In the previous post, Home Alone: How Not to Have a Boring Time, I wrote about being on my own for 6 weeks, the many things I wanted to do and why being bored was not on my agenda.
Many people wait for a chance to be on their own, but when the time comes, they don’t know what to do. I think having a list of ideas can be helpful in that situation.
In this post, I have gathered 100 ideas for things to do when you don’t know how to entertain yourself. As you can see, I wrote some of the things I did recently. I could easily write 1,000 things, but I’m sure that after 100, you’ll get the idea.
You can repeat some of the activities, because you like them more than others. And even if you just pick some of them, you’ll have thousands of active and busy hours.
- Cook something you’ve been thinking about for a long time. You can find millions of recipes on the internet and experiment
- Call someone you haven’t spoken to in a while
- Read a book you have on the shelf but haven’t yet read
- Go find sites to pin on Pinterest. I can do that for hours and often have to stop myself because it gets addictive
- Clean the house. I did that for six weeks and it never ends. A thorough clean will take forever so you might as well start now
- Go arrange your photo albums and try to write something about each picture in the spaces beside. Physical album or digital album, you will be grateful for writing on it in years to come
- Listen to music you love. I had an absolute blast listening to old CD’s. It made me feel so good
- Watch funny movies.
- Do a movie marathon into the night. It is quite fun! However, make sure to do it when you don’t have to get up early in the morning
- Go to the movies on your own. It is an interesting experience if you are used to going with someone else
- Finish a Sudoku puzzle
- Go for a walk
- Color in. There are so many adult coloring-in books that target mindfulness and meditation. Coloring is a fun and easy way to really center yourself when you first wake up or just before you go to bed
- Clean your email box
- Clean your desktop
- Archive your documents on the computer
- Archive all your paper documents or scan them and keep them digitally
- Meditate
- Write a journal of thoughts, feelings, desires and circumstances
- Have a salt bath
- Learn to play an instrument
- Play a one-person card game
- Spend some time in the garden, planting, taking care of flowers, trees and herbs
- Cook for the week and store in the fridge
- Give your pots, pans and cutlery a good scrubbing
- Paint a wall in your house
- Redecorate a room in your house.
- Repaint the front door
- Do arts and crafts. I love art so that was something I did a lot on my time off and I loved every second of it
- Try an exercise routine
- Clean your desk or work area
- Take a stroll in a nearby park
- Bake something and give to your neighbors
- Learn how to braid hair and play with new hairstyles. If you are a man or you simply don’t have hair, find a friend, your partner, sister or daughter
- Sun bathe to get some vitamin D
- Complete any unfinished sewing projects or fixing attempts that were previously cut short
- Iron all the clothes that are piled up on the ironing basket
- Clear your closet from clothes you haven’t worn in a while
- Give things you don’t need to charity. It helps you clear your house and help others at the same time
- Rearrange the garage so you can find things more easily
- Pamper yourself
- Watch a TV series you heard about from a friend
- Watch TED talks that have been accumulating in your mailbox
- Check all your subscriptions and get rid of some
- Go see a show
- Go to the beach
- Explore a town with artistic galleries
- Go to the art museum
- Spend time in the library
- Buy yourself a book as a gift
- Go to a book launch in a book store with the author visit
- Make a handmade card for someone you like
- Make a list of the 100 things you want to do in your life time
- Make a list of 100 quotes you love
- Make a list of 100 beliefs you wish to have that will bring you happiness in life
- Make a list of 100 things that make you happy
- Make a list of 100 things you are grateful for in your life
- Make a list of 100 things you appreciate about yourself
- Make yourself a drink you love and enjoy drinking it
- Make a playlist on Spotify
- Try a water challenge and drink plenty of water every day
- Sit in your balcony and enjoy the breeze/sun
- Watch a sunset. Some mornings when I got up early, I sat on my bed and watched the sunrise. I could write on my happy list that I watched sunrise that day
- Watch a sunrise
- Watch BuzzFeedFood videos, or as my daughter would call them, ‘food porn’
- Do yoga stretches
- I dedicated lots of time for planning. I mastered my to do list. It was wonderful. Every day I added items to my list and rather than feeling overwhelmed, I felt had accomplished lots
- Grow some new succulents
- Experiment with a new hair product
- Stay awake as much as you like and ignore the regular routine. It was very refreshing for me to go to sleep at 1am or 3 am some nights. (I managed because I meditated every night)
- Get up whenever you’d like (if you don’t have work of course) sleep until double digits if that’s what your heart desires!
- Throw away old paper and documents that you no longer need
- Arrange decorated boxes for special documents
- Subdivide the drawers with partitions so you can find things inside more easily
- Go over all your pens, markers and throw away some that are not working
- Clean all windows and mirrors in your house
- Put some motivational speaking CD’s to listen while you are doing chores or cleaning
- Write a letter to the universe, and make sure to be very clear about what you want
- Use all of your scrap paper (prints that use only one side, and you no longer need can be reused) staple them together and put them around the house as a portable and ever-present list of things that pop into your mind. Things to do, things to buy…
- Clear your compost bin into the garden and start it again. Be kind to the plants, give back to the environment in this super quick and easy step
- Have some coffee (or in my case, iced coffee with cream) / tea. Have lunch with friends. I did that two to three times a week and it was wonderful.
- Get a body massage
- Get a facial massage
- Go to the gym, or to a sauna room. Your skin will look awesome afterwards
- Write your goals for the next year, really focus on the next 365 days and be specific about what you would like to achieve
- Make a vision board with your goals and desires for the next five years
- Sleep in the middle of the day. Take a nap
- For me, this was a luxury. I dreamt of using my time to write. I had so many stories and ideas. I had to write them down so this was fantastic for me
- Make a healthy dessert and enjoy treating yourself
- Try an ‘at home’ face mask or pore strip
- Play the “If I were a millionaire” game. It is quite fun and very healthy for your mind to imagine living in freedom and abundance
- Have a vegetable day. Just eat veggies for the entire day
- Have an unplugged day, no computer, no TV and no smart phone. When I tried it, I felt amazing. I used my smartphone as a phone, only when someone called. It was refreshing
- Laminate important documents, goals, quotes or photos you wish to display
- Write a letter to the local newspaper about a topic that you are passionate about
- Fast for a day and realize how much you eat emotionally and not because you need to eat. For me, this was a good reflective day. No one was home and I monitored my thoughts and feelings. I highly recommend giving it a go
- Go to a night market
- Adjust your calendar and add events, birthdays and things to do
- Go to a festival. I went with the kids to the Woodford Folk Festival for a day and we had a great day
- Do something kind for someone else
OK, some of this list was things I did and I’m sure it’ll give you lots of ideas. For a month before Gal and Tsoof went away I wrote a list of all the things I wanted to do. I didn’t do all of them, because some took a long time, but I did some of them several times.
Either way, I was never afraid I won’t have no idea what to do. I think I can use this list for many years to come. I hope it will help you too.
Happiness is a choice!
Ronit