10 Lockdown Activities to Inspire Creativity

1. Rearrange your books by color

This might just be the easiest way to both spruce up your home and get yourself into a more creative mood. You can use what you already have to change the look of a room in a matter of minutes. Simply empty out a bookshelf and separate books by the color of their spines.

You can either place them back together to make a classic rainbow (if you have enough of each color) or you can just do your own creative variation. For example, maybe have one shelf be a mix of purple and blue and another black and white.

This can get you thinking about what color scheme you want to use to decorate your place!

2. Learn to draw

I’ll be the first to tell you that I’ve never been much of an artist. Art was the one subject that I didn’t excel at in elementary school and I never really took any classes post that. One night during lockdown, though, I happened to scroll upon some easy-looking drawing tutorials on Pinterest and decided to try them out.

It quickly turned a relatively boring night into a fun and rewarding experience. After spending most of my life saying I couldn’t draw I could suddenly draw some cute cacti and coffee mugs.

There are so many artists out there with simple step-by-step blogs and Youtube tutorials that I never even thought to seek out.

3. Start a blog

I started this blog a few years ago and only really started taking it seriously during lockdown. I hated that outside of posting the occasional poem on my Tumblr I hadn’t really written anything since college.

The beauty of having a blog is that it only takes as much time and effort as you want it to. It could either be a fun hobby or an epic side job you can do anywhere.

You can easily start a blog for free and even if you want to take it to the next level the costs are still fairly minimal.

4. Design Your Own Birthday and Holiday Cards

I think that lockdown really made me realize how unfortunate it is that sending cards and letters is starting to feel like a thing of the past. There is something wonderful about opening up something uniquely made by the sender - especially when you can’t see them in person.

Cardstock printer paper is a lot cheaper than buying cards and your end-result just feels a lot more special. Check out this awesome free fonts website to download some fun and unique fonts for your cards. It’s also awesome if you include your own art, family photos, or photos of special memories you had with the person you’re sending it to.

5. Take an Online Course

There are a ton of amazing and super cheap online courses out there. I’m currently taking two with Shaw Academy - one on digital marketing and the other is a photography course. I also recommend CourseHorse and Udemy if you want to pick up some new skills.

If you’re just interested in expanding your mind in general during your free time, Harvard is offering some free online courses such as 18th Century Opera and Introduction to Probability. They won’t count for actual college credit, but you’ll still be taking ivy league quality classes for completely free.

6. Spend at least thirty minutes out in nature

There’s something about spending time in nature that helps the creative juices flow. If I’m having a case of writer’s block I find that just spending time outside makes a huge difference. Even simply reading a book outside on a bench can change your mindset for the rest of the day.

One of my favorite things, when I lived in New York, was taking yoga classes in Bryant Park, there’s nothing quite like looking up at the clouds while you’re doing yoga. With virtual yoga and tai chi classes, it’s super easy to do an outdoor class in nature on your own.

7. Try out a new recipe

Lockdown is the perfect time to learn a new recipe. While occasionally picking up food to go is nice, it’s not the same as having a freshly prepared meal brought straight from the kitchen to your table.

Since you have a bit of extra time on your hands go on ahead and try out that time-consuming recipe that you always say you’ll make one day.

Maybe even get a little extra creative and create a restaurant experience at your dinner table. Pull out your best dishes and linens and maybe even create menu cards to give it that restaurant feel. Make sure to check out the free fonts website I mentioned earlier for lots of great options that can match the theme of your dinner.

8. Learn to knit or crochet

Want a fun hobby you can do while you’re binging shows on Netflix? Pick up some knitting needles or a crochet hook and learn this skill!

There’s plenty of free videos teaching you how to do both on YouTube and once you learn the basics you can pretty easily make a scarf in your spare time.

9. Make your own soap

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget how hard it was to buy soap and paper products at the beginning of lockdown. I mean, some people must still have a garage full of that stuff with the way they were hoarding, right?

I happened to already have some soap molds and a huge bar to melt so that ended up being my first craft project of lockdown. It’s super easy to do, it just takes a bit of time for them to set.

10. Make a fabric mask

Even after I get my second dose of the vaccine I plan on continuing to wear a mask in public until I have reason to believe we have herd immunity in the US.

Making a mask is a fairly simple sewing project. There are a few different styles you can make and a ton of how-to videos for each one. A yard of fabric is usually fairly cheap and more than enough to make a mask. As someone that’s already lost a few, I can definitely say that it’s always a good idea to make a new one!