Digital (and analog) tips for making the best of life at home
Because most of us will be spending more quality time at home than usual in the coming weeks, I’ve racked my brain for useful things your technology can do for you while you’re not going out much. Here are a few things that can help enrich, educate, and entertain you (and your family) if you’re stuck at home.
First, read something just for the joy of reading.
I love to read, but I never seem to have time to read everything that interests me. So, while I’m staying in more, I’m devoting some time every day to reading purely for pleasure. (Try it — it’s delicious.)
Should you run out of
things to read, try the Libby app (iOS only), which works with many public library systems and allows you to check out and read eBooks on your iDevice for free.
I’m also planning to learn new things.
For example, I’m an aspiring wood artist and I love woodworking magazines and websites and have saved or bookmarked dozens of project plans and articles. Now I’ll have time to read them and possibly even build one of the projects.
Along those same lines, I want to learn how to use SketchUp, a 3D drawing app for the Mac. It will allow me to draw project plans, measured drawings and full-sized templates for any project I dream up.
I bought a book last year called “SketchUp Success for Woodworkers,”
but it’s been collecting sawdust ever since. Now I’ll use some of my time at home to read the book, learn the software and, with any luck, draw up a project plan and execute it.
Another thing you might do with your unexpected time at home is write something strictly because you want to and not because you have to.
I spend most of my workday writing, so I don’t usually care to write much after my work is done. Now I’m writing letters and emails to friends and family I haven’t been in touch with recently. And I’m writing my second protest song. (My first protest song,
,isnowa free download at www.tinyurl.com/itunes— mustdie. Enjoy!)
Finally, for entertainment we’re catching up on the TV shows and movies on our watch lists on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. If we manage to watch everything on all of our current lists, we got a free subscription to Apple TV+ with an iPhone purchase, and while not much of its programming appeals to us, we’ll force ourselves to try some new shows there.
Finally, if all else fails and we’re still starved for things to watch, we’ll probably give in and subscribe to Disney + so we can watch most of the Marvel superhero movies and “The Mandalorian,” which everyone but us has apparently seen already.
One last thing: Wash your hands a lot, use hand sanitizer if you can find it and hang in there. As my mother used to tell me, “This too shall pass.”