Despite this unusual abundance of free time on my hands, I don’t think my creativity has increased at all since quarantine began. That being said, my mind has been completely dry of any blog ideas actually worth reading. Even though I now sleep in an extra 2 hours and get WiFi that’s not SD-203, I feel like I’ve been doing the same thing everyday. I’ve fallen into a routine again, one that’s frankly worse than the old daily routine of school. I think Sisyphus would be laughing at me.

One could go on to argue whether or not this virus is proof that life has no meaning, or if it’s evidence that our existence is purposeful. Is this quarantine experience purely what it is, or was it “meant to be” in some way or another? These are questions I ask myself a lot, and I don’t have any answers yet. The whole “deep conversations with myself” thing is nice every once in a while, but being cooped up in my house for so long has made the occurrence far too frequent.

I’ve needed to rescue my overthinking self with ~fun~ activities, with varying levels of energy required. This is just a curated list of my favorite quarantine pastimes so far that can be a nice variation from the norm.

Healthy Stuff
(Let’s get this one out of the way first. Very useful, really good for you, I highly recommend, but it is kind of boring to write about.)

1. Nike Training Club

Not only does it have gorgeous design (in my opinion), but every workout is easy to follow with their video tutorials. You can browse by equipment level, target area (i.e. abs, arms, legs, etc.), difficulty, or time length. I appreciate the quality and consistency more than YouTube workout videos, and Nike just recently unlocked all the Premium workouts for free for everyone. Spring break might be a goner, but it doesn’t mean we can’t work for that summer bod.

Also, if you like running outside while keeping 6 feet away from everyone else, the Nike Run Club app is great, too.

2. Bake

Nothing takes up more time than trying to find the vanilla extract in the back of your pantry. Anything homemade is probably going to be healthier than something you bought from Jewel’s bakery, but even if it’s not, chocolate chip cookies are always good for the soul. If you really want to socially distance yourself, most baking ingredients will last you at least 6 months. After one grocery run, I had 12 pounds of flour and 4.5 pounds of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

If you’re trying to be healthier, I would recommend chocolatecoveredkatie.com and cookieandkate.com for lighter recipes that still taste great. Here’s the recipe for coconut oil chocolate chip cookies I made the other day. (We don’t have butter at my house.)

Personal Discovery

3. Enneagram Test

 

Sophie Benmore and I coincidentally both took this personality test on the same day, and only found out through our Snapchat stories! It’s like the Myers-Briggs test except once you get your result, you can read extremely deeply into it. Basically, you match with a number from 1 to 9 and it is scary accurate. To take the free version of the test, go here. Once you get your results, you can head on over to the Enneagram Institute’s official website where you can learn all about the types, sectors, arrows, all that. It’s actually way more interesting than I expected.

Bonus: based on which number you match with most, you would also supposedly enjoy that number song from this Spotify playlist.

4. Buzzfeed Quizzes

An oldie but a goodie. It’s only on this list in case you forgot they existed (I doubt you did).

Just for Kicks
(Where the real fun is)

5. Play Sims 4

The game was only $5 recently (fingers crossed it still is) and you can literally do whatever you want. Cheat codes are made available because you’re supposed to do whatever you want. It’s a gloriously wonderful waste of time, the background music warps time like no other soundtrack, and it’s pretty fun.

**Editor’s note** Boo. I just checked the Internet as I’m writing this blog and it’s no longer on sale, but that doesn’t change how I feel about the game.

6. Build your dream house

For real, though. There are dozens of websites out there, but personally Roomstyler is my favorite for creating my dream room or rearranging what I already have. Not only is it free and easy to use, but it renders life-like 3D images of your floor plan and has thousands of real items in its catalog. If interior design on Pinterest really speaks to you, I would give 3D floorplanners a spin. There are truly infinite possibilities.

7. Configure your dream car

Can you tell what I do when I’m bored? Apart from driving stick shift because my dad forced me to, I don’t know anything about cars. At all. I just think some look cool and throughout my free time, I’ve compiled a list of the most aesthetic car configurators out there. It’s like a video game with no real life consequences, just don’t go past the “Get Quote” button. For our purposes, luxury brands usually have wayyyy more options to play with and customize. It’s also funny to see how much money people will drop on a piece of metal with four wheels.

• Porsche
• Aston Martin (James Bond’s car of choice)
• Rolls Royce
• Ferrari
• Lamborghini

Regardless of whether you want to improve the real you or reinvent a new life for yourself during quarantine, I hope this shortlist gave you a couple new things to do! If you have fun ideas for how to pass the time during social distancing, feel free to drop a comment!