Seventeen Things To Do When There’s Nothing To Do

I have been feeling wildly, wildly landlocked, and this is why I made a list.

From now on, whenever I am beginning to not be able to stand it, I will look at my list of things to do when there’s nothing to do and I will pick something.

If you feel stuck or stranded or under water, give one of these things a try, if you can.

1. Listen to someone read a story out loud. You can search for children’s stories on YouTube or pick a classic book from Project Gutenberg, a free audiobook service for classics in the public domain. This counts towards your Goodreads Reading Challenge. It eases your mind.
2. Vacuum. You can do this while dancing or while not dancing, but the former is better.
3. Call someone — on video, if you can. Prop your phone on your desk and exist with them. You don’t have to speak.
4. Pick the worst song you know the words to and sing along to a karaoke version (loudly). Do this again with the best song you know the words to.
5. Watch a documentary about insects or birds or an author you like. Try to remember three things you learned from it.
6. Memorize a poem. This one is my favorite, and I often say it under my breath when washing my hands (it lasts about 20 seconds if I don’t pause too long between stanzas).
7. Try to make a loaf of sourdough bread. (Alternatively: realize that this takes a long time to do, and search for a quick biscuit recipe instead).
8. Reorganize your books by separating out the ones you haven’t read yet. Maybe you will give them a try and maybe you won’t. Do it by color, or author’s last name. Do it by size. Do it by age.
9. Sit outside for at least fifteen minutes in the middle of the day with your eyes closed and no electronics on your person. Feel the sun on your skin, or don’t. Listen to the sounds that happen there.
10. Drink water.
11. Pet your dogs or your cats or your turtles or, if you don’t have any of those, if you’re all alone, hold your own hand instead. Run your fingers along your own forearm. Feel how it feels to be touched or touching.
12. Learn a dance routine, or do a yoga video, or just listen to the sound of the instructors speaking. Try one in a different language to see what you can understand.
13. Make a music playlist of all the songs you skip to in your other music playlists.
14. Finger paint.
15. Make a list of every book that your favorite author has ever written and then see which ones are available at your library. Do something with this information.
16. Think about your body one part at a time. Consider the feeling you have in your ankles, or the tips of your fingers. Curl your toes. Feel your heart beating.
17. Put in earbuds and listen to this song or to this song or to this song, as loud as you want, as loud as it would be if you were sitting next to the piano. Breathe deeply. Sometimes that’s all you can control. In and out. In and out. You get to be alive.