As we start 2022, more people than ever are faced with quarantining. Assuming you are not feeling too ill, this can seem like a great time to relax and catch up on all those things you normally forget about! When the time actually comes, however, it can be hard to get the motivation to follow through or even remember what those little tasks were. There are tons of quarantine activity ideas out there, but let’s face it – sometimes choice is just too much work. Here are some tasks that are so specific, you can just follow along with little to no thought necessary.
1. Make Playlists
And don’t worry – I won’t just leave it there. Some fun playlists could be:
- Songs you listened to at a certain age
- Workout music for when you can get back outside
- Songs that sound like summer
- Holiday music
- Songs from soundtracks
Bonus: Create cool covers and names for your playlists too!
2. Create Guides/Lists
Guides (for Apple Maps) and Lists (for Google Maps) are great ways to remember places you have been or plan to visit. You can start collections for things like:
- Favourite restaurants
- Sunrise-watching spots
- Good nail salons
- Free parking lots
- Pretty hiking trails
- Attractions in other cities
- Coffee shops you’ve been recommended
These are fun to make and super helpful for the next time you and your friends can’t think of what to do. Once they are made, you can just keep adding on to them too!
3. Reorganize your phone’s home screen
Since we use our phones so often, it can benefit our mental health to clean and declutter every once in a while, just like with our bedrooms. These are some quick ways to make your phone more usable:
- Removing unused apps and creating folders to contain ones you do not need often
- Grouping apps by type
- Moving the apps you use most to the first page
You can also personalize your home screen to make it more appealing to you. One of the best ways of doing this is through widgets. There are tons of widgets available on your phone and for download, such as:
- Helpful widgets for things you need to keep track of (i.e. weather, steps taken today, calendar, battery level of your devices)
- Widgets for quick access to some of your most-used actions (i.e. start playing your favourite Spotify playlist, open a recent Google Doc)
- Decorative widgets (i.e. pictures from one of your photo albums, an aesthetic version of the date and time)
4. Paint
As someone with visual art skills that could be generously described as average, I decided that I was going to take up painting. There are a surprising amount of things you can do with dollar store paint, brushes, and canvas. Even though they are very basic, the paintings can look pretty nice. Beyond just being able to start your own art wall, though, painting is a great way to pass the time, take a break from screens, and clear your head. Some beginner friendly ideas include:
- A colourful background using lots of blending, and then a silhouette of something simple (like a swing or light post on top) in black once it is dry
- Geometric patterns
- Large objects or plants on a table or behind a window
- Break up the canvas stained glass style and then paint segments in a variety of colours
There are tons of examples like these, and others that you can find online or with a quick Pinterest search.
5. Watch a show (or multiple)
You don’t have to be productive all the time! This is a unique chance to have a bit more free time than usual. If you want to, and are able to spend it watching some shows, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Here are some of the shows I personally think are worth the watch (read: binge) right now:
- Suits
- The 100
- Selling Sunset
- Dynasty
- Gilmore Girls
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Kim’s Convenience
- Only Murders in the Building
Or movies! Can’t resist leaving a few recommendations of some favourites of the moment:
- The Marvel movies in timeline order
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
- Inception
- Girl vs. Monster
- The Now You See Me movies
- Love, Rosie
- Apollo 13
- McFarland, USA