhole of superstition, chaos, poverty, and dystopian political ideologies. I’m serious. We already have nasty little fuckers like this on the streets over here, the ‘antifa’ crowd are still alive and well elsewhere, and IMO it’s only a matter of time before the disease spreads.
Write a book. Fiction, nonfiction, how-to, children’s book, comic book, whatever. Learn how to sell your book through Amazon on-demand publishing. How-to and self help books are most likely to sell and generate some regular income, if you write about something practical that people want to learn.
Learn to play a musical instrument. If the sound would bother neighbors you can use an electric keyboard or electric guitar, with headphones. (Or, just say “to hell with the neighbors” and practice the trombone.)
Teach yourself to code with one of the free online self directed programs.
Learn about (fill in the blank) with an online course through a university credit or non credit program, or any of the thousands of online courses.
Earn an employment skill or certificate online.
Join a remote book club that meets through zoom.
Start an online business selling some type of service that can be automated.
Practice meditation.
Work out. Pushups, squats, pull ups, stretching, don’t require fancy equipment or a gym.
EDIT: I notice the original post asks for activities that can be done in the dark? What’s that all about? I think the only real options are: meditate, or masturbate.
I have really enjoyed / benefited from duolingo for all sorts of language learning. While dusting it off for mandarin, I recently discovered a very similar app called MIMO, built to teach coding in a similar method to Duolingo’s approach to language.
https://www.edx.org/ founded at MIT. most courses free of charge, except for the cert; courses run from 4 to 8 weeks ish
Study hydroponics. During our lockdown in NY state, we [, for some odd reason,] popped romaine stumps into little plastic containers to see if they’d root. Most did, and some even grew a single serving, just from sitting in water. Worked with carrots, celery, and I imagine sprouts must be super easy too.
Indoor gardening good suggestion, I have a couple of plants (succulents) but my flat rarely gets direct sunlight however I will give it a good go!
Language: been on and off learning Japanese for maybe two years now? I don’t recall any words until i’m in that mindset, i did manage to get around Tokyo and Kyoto for a month without really using English though so that’s good?
Game - not much of a gamer to be honest, more of a non-fiction person. I sunk many hours into some games obsessively but they ended up being detrimental to my brain box.
I live alone so sing/make noises to myself quite frequently (steady on), painting is a good idea, I’ve tried that in the past before and ended up with quite a severe long-lasting illness though which may or may not have been something to do with using aerosols with no breathing protection in an unventilated room (seriously though, it will F you up long time)
I could combine all of your suggestions, however, and start cheerleading in Japanese whilst dressed as a cactus?
(seriously though, it will F you up long time)
