AIBU to ask for mentally stimulating solo activities at home?

[Searchingforananswer2023]

Living alone, no friends or family and I was wondering if you have any suggestions for actives to do when alone at home. I have just bought a game of Bananagrams on Vinted as I can complete that alone. What else do you do that is mentally stimulating and can be done alone? I am looking for activities that I can get absorbed in

The following are a given: reading, watching a series, word searches, cooking, jigsaw, listening to music, knitting.

Am I missing something else?

Calculus.

https://amzn.eu/d/0g9Jv5Zo

You need this book in your life. Slightly different rules to normal killer sudoku but so satisfying!

Gardening.

Simply piano

Online exercise class

Online tutoring, teaching English as a foreign language, or English conversation practice.

Volunteering - befriending phone calls or similar

What is a DIY miniature kit?

Could you provide a link to the dance classes? Please and thank you !

I found similar with my Tai Chi, it’s been really challenging remembering it all and completely out of my comfort zone but I feel good for it.

Learning Italian. I sat down to write a letter to a hotel in Italian and by the time I had checked all grammar and vocabulary two hours had flown by. Been doing it for a good few years now and almost fluent. It’s a good hobby because you can do it for quarter of an hour or three hours…… And a very little equipment needed.

Chess? In general, I hate board games, but chess is different. Youncould play against someone online. Or study some old matches between great players and see if you can outwit them.

How about drawing up a list of the classics and ticking them off? Maybe tackle some of the monsters. You know, Bleak House, Middlemarch, Vanity Fair, etc. Or maybe set yourself the goal of reading a great writers complete works. Print off a bibliography and work through the lot - every novel, poem, essay, etc. I have always wanted to read the complete works of Oscar Wilde or Virginia Woolf or Evelyn Waugh. Right now I am trying to read all 26 of Iris Murdoch’s novels. I also want to read Powell’s complete Dance to the Music of Time.

If you want a real challenge, pick some classic in a foreign language and try to read it in the original. I am still plugging away at Proust’s A La Recherche in French. Why not learn Russian? Or, if you truly want to stretch your brain, learn Ancient Greek, or even Japanese.

What a great thread, just what I need too!

I was thinking of trying origami, which also reminded me of macrame (I know they are two very different things!)

and a pp reminded me of Clock Patience and Pelmanism - thank you

Lego
Rolife model making (miniatures rooms/buildings)
Learning language
Photography (so you process/edit the photos at home)
PS5/Xbox

I think I do need this book!

Thank you!

I’m addicted to the New York Times spelling bee game. It’s an app.

Open university do lots of interesting free short courses in a wide range of subjects. If you wish to pay and are interested in art - the national art gallery also do a range of seminars. I’m sure other institutions are similar.

Selling things on vinted, I do this for charity and it's very absorbing. I listen to a podcast whilst photographing and listing

This is a brilliant thread 👏

Then it keeps me occupied for days after negotiating and posting, all for a worth while cause, love it

Oh yes, you are right, Hanjie is the picture puzzle book. Thank you.

I do Hanjie and Kakuro as well as Killer Sudoku.

I like Blossom on line for word puzzles.

Compose your own music using a programme like Musescore. Its free, easy and totally absorbing! You don't have to be an expert (I have never learned to play an instrument) but its still fun to have a go - you just choose the instruments and crack on.

musescore.org/en

Learn to code. Python is fun and easy, loads of tutorials out there.

Hand coding is going to be replaced by AI soon, but it's still an enjoyable craft.

Some computer games can be good for this although it gets a bit addictive and might not be what you want if you want to reduce screen time. I've enjoyed things like Civilisation, where you build up an empire from ancient times through to the modern day, or Cities Skylines, where you have to manage traffic and demand for services etc. DH quite likes the ones where you build elaborate factory systems, like Factorio. (I did like a version of this called Automachef where you build cookery robots!)

https://thepubquizcompany.com/our-quizzes/not-in-a-pub-quiz-the-virtual-online-quiz

Such a helpful thread and I found an online pub quiz every Thursday at 8pm that is free.

Delighted you found a couple of online things to join in with.
I like fish keeping (have had reef tanks and seahorses)
Diamond painting
Jewellery making.

This sounds good - thank you!
I am bedbound/housebound a lot due to illness
Suggestions that haven't been made yet

• listening to foreign language podcasts
• online volunteering - I do voluntary work through a few charities remotely

cat. write a book.