There are hundreds of productive pastimes to be able to do at home but, too often, the stress of inactivity and boredom cloud our mind, preventing us from having the complete design of everything that surrounds us and leading us to repeat the same actions more and more reluctantly in an infinite loop. It would be good and right train our creativity and productivity whenever we have the opportunity, if not for a mere act aimed at feeding the spirit of our being, at least not to get bored. And in these days we have a lot of time.
I do not know if you have noticed it, but for a few weeks a round being with spikes present on its surface that make it look like a crown, armed with a bar and ready to attack anyone, has been walking around the streets of Italy. stands in front. To defend ourselves from this being, our stay in the home will have to be perpetuated for a very long time. This forced confinement reached us between head and neck like a shovel of frozen snow, also creating small misunderstandings due to the speed with which we were forced to carry out the organizational part of these unexpected 'holidays'.
Now, we are sure that you, my obligate little hermits, have already made a list of things to do while serving your home sentence, but in the unlikely event that you miscalculated the timing and checked all the items on the list too soon, here are 10 productive pastimes you can do at home.
1- Create a stop motion video
The first of the productive pastimes that we have decided to recommend is part of the magical world of the seventh art. It is a technique that has made history. There Stop Motion (o Step one) is a technique with which we have the ability to create a video with moving inanimate objects. The camera takes a photo at a time of a certain object that will be moved slightly and with movements calculated for each frame taken. The movement will be given by the set of photographs put in sequence. A great idea to bring your favorite LEGO characters to life, or get that Ozzy Osbourne action figure on your nightstand to move, or make a video where it looks like you're growing a beard instead of cutting it off. In short, there are hundreds of ideas to exploit this technique. A great app to start with is Stop motion studio, simple and basic. You can easily use the onion effect (when you are about to take a photo, the previous photograph will be seen as the background, so that the user can adjust the shot to better calibrate the sense of movement), and use the app as a basic video editing.
Download
QR-Code
Stop Motion Studio
Developer:
CATEATER, LLC
Price:
Free+
Download
QR-Code
Stop Motion Studio
Developer:
Cateater
Price:
Free+
2- Shoot a video for social media
In this moment of confinement we all feel the need to be able to have our say, to make ourselves heard, or at least not to completely cut off contact with the outside world. You have never made videos, but to keep your level of socialization constant, why not create a video for social media with what you always wanted to say? A properly structured video, perhaps with overlayed backgrounds, music and phrases. You can cheer your friends with funny monologues of your own creation and thus give some moments of carefree happiness, which never hurts these days. An excellent program to help you in your business is BIGVU. This app was born as teleprompter (the device that scrolls the text to be read while shooting a video ... practically the hunchback!), but also acts as a video editor, allowing you to add subtitles and create HD videos in teleprompter mode, in portrait or landscape mode and in different aspect ratios. It is integrated with youtube, so you can easily upload the video to your channel; although the paid version has a number of interesting features, the basic version is excellent for starting to approach this world.
Download
QR-Code
BIGVU Teleprompter Sottotitoli
Developer:
BIGVU INC
Price:
Free+
Download
QR-Code
Teleprompter BIGVU - editor di video e didascalie
Developer:
BIGVU Inc
Price:
Free+
3- Draw on tablet
Let's use these days to understand a key concept for the success of our being: within us there is a whole universe that asks to go out. It is not true that some people lack fantasy, they simply have not yet found the right means to manifest it. Have you ever tried drawing on a tablet? Do you know how many people go around the city (or rather, given the times, stay at home) without having the slightest awareness of having an innate talent for drawing ?! It is one of the best productive pastimes even for those unfamiliar with graphic representation. Just pick up a nib and externalize everything we want to materialize in an art form, immortalizing our moods through the sign. Skill is irrelevant, the important thing now is to start. Here are tons of cool apps you could use, such as How to draw – Easy lessons, specifically focused on teaching, or Auryn Inc, app dedicated to watercolor painting. If, on the other hand, you want to try your hand at something a little more complex, we advise you to set your course at a time of Sketchbook. Considered among the best free apps for drawing, SketchBook offers a wide range of tools aimed at all those who want to try their hand in this wonderful world, from drawing and line tools, to brushes, textures, gradients and blending modes. And don't worry if in the end the portrait of your favorite character will be more like a Shrek stuffed with cortisone (in case you really wanted to draw Shrek stuffed with cortisone, then GOOD!), Keep training, the practice will come over time.
Download
QR-Code
Sketchbook®
Developer:
Sketchbook, Inc
Price:
Free
Download
QR-Code
Sketchbook
Developer:
Sketchbook
Price:
Free
4- Productive pastimes, Learning to dance
My dear broomsticks, at the end of this time of quarantine, your friends will surely want to throw a party in honor of the end of these questionable weeks we are living through. What better way to celebrate your comeback than with a Fred Astaire entrance ?! We begin to loosen the muscles and show everyone that we haven't stayed at home lazing like sacks of potatoes. In this case youtube can do for us. There are tons of channels with tutorials on how to learn all kinds of dances, from swing to salsa, from tango to tip tap… there's even a quadrille! Plus it's a great way to stay fit and burn more calories than you might think. So guys, arm yourself with your smartphone and go to the living room ... don't you already feel the satisfaction quivering inside imagining the day when you can tell your grandchildren 'During the Coronavirus emergency I learned to dance' while performing in a moonwalking?!?
5- Learn a language
After such a situation, imagine how much wanderlust you will have this summer. Well, to make the most of your future holidays, you should start organizing yourself right away, perhaps learning the local language (you don't lack time). If you want something new from learning a language through the subtitles of your favorite series, Babbel is the one for you. In addition to the possibility of learning 14 languages in a very simple way, the service offers a month of free courses for all students of Italy, to face the coronavirus emergency. So the next time someone asks you 'where is the beach?' in foreign language, you will not send it in the direction of the red light district on the other side.
Learning a language often leads to an increase in our interest in the uses and customs of another country, teaches us to discover its similarities and differences and, above all, increases our desire to explore the world. So sooner or later you will stop answering 'the dog is under the table' to every question you are asked.
Download QR-Code Babbel - Language courses Developer: Babbel GmbH Price: Free +
Download QR-Code Learn languages with Babbel Developer: Babbel Price: Free +
6- Get in shape with a fitness app
When you get up from the chair and the shape of your body remains imprinted and motionless between the textures of the fabric, perhaps it is time to do some movement. Oh yes, why not tell me that all the good intentions you had at the beginning of the quarantine you have respected! Most likely you have been binging on chips for a week without ever getting off the couch. If you want to get there at the end of these forced holidays, it's time to get some oxygen back into circulation. So stand up, put on the shorts and pull out those legwarmers that haven't seen the light of day since Jane Fonda and let's go to burn fat. To help you in this miraculous pastime, we had already mentioned a lot of searchable apps, such as Personal Trainerthe Sworkit.
7- Productive pastimes, Writing
One of the best productive pastimes with which to apply. Since world and world, writing has always been the faithful companion of every man forced to cut ties with the rest of society. Miguel De Cervantes wrote the first chapters of his famous Don Quixote Della Mancha while serving a sentence in prison. Impossible not to mention Nelson Mandela and his novel Long way to freedom, also written behind the bars of a prison. Dino Buzzati he wrote The Tartar desert to cope with the monotonous and lonely nocturnal editorial routine it was doing in those days. It is therefore the right time to bring out that old idea that came to your mind a few years ago and always postponed with 'maybe one day I'll write it down'. You have no idea how to do it? No problem, Wattpad is what is right for you; it's a social networks in which you can publish your stories in full or one chapter at a time and be followed by other users, most of whom, in turn, will do the same. An excellent space therefore to share ideas, receive advice, and refine your writing technique to the fullest.
Download
QR-Code
Wattpad
Developer:
Wattpad Corp
Price:
Free+
Download QR-Code Wattpad - Where Stories Come to Life Developer: Wattpad.com Price: Free +
8- Learn to play
Well, maybe learning to play is a bit too much ... let's say learn to make music. Oh yes, because, in the absence of the means to write, the faithful companion of every recluse is always music. How many times has it happened to you that an original tune was born spontaneously in your head? And why not concretize those few notes to make them the first brick of your future success as international stars? Wait, slow! How much you run though! One step at a time… before hiring the Hollywood Bowl it would be better to understand something about the music. GarageBand is a software created specifically to create music, also excellent for anyone who only knows how to play 'Fra Martino Campanaro' with the recorder. Inside you will find more than 1000 virtual instruments and all the features to be able to give them the right effect. GarageBand is an Apple product, therefore compatible only with MacOS and iOS, but, considering the great quality of the programs, even the followers of Windows have set in motion and created a program very similar to GarageBand, called GarageBand 6.0.5. So you have no excuses, you have your nice support, your program to make music too, stop wasting time, show everyone that Mozart was nothing compared to you!
Download
QR-Code
GarageBand
Developer:
Apple
Price:
Free
9- The game of chess
It is an elegant, fascinating game, full of meaning, but above all when you play it you feel smart. These days of boredom you will need all your patience more than ever. And what's better than training patience with one of the most iconic games on the subject ?!
Oh yes, because chess is a game in which strategy is king, are a mathematical duel between two intelligences, which can be fun even for those who have no intelligence. Moreover, it could cheer your hours at home for much longer than you think: think that the longest game in history lasted well 20 hours, stuff that Risiko does the cleaning at home.
Could such a noble game not have dedicated apps ?! Absolutely not; Chess: Play & learn is an excellent app to start taking the first steps inside the chessboard and understand a bit how to move the pieces. Chess online is an app that instead teaches you the most iconic moves in history so you can perform them and defeat your opponents. If you really feel that this game does not fully reflect your interpretative strings (despite knowing one of the longest-lived productive pastimes in history), you can always always try with Three-way chess created by Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory (many may not know it, but three-way chess ... THOSE three-way chess is a game really existing, whose instructions are easily available on the web).
Download QR-Code Chess · Play and Learn Developer: Chess.com Price: Free +
10 - Podcasts and audiobooks
Certainly, listening to podcasts or audiobooks, perhaps curled up on the sofa, while scanning the horizon with a cup of hot tea in hand, is an excellent pastime. We talked a lot about this topic, recommending some podcasts to follow (such as Fjona Cakalli Talks), or various apps for listening to audio books. Surely Audible it is one of the most popular; a virtual library with an infinite number of titles of all kinds, often read by the authors themselves. In addition to one month free trial (well, what luck!), Audible makes available all the works in its database at 9,90 euros per month ('a fair exchange' cit.). Even if you are not great lovers of reading, give it a try: if you get the right book, love will inevitably blossom.
Download
QR-Code
Audiolibri Audible
Developer:
Audible, Inc.
Price:
Free+
Download
QR-Code
Audiolibri & Podcast Audible
Developer:
Audible, Inc
Price:
Free
+1 BONUS: Building a Rube Goldberg car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLY1s-V0wUQ
We would like to dedicate a bonus point to this wonderful idea. It is usually referred to as a Rube Goldberg machine, a mechanism designed in a deliberately complex way to follow simple operations. If you then add the objects you commonly have at home as a raw material for assembly, fun is guaranteed! We are not a little surprised that such an idea never managed to catch on among standard pastimes, and is instead regarded as 'strange and unusual'. We consider it one of the best productive pastimes you can do.
And you? What are your creative pastimes? What have you invented to not bow to the yoke of boredom? Let us know!
Tagsaudible babbel BIGVU Coronavirus GarageBand guida pandemia How to draw personal trainer schacchi SketchBook stop motion Sworkit Wattpad 10 productive pastimes you can do at home
