If you have to stay home for another lockdown, what activities will keep you sane?

[Hellokittymania]

Please give me some ideas… I already speak many languages, and have been learning Arabic since the summer… I am trying to take some classes, so I can fill up some of my time. I don’t know what else to do… I live in a very small space, hardly any room to exercise, no garden… What can I do? I’m totally out of ideas

Learn a craft you can become immersed in. For me, I love crochet, sewing, needle felting. Pinterest is your friend

Puzzle! I've asked for a puzzle board for Xmas which I'm buzzing about

Sleep, smoke loads of weed and read.

Yoga/Pilates is good for little space exercise, or body balance on Les mills on demand.
Learn to crochet.
Cook nice things.
Get out as much as possible. I’ve enjoyed some very amateur photography. It’s surprising what you can do with a phone camera.

All those household jobs you don't get around to, but only when you're not too high!

I like sewing, especially making curtains and cushions. What about quilting?

If you don't like crafts, what about learning coding, or take some OU courses. There are some free courses.

Take up World of Warcraft, if you get hooked you'll never have time for anything else.....evil laughter

Last lockdown I did some paint by numbers, not kids ones but proper landscapes etc. I'm terrible at art of any kind so the PBN approach meant I could produce something actually really nice, because I wasn't wielding a paintbrush at a blank canvas. I enjoyed trying something new and producing a tangible thing was satisfying.

Lots of walking - no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothes etc ...

And cooking and crochet

I shall be dog walking, sleeping too much, trying not to sink into depression, having too much screen time, colouring and seeing my dad as I am his support bubble. Same as in March.

I didn’t get round to half the things I wanted to do during the last lockdown!
Massive pile of books to get through
Never touched the jigsaw I bought
Meant to do some creative writing, didn't
Did very little baking, meant to do more
Meant to watch a lot more of the great theatre that was available online and on TV
Joined a workout group and a book discussion group and didn’t keep up with either
Failed to deep clean the house, sort out all my stuff, delete all the old files I don’t need from my computer...the list goes on! Goodness knows what I did do, although home schooling and work took up a lot of time.

I'm sorry I don't really understand the question as there's always so much to do. If you're not working perhaps volunteer with your local doctor's surgery or hospital. Schools may need people to train in lateral flow testing in the new year. You could volunteer for your local food bank or set up a community fridge taking almost out of date food from supermarkets for those in the community who are struggling. Perhaps get in touch with your local old people's home to see if they need an extra pair of hands or if older people need shopping bought. I would imagine the Samaritans and similar organisations will be fairly busy in the new year and could do with more trained volunteers. There's a census in March so I think there'll be recruiting soon too. If none of those appeal then you could learn a musical instrument or organise all your photos, perhaps plan your next holiday and read some books. There's even an old chap on the news who's just rowed 100 miles in his homemade boat. How fab is that?! 🙂

I also should be looking for a job so that might take up some time

What about learning to be? Spendimg some time every day, to just sit and do nothing, alone with your thoughts, or even daydream? See where your mind takes you. Obviously, this will be harder to achieve if you have children or live in a busy household, but I didn't get that from your op.

I have always been taught to value my own company and enjoy most of my time alone. I think it's helped me to survive lockdown with no support network, apart from my 18 year old DS.

Perfecting my gin drinking skill.

Summer, I do have a disability, some volunteering rolls they poseten problem, also because I might be seeing us vulnerable, but I speak to languages. I was trying to find volunteer roles as an interpreter, or even just as somebody who speaks a lot of languages, but many people weren’t taking volunteers face-to-face. Do you know if languages would be needed at the food bank? Or is there something else I could do? I would love to do something like this…

@SummerHeatwave there's no need to be patronising. And as far as volunteering goes that's another thing that's been taken away from us. I'm a volunteer on a Charity helpline and there has been no volunteer shifts or training since March due to social distancing requirements. The same will be true of most of your other suggestions. You can't help the community in a pandemic it seems.

The activity that will keep me sane is, going out.

Riding my horse, walking my dog. Going on a Christmas ride with friends on Sunday in the middle nowhere, then mulled wine and mince pies in front of a big open fire afterwards, can’t wait 😊

I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to be patronising Puppylucky. My local community is in great need of volunteers (especially for the community fridge which is in huge demand at the moment, the food bank too as many volunteers are older more vulnerable members of the population, our doctors surgery put out an appeal this week for helping with queuing for the vaccinations when they start here). I assumed it would be the same everywhere.
HelloKittyMania - I'm sorry I've no idea about languages, I guess it depends on your local population and their needs.

You could doing language tuition online.

Honestly, just being well would be enough (unlike during the first lockdown).

Incidentally I work for a Wildlife Trust and we are still working with volunteers (both in person and remotely). Although we are pretty swamped by people offering their time.

Summer is right.
Some volunteering opportunities have changed, but there is a huge need for volunteers.
Yes, even if you can't leave your home.

I know lots of organisations are doing their best to move their activities on-line and would welcome people with open arms if they can find their way around IT and some of the technology of video conferencing platforms.
Then all the organisations such as Age Concern, and Methodist Homes, nationally, but all sorts that are 'local' charities and organisations have 'befrienders' who keep in touch with people with a weekly phone chat.
(Depending on which languages) but I'm sure there are many organisations that could do with translaters - refugee charities seems an obvious place to start looking, but homeless charities, women's refuges, indeed, ANY charity that works with the public - hospices, charities that support families with particular needs (Mencap, Contact, DSA, NAS, Scope etc etc etc)
But, all sorts of places need volunteers in all sorts of ways.
Ask on your local FB group, or have a look on do-it.org

A local vicar crocheted the nativity scene and displayed it on the hedge outside the church. She also asked the local community for knitted or crocheted squares to make the stable. Perhaps you could do something similar for Easter?
www.advertiserandtimes.co.uk/nativity-pennington?fbclid=IwAR3qQPIqDzZLoVDXeeb4ieqFajZ1AWr3h1CznXoF5ngpC4TJcS8ChghA8sU

@MiniTheMinx

I like sewing, especially making curtains and cushions. What about quilting?

If you don't like crafts, what about learning coding, or take some OU courses. There are some free courses.

Take up World of Warcraft, if you get hooked you'll never have time for anything else.....evil laughter

Games like WoW aren't such a bad idea tbh. They certainly take up your time and mmorpgs can be sociable. I started playing Elder Scrolls Online with DH during the last lockdown and we're still working through some of the content.

Form a bubble with close friends and family.