You may work at home, but, as we all know, life’s not all about work. It’s about fun, too. If you work in your house, then you might begin to see it as a place where you just take care of business and then relax. But what about the enjoyable moments? It’s more than possible to have a good time at home, and one of the best ways to do this is to pick up a hobby. Below, we take a look at some of the easy-to-do hobbies you can practice without leaving the comfort of your home. Perfect!
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Get to Reading
Everyone loves to travel, but did you know that you can travel the entire world – and through different points of history, too – without even leaving the sofa? It’s true. Open up a book (well, a good one), and you’ll be transported to a different time and place. Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, you’re sure to learn a thing or two that you can bring into your daily life. If you’re not much of a reader, pick a book that’s based on one of your interests, and commit to reading at least ten minutes a day. You’ll quickly get the reading bug, and then who knows how many books you’ll fly through?
Learn a Second Language
Can you imagine travelling overseas, and being able to fluently converse with a person who speaks a language different to your own? It’s an impressive thing to do, really, and one that brings a lot of satisfaction. Even if you’re not planning to go globe-trotting, it’s still an enjoyable activity within itself, and you’ll get much enjoyment from seeing how you’re progressing along the way. The question is, what language do you speak? Spanish and French are relatively straightforward if you’re an English speaker, and a significant portion of the world speak those languages, to begin with. If you’re feeling brave, you could always try Chinese, though!
Top Up Your Education
Who really makes the most of the education they receive when they’re young? We want to be outside playing, not in a boring classroom! When we get older, however, we begin to see that yeah, there was something to all that education. We could learn about fascinating things every day, in every subject – they just didn’t seem very fascinating at the time. Aside from reading the odd book or attending the occasional lecture, most of us don’t really learn that much new stuff anymore. Let’s change that! You can take an online course from the comfort of your home in a topic that you’re interested in but don’t know much about. It’s a much better way to spend your time than say, watching television.
Get Creative
If you’ve never been through the creative process before, then know this: there’s much to love about creating something from nothing. It doesn’t matter what it is, or whether it’s any good – the joy is found in the process, not the end product. If you’ve got an interest in writing, then you don’t need to wait for an opportunity to put something down on paper – you can just begin, and why not? You might find that you’ve got a talent that was hitherto hidden. If you were to spend, say, six months learning how to draw and paint, then you’ll likely come up with something pretty good. Give it a go!
Write to your Friends
In the days of Whatsapp and Facebook and all the other ways we can communicate with one another, we don’t usually think to sit down and write a letter the old school way. It’s so slow, right? Well, it’s slower, sure, but why give speed the priority? Writing a letter allows you to flesh out your thoughts and feelings in a much bigger way, and is a skill that’ll be cherished by the people to whom you send the letters. Think about how happy they’ll be when they open their mailbox and see a letter that has obviously been written by hand.
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Pick up an Instrument
Everyone loves that person who can pick up a guitar, or sit down at a piano, and create something that sounds beautiful. Why don’t you make that person you? If you learn with a guitar teacher, you can progress to a good level of playing pretty quickly. And once you’ve got the basics under your belt, the sky’s the limit. If you hear a song that you love on the radio, you won’t just have to appreciate it from afar; you’ll be able to look up how to play it, and then create your own version. And plus, there are few things more enjoyable than sitting outside on a warm summer’s evening, strumming a guitar as your friend sings.
Restoration Projects
We tend to take for granted all the things we have in our lives. We don’t spend too much thinking about where they’ve come from; they just, well, exist. This, of course, isn’t true: everything has been designed and made in some way. And you can be involved in this process, too, especially things break. If you’ve got a chair that has a wonky leg, then don’t throw it away – learn how to fix it instead. You can even buy used furniture, touch it up with some joinery skills and chalk paint, and then sell it on. Furniture is relatively easy, but once you get the buzz of fixing up old things, you can move on to automobiles and other vehicles. There’s nothing like bringing an old car back to life!
Make Something To Sell
Are you looking for a little more money? You can make a tidy side income by getting a little creative in your home, and then by using a site like Etsy to sell those creations. The two that are easiest to create are t-shirts and jewellery. Keep things simple, make them cool, and you’ll find that you have no problem shifting your units online. These also make terrific, inexpensive birthday and Christmas gifts, too.
Calming the Mind
Do you feel the rush of the day is always whirring around your mind? Then perhaps you need yoga or mindfulness in your life. Of all the hobbies you can do, these are the ones that will likely have the biggest, most immediate impact on your overall happiness and well-being. You can get started with them just by watching online videos, too – nothing complicated whatsoever.
In the Kitchen
Do you think that taste is the greatest sense? We’d have to agree: it’s pretty awesome. You don’t have to visit an expensive restaurant to get your fill of the finest tastes. You can make them right at home! Cooking is one of those things that you can get very good at very quickly. Just put an extra half hour’s worth of time into your meals, and you’ll see the difference. If you’re more of a beer fan, then why not take a look at creating your own brews? The kit you need to make beer at home, and the process is as easy as pie. Indeed, even when you get it slightly wrong, the taste is still pretty good!
In the Garden
You may be hunched in front of a computer for hours on end each day, so it’ll be understandable if you don’t want to be in front of a screen – or even indoors – once your work has finished. So why not take yourself into the garden, and work on a vegetable patch? It’s easy to get your garden underway, and, what’s more, it’s enjoyable! In a few months, you’ll be able to eat fresh vegetables that you’ve grown on your own property. Perfect!
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Learn a New Game
What with our smartphones and the internet and the rest, the traditional games have kind of fallen out of favour. But there’s a reason they stuck around for centuries: they’re fun. Games like chess exercise the mind, provide competition, and improve concentration, among many other benefits. For something slightly more modern, take a look at crosswords and other mind-teasers – these are also a great way to wake up your mind before work in the morning, too.
How to Juggle
We’re going to end with a skill that you can learn in just a few hours: juggling. It sounds simple, and it is, but it’s also weirdly impressive. Kids and adults alike really enjoy seeing a few balls get tossed up in the air; and that mouth agape awe only intensifies if you’re using four or more balls, too. It’s a calming, old-school hobby that is easy to do, but which can get complicated pretty quickly – give it a go.
Conclusion
It’s not easy to find things to occupy your mind when you’re just sitting around the house, but as we’ve shown above, it’s more than possible to keep yourself entertained. None of the activities above is particularly complicated or requires much time/money to get underway. And one thing is for sure; they’re all much better for you than just watching television.
