The COVID-19 outbreak has likely brought a lot frustrating and unexpected changes to your daily life, especially if you’re the type of person who likes to be out and about. While there’s definitely no replacement for getting together with friends, you may be surprised at how many ways you can pass the time from the comfort of your own home. Try out different activities until you find a really entertaining and fulfilling hobby that you enjoy!

Teach yourself how to play a musical instrument. Search around your home for an old keyboard, guitar, or another musical instrument that no one’s played in a while. Even if you don’t have any instruments lying around the house, you can still sign up for online music theory classes, which give you some background on how to read sheet music.

Bake some delicious treats. Search online for different recipes or dig out those long forgotten recipe books, whether it’s cookies, cake, bread, muffins, or something else. Look for recipes that need ingredients that you already have in the cupboard or pantry, like flour and water.

Try your hand at origami. Find some scrap paper lying around your home, or order some special origami paper online. Search for different projects online so you can create beautiful flowers and animals out of paper.

Draw or paint to pass the time. Find some scrap paper or an old sketchbook and start drawing your favorite animal, fictional character, or something else you like a lot. Dig out some acrylic, watercolor, or oil paints to add a splash of color to your work of art. Keep practicing each day so you can improve your art skills.

Take up writing. From journalling or writing letters to short stories and poems, writing can be a great creative way to pass the time.

Take up gardening so you can get some fresh air. Find an open section of your yard that you can repurpose into a flower bed or vegetable patch. Visit a home improvement store or shop online to pick up the different seeds and fertilizer that you need, then you can get planting!

Get outside and take some pictures. Grab your phone camera or a more advanced camera and head outside. Take some pictures of anything that seems interesting, whether it’s nature or something as simple as cars driving by.

Enroll in online courses with digital learning programs. Search online for websites like UDemy, OpenCulture, EdX, Coursera, or something similar. Search for classes that really strike your interest, whether they’re related to a hobby or something purely educational.

Chill out with a single or multiplayer video game. Think about what types of games you like to play, whether it’s fighting, rhythm, sandbox, or something in between.

Read some new books. Search around your home for any books or novels that you haven’t had the time to read. If you don’t have a lot of reading material lying around, download some ebooks that you can read on your phone or tablet.

Dive into a fun puzzle or strategy game. Download some logic or sudoku puzzles online, or try out a game of online chess. Start with easy puzzles and matches before working your way up to bigger challenges.