How to Avoid being Bored During Lockdown

Being bored during lockdown is frustrating, and emotionally draining. Lockdown is proving hard for me. We have been in a lockdown for over a month now, meaning I can’t go shopping anywhere, or really visit anyone, and it makes life hard. It’s hard to shop online for everything. It’s hard to never see your friends. It’s hard to do always do curb side up for everything–from take out food to buying some nuts and bolts from a hardware store, something my husband actually had to do. They gave him the wrong nuts and bolts. He was not happy, and keeps muttering about six dollars down the drain. Lockdown is frustrating. But we have no choice because it’s all in the hands of the government. No comment there. No comment on the government. And honestly, there are times I just want to go. Go anywhere. And I don’t mean go for a walk around the same streets I’ve been walking for months. That’s going no where. That’s just moving. So, what do I do when I feel like I am going bonkers from being in my apartment all the time? I try to find ways to stave off the boredom. To keep myself and my mind busy and entertained so that I am not bored. Or feeling like a tiger in a cage. Because being bored during lockdown is not something I am willing to have my mental health compromised for.

Social Media

Social media has its evils, but I think it has definitely kept many of us going throughout this gong show pandemic. I hop onto Twitter to see what my blogger peeps are posting, I hop onto Facebook to see what my friends and family might have posted and what cute pictures might have been posted in my pet groups. I comment here and there, and it helps me feel connected, and stave the feeling of being bored during lockdown. Most of the time. I try to stay away from shopping because well, that could easily get out of hand though of course there were some things I had to buy online. Pregnancy pants. A new chair for my desk. But mostly my internet time is spent either on social media or blogging.

Movies And Binge Watching

Thank goodness I have access to multiple streaming sites like Prime, Netflix and Disney+. I have watched a ton of Disney movies (they make me happy) and my husband and I have worked our way through a couple of series together in the evenings. I bet many of us are doing this. Because…what else is there to do? One channel I really love is Lesley the Bird Nerd. This channel is devoted to birds, and it helps me bring the outdoors indoors during the cold winter months.

Reading Books to Be Engaged

This is one I’m getting back into now that I’m less stressed. I didn’t read a lot in 2020 because I just couldn’t focus, I was too tired. Too wired up. But in hospital reading proved a great distraction and time killer for me and has really gotten me back into the habit. I’ve read four books so far in 2021 and I’m loving that I can once again fall into the calm that reading a good book has always brought me. I even got to attend a book club meeting with my friends on Zoom when I haven’t attended in months because I couldn’t find the energy to read the books. I can’t even describe how wonderful it is to have reading and books back in my life. And if I am reading, I definitely cannot be bored during lockdown.

YouTube: More Videos…

Well, there are few Youtubers I follow, and I am now watching their videos faithfully because I have the time to do so. I always get excited when they post and sometimes I watch older videos of theirs I’ve already seen because I liked the video or just want to hear the information again. I follow a lot of Youtubers who talk about their pets, some who did a mix of things and some who are more into home decor and minimalism. So lots of topics for me to chose from when I’m really feeling restless and bored.

Pet Care

While all pets require care, mine are not very demanding. I have their food arranged so that I don’t have to feed them several times a day, so I do water checks and clean ups when necessary, about once a week. That does keep me busy for a bit of time, but not a lot. My rabbit is great to hang out with in the evenings and in the morning, but during the day she sleeps. Which is fine because that’s when I am blogging or doing something so our schedules mesh this way. Even though my pets don’t require hours of my attention, they are a good distraction for me and I love saying hello to them and caring for them. But just knowing that I can spend fifteen minutes fussing over their cuteness or filming them is a great way to kill some down time and helps in not being bored.

Crocheting

So I hadn’t crocheted a lot in 2020, again likely due to inability to focus and stress. Stress was killing me. But I have started a little something for my little one on the way and today I have been toying with the idea of starting a more complicated project so that I have something I really need to focus on for when I am totally bored and really need distraction. The baby project I can almost do with my eyes closed. I also hope to share some of my crochet with you here on the blog, so look out for that in the future too.

In Conclusion…

These are a few things I do to help reduce and avoid being during this never-ending lockdown. Some might be ones you can try out too. Whatever you do, you need to enjoy it so that the time goes by, and so that you feel calm and at ease while doing it. Switch it up too, sometimes things can get too routine and feel like part of the trap that I know we all sometimes feel we are in during this pandemic.

What do you do to stave off the boredom? Share in the comments below.