Hello to everyone, but especially Karl-Anthony Towns. This post is being written because Towns, like essentially all of us, is locked at home, practicing social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused all of society to come to a sudden stop. It’s good that people are doing this as a way to keep folks safe and healthy, but there is a very obvious side effect that risks popping up: boredom.
That is the case for Towns, who sent this tweet:
Need some things to do while home, what ya think I should try next Twitter?..
— Karl-Anthony Towns (@KarlTowns) March 19, 2020
Now, while I am not an expert on many things, I have worked from home for years and also enjoy doing absolutely nothing for lengthy periods of time. Below, I will share with Towns — and all of you — some things that you can do to keep yourself from going too stir crazy.
1. Do stuff that involves staring at a screen, but within reason
If this means sinking hours and hours into video games, then do that. If this means binging a show that you enjoy, then go off. The important thing is finding a line between doing the stuff that you enjoy and getting sick of these things — everything runs the risk of getting heightened a little bit when you spend too much time in one place, and once you find that line, you’re set. It is extremely easy to spend all your time playing video games or watching Netflix or mindlessly scrolling Instagram or something like that. This is good for a few days, and then, at a certain point, your brain will feel like some circuits busted.
2. Books: Really good!
Turn your phone off (more on this in a moment) and grab literally any book or magazine that is laying around in your home/apartment and read it. There is something therapeutic about being locked in on something and not having technology as a distraction. I swear, this makes way more sense when you actually do it. Also…
3. Turn off electronics when you do not need them
If you’re working from home for the foreseeable future, do not have your CPU up when you’re off the clock. Turn your phone off during downtime, or while you’re making lunch/dinner (unless it’s being used to play music or something).
4. Watch every single video in the Bon Appétit YouTube universe
Every BA video is like half an hour long and extremely good. If I were to estimate, by the time you would finish everything, it would be 2075, and I am inclined to believe that sometime before then, this will all pass.
5. Exercise
There are plenty of apps that put you through workouts even if you do not have weights in your dwelling. Maybe you have a Peloton looking out over your expansive property next to floor to ceiling windows in your palatial estate. If you don’t, plenty of folks I know recommend doing yoga through YouTube, but having an outlet to be somewhat active — even if it’s not to the extent that you normally are — is crucial when you’re spending all your time pent up at home and sitting on the couch/laying in bed.
6. Try out new hobbies
Have you, Karl-Anthony Towns, ever thought about getting really good at darts or billiards or some other parlor game that can be easily played and practiced alone, indoors, at home? Now is a great time to do that. We here at Dime cannot recommend the great sport of darts enough, and I’d also really enjoy seeing a 7-foot, All-NBA athlete become really good at trick shot billiards. Have you ever watched trick shot billiards? It’s incredible. Or how about knitting? It’s very soothing and by the time you learned to knit something for your very tall self the hiatus might just be over.
7. Try cooking
This, obviously, is a bit tricky considering the issues we’ve seen with grocery stores having things in stock. But you can spend a whole lot of time locked in on refining your cooking skills, a skill that is good to have in general, or at the very least, you can escape real life for an hour as you cook up and eat some pasta and chicken or something. As you binge Bon Appétit videos you will find yourself suddenly confident (maybe over-confident) in your cooking abilities, and that’s OK. As Bob Ross says, you don’t make mistakes, you make happy accidents — unless it’s with a knife or fire and then you can, indeed, make mistakes.
8. Play the fishing game
9. Watch a bunch of old Vines
This is also great.
10. FaceTime people
Social interaction is incredibly important when you’re stuck at home for an extended period of time. Having face-to-face contact with other people, even if it is through a phone or a computer, is extremely important. And if this isn’t feasible, call people.
11. Spend as much time outside as possible
Keep your distance from others and take all the necessary precautions (namely wash your hands and wipe down surfaces if you can before you touch them), but fresh air is a godsend after spending far too much time inside.
Listen, all of this sucks and none of it is all that fun. It’s a scary time and no one has any idea how long we’re going to be in this perpetual state of chaos. This is merely a list of some stuff everyone can do to make the walls that confine us right now feel like they’re not slowly closing in.
