When you’re stuck at home and unable to work, then you probably have a huge number of hours to fill each week. While you can read novels, play computer games or do some workouts, eventually even leisure activities become stale and uninteresting.

As humans, we love to grow, learn new things, and become more than we were a year ago. This shouldn’t change just because of the current UK lockdown. It’s more important than ever in the absence of many in-person conversations and other opportunities for positive growth.

Here are some suggestions for making the most of the lockdown.

Revisit Academia: Study for an Online Degree in a Subject You’re Fascinated About

Whether you’ve been interested in the criminal mind and would love to delve deeper through a Criminology degree, or there’s some other long-form subject that has always interested you, don’t wait to dive in. Once you have picked a topic and enrolled in the course, you’ll want to follow through to complete it and graduate even after the lockdown is over. Many of these courses are already designed to be studied solely online. Over at Uni Compare, you’ll find that there’s over 600 courses available to pick from. This is a great resource as you can narrow down your choices by comparing things like ranking, location, and the estimated graduate salary. So, you’re not stuck for choice – the biggest problem will be making a final decision of what subject to study first.

Start a YouTube Channel

While not everyone can be a YouTube star, there are plenty of people who are venturing into video production for the first time.

Filming yourself doesn’t need fancy DSLR camera equipment either. A smartphone on a mini tripod or a decent 720p webcam is enough to make basic video clips indoors from different angles. Pay attention to the light levels as digital video is quite dim otherwise. Bring in extra lampshades to brighten up a room or purchase a lightbox online and get it delivered.

While broadcasting live isn’t possible on YouTube until you have enough subscribers and video views, social media platforms do offer this possibility too.

Learn to Be Handy Around Your Home

When you’ve always struggled to fix small things at home and tell yourself that you can’t – it’s time to start afresh.

As the fictitious U.S. President in The West Wing TV series explained why he didn’t use the intercom at his desk, “It’s not I don’t know. I just haven’t learned yet.”

We must all adopt this mindset to new things.

Look around your home for things that need fixing. Make a list. Mark the ones that seem the easiest, then do some research to find out what’s involved, and any parts or tools that you might need. Order what you need online, so you can learn to fix things after they arrive.

Whatever you learn to do while at home will stand you in good stead later. The lockdown won’t last forever and life will go back to normal. At that point, what you’ve learned or are continuing to study will give you new knowledge and/or skills that are usable at that time. It’ll also take your mind off current events which we’ve probably all spent enough time worrying about.