Today, it has been 6 weeks since my family and I started social distancing by staying home and doing quarantine activities. Although it seems we are given a lot of free time now by nature, there is not much different between my current life and the one before Covid-19 hit the country.
Works are still coming in (even more), therefore my 8-5 weekdays are always busy like the usual office hours. The previous commuting time is now replaced with preparing the foods for my family (that includes ordering delivery) and homeschooling the kid. In the evening it mostly remains the same: family time in front of the TV and reading books. I keep the normal working hours and avoid job-related matters after 6 pm to stay sane during this insane time!
However, I do have more available time on the weekends tho, without all those extended family gatherings. Although not much, I try to spend it productively, leaving out excessive checking coronavirus news and dalgona coffee social media. This is the list of recommended useful quarantine activities you can do at home.
Declutter the house
My house is not that big, really, but it took 4 weekends for me to finally finish decluttering all things in every corner of it. I think I have ditched almost a quarter of my belongings (some to donation, some to the garbage). I feel quite relieved after releasing those unnecessary items.
Not only choosing what sparks joy, but I also tidied up and decorated some areas, such as my kid’s playroom. Now the kid has a proper study spot for daily video calls with her teacher and classmates. The balcony also received a sweet treatment, for us relaxing while enjoying the view from above (pretending we see Brighton blue sky).
My Balcony and The Kid’s Room (Before-After)
The husband also had the time to finally call a handyman to come over to fix the broken parts of the house, such as the leaking roofs and the light switch. I guess many people start taking care of their house too much now. My husband once made a quick visit alone to a building material/home appliances shop to buy a water hose, and he said a lot of shoppers there despite empty roads outside. What have you done well to your house lately?
Learn something
It’s been 7 months since I submitted my dissertation, but my spirit to study is still on. I want to reread all materials during my master’s course. In addition, I would like to enhance my knowledge specifically in Public Policy and Data Science. One of the blessings in disguise of this pandemic is you can find various free lessons and ebooks out there, such as:
- Free publications from Cambridge University Press
- Free publications from Australian National University
- Free ebooks from Archive.org
- Free courses from Harvard University
- Free courses from Open.edu
- Free primary and secondary textbooks from Oxford (until 30 September 2020)
I believe we have to utilise this facility. Education is expensive but priceless. Even before this outbreak, I’ve already had several wishlist courses from Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms such as Coursera and Edx, and several journals/textbooks to read from the national library. So little time so much to do, huh.
Something to learn as one of quarantine activities does not have to be rocket science. It can be cooking the recipes you haven’t tried, playing new songs with your long-forgotten guitar, or making cute Instagram (IG) templates to be viral.
Join interesting online events
Sometimes it was difficult to join events that you liked. Perhaps because the events were held during office hours, or located in the other part of the world. Or you got a kid to entertain at home after working hours and during the weekends, like me. But now you can find an excessive amount of attractive webinars, online concerts, and online gym classes from all over the world to attend as quarantine activities.
The big government offices or international organisations like the Indonesian Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the United Nations (UN) are offering many free webinars. You just have to follow their social media accounts to keep updated and join their events that suit your interests.
The same case with music, almost every famous artist in the world is giving live shows online. It can be charged, but mostly free for fundraising or maintaining their reputation. My favorite one is the David Guetta’s live show “UnitedAtHome” in Miami. He could raise $600,000 while people dance to his music from home and still feel like at a party.
Although there is an effort to adapt to online meeting platforms like Zoom, artists or any freelancers could still offer their services and be profitable. Fitness instructors, for example, can guide and encourage lazy people at home to exercise via video calls, and get paid. I used to work-out at home since I’ve had a kid, mostly by streaming videos in Youtube. But now I have more options in other media too, such as IG Live.
Not only events, sometimes you had no time to see movies in the cinema. And now you can use your free time to binge-watching Netflix. Is it productive? Maybe yes, if you did not do it every single day. I am not a movie person, so I am fine with my habit of watching 1 movie and 1 episode of TV series per week.
As much as I wanted to be productive, sometimes I failed and just laid down for hours doing online shopping. You may spend time doing nothing too, and that’s okay. Although there are a lot of quarantine activities to do out there, being healthy physically and mentally is the most priority at this moment. Stay safe and healthy, wherever you are in the world!