Did the Coronavirus crisis force you to stay home?
I know, you would just like to go out, explore the world, travel, and be free.
Don't worry.
There will be time for that when all this is over.
Until then, well, we just have to stick together and make our lives a little more meaningful.
The good news is, at least, with the internet, there are great online tools
that can help us achieve that.
Think about it, if this COVID-19 crisis had happened 10 or 15 years ago
when people didn't have all the fantastic and mostly free or at least very affordable tools.
The situation would be much different.
Anyway, we decided to do what we would typically do for our travel videos.
We collected a powerful pack of concrete suggestions,
apps, websites, and tools to make your days at home fun and meaningful.
Here are our top 10 tips,
and an extra bonus tip at the end of the video on how to organize your days.
NUMBER 10: Make something delicious to eat
Learn how to cook and bake or improve your cooking skills.
Just use YouTube, it’s free. Some of the best channels include:
Sam the Cooking Guy, Joy of baking for baking, Laura in the Kitchen or Everyday Food.
Or you can just watch some of your favorite food channels like Mark Wiens or Strictly Dumpling.
Use apps on your phone such as Tasty, Yummly or Food Network Kitchen.
Some apps also suggest great recipes based on the ingredients
that you already have at home.
You can try using SuperCook Recipe By Ingredient,
Bigover Recipes & Meal Planner or Epicurious
NUMBER 9: Learn new things and skills
Learn a new language with apps like Duolingo, Babbel, Memrise or Rosetta Stone.
Or learn a new instrument with Yousician, Simply Piano, Learn Guitar with Uberchord or Chord!
Or if you want to learn new skills, such as marketing,
coding, editing, and many others from online courses such as
Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, YouTube, etc.
Or any other skills like how to make origami, speed reading, learn a new dance
learn how to juggle, knit or sew.
There are tons of things you can learn on YouTube. And everything is free of charge.
NUMBER 8: Make money from home
If you're not already working from home,
there are actually some great ways to make money from home.
You'll probably not get rich with any of these, but at least you're doing something.
And with all the free time you suddenly have,
why not give it a try in the online job market.
Online job possibilities like graphic design, video editing, voiceover, and many others
are available at Upwork, that's if you’re already established at your field,
or Fiverr for shorter gigs, peopleperhour, freelancer, remotasks,
99designs, if you are a graphic designer and others.
But what if you have no skills?
Just go and learn something new and use the suggestions from Number 9.
You don't need a university degree for everything.
The modern workforce is adapting fast, and this might be a great time to learn something
new and then get an online test gig.
There are also some great apps out there to get some extra bucks like, for example,
Foap, for selling your photos – yes the ones that you already have on your phone
Toluna, if you want to take surveys and earn or Userfeel, for paid user feedback
NUMBER 7: Binge-watch TV and movies
Watch your favorite movies, make a list, check out IMDb Top charts, and enjoy shows,
documentaries or even listen to podcasts.
For movies and shows you can use:
Netflix, Hulu, SHOWTIME, HBO GO, Disney+ or Prime Video from Amazon.
You can watch them on your phone in your room, on your smart TV, from your iPad,
basically from any smart device.
And since most of the providers offer a free trial of streaming service,
you can actually do it free of charge for that next month.
Just apply and binge-watch as much as you can before it expires.
You can watch documentaries or even online courses such as MasterClass or CuriosityStrem
for best online classes from instructors
that are the top masters in the world in their field.
And, of course, listen to podcasts:
on the native Podcasts app, if you have an iPhone
or one of the free apps such as Pocket Casts if you have an Android.
NUMBER 6: Make, create or organize your photo memories
Yes, arrange your photos, which can be a super fun activity anyway
since you’re browsing through your memories.
You can simply use your phone or laptop and arrange your photo library,
share it with friends online, or even upload them to social media.
Or create photo albums or photo books
You can just go to websites like PhotoBox or Mixbook
Or you can print Instagram photos at SQUARED or LALALAB.
NUMBER 5: Play games
There’s plenty of games you can play on your phone.
If you have an Apple device, you can try their Arcade with over 100+ premium games free of
charge for one month.
And both Android and iOS offer many great free games anyway.
By the way, try playing them with your friends online in real-time.
It can be an excellent way to connect without physical contact.
Videogames – whatever you have at home or on your computers
like a PlayStation or an Xbox.
And yes, let's not forget about real-life games such as cards, Monopoly, Memory, Scrabble,
puzzle, etc. whatever you have at home.
So that you're not on your phone all the time.
NUMBER 4: Exercise & practice mental strength
This is so important, especially now.
Just a couple of minutes a day makes a whole difference.
For exercise, you can use apps like: Seven – for a seven Minute Workout
PEAR for Personal Fitness Coach
Or just go to some of the great YouTube channels like FitnessBlender or POPSUGAR Fitness.
For meditation, you can use one of the apps like Headspace or Calm.
or a YouTube channel like The Mindful Movement
For yoga, you can use 5 Minute Yoga, or Yoga Studio if you want to use it on your phone.
Or if you go to YouTube, a channel like Yoga with Adriene.
NUMBER 3: Clean your house, room, or apartment
This can help you in many ways, it's free exercise, your place is clean and fresh every day
and maybe you can even take the time to redecorate, fix that sink you've never
had time to, paint your walls, or just something like that.
YouTube is also a great place for DIY tutorials,
for instance, how to make new clothes from your old ones,
craft ideas with recycled materials,
furniture and home décor ideas, and many others.
Check out 5-Minute Crafts or DIY & Crafts.
NUMBER 2: Read and write
Read a Book
Since you now actually have time to finally
read the book you’ve been postponing since last summer.
You can also read an online article.
There’s a gazillion of great online magazines and articles you can read.
Or maybe write a short story, an article, a novel,
and you can even take an online class on creative writing.
NUMBER 1: Just get creative
Start your own YouTube channel, blog, TikTok, etc.
If you always wondered what it’s like to be YouTuber,
now it’s a great time to start your own YT channel.
You can visit Tim Schmoyer for some great tips on how to start a YouTube channel from scratch.
You can film your daily routine to get familiar with a camera,
start a YouTube cooking channel,
about a hobby you are passionate about,
for instance, video games, makeup, instruments,
you can even make a short film.
And no, you don’t need a professional camera to get you started.
Your phone can be your best buddy here.
Learn how to edit videos and voila.
Most of us started exactly this way.
Or you can just start getting creative on something like TikTok.
And here is the bonus tip that we promised.
Plan your day and week in advance.
Take time before you start with any of the activities
and arrange your days so that each day includes a combination of
exercise, fun, creativity, and other activities.
Set weekly and monthly goals for your activities so you can keep track of your progress.
People feel a sense of purpose when we set goals and work towards achieving them.
It’s as simple as that.
It can be something easy like a 30-day yoga challenge,
a plan to learn basic French in a month,
or maybe something like learning to code so that you gain a new professional
skill at the end of this crisis.
Use a free app like Trello, where you can create boards
with a weekly plan for your activities.
When you're done with the activity, just mark it complete.
This way, you also have a list of all the tasks you've accomplished,
and everything is neatly organized.
We’d love to hear what you are doing at home.
And if you have any other suggestions for our next "quarantine videos,"
share it in the comments below.
Stay safe and enjoy as much as possible.