150+ things to do without screen

Here is a list of 150+ screen-free activities for adults. Beware, a few of the activities might need a bit of screen to prepare!

Most of them are possible to do alone, making them COVID19 and confinement proof.

I hope these will inspire you to experience something new, fun, creative or challenging. Something out of your comfort zone that helps you grow. Something that connects you better to yourself and others.

If you have feedback or want to add something to the list, feel free to email me at jenny.bjorklof@freelancersinbelgium.be

Here are the sections:

- Do something for others

- Do something for yourself, practice self-care

- Do something romantic with your significant other

- Get to know your partner, friends and connections better

- Develop yourself personally and professionally

Exercise

- Outdoors

- Indoors

Read/Write

- Read

- Write

- Audio

Food & Drinks

Improve your home

Photography

Music

Games

Beauty

Crafts

- Involving pen & paper

- Involving textile

Other crafts

Do something for others

• Send a postcard/letter/package/voice or video message to someone you love and/or haven’t spoken with in a while

• Deliver a portion of food to someone who lives alone

• Pay a window visit

• Call your grandparents

• Donate blood

• Volunteer

• Check if elderly homes in your area need extra help

• Deliver meals to the vulnerable

• Help charity organisations with their needs, usually every commune has a list of these.

Do something for yourself, practice self-care

• Take a bath with essential oils or a bath bomb

• Groom yourself with a facemask, manicure and or pedicure

• Enjoy a moment with a luxurious, sentenced candle

• Follow a meditation or mindfulness course

• Go to bed early

Do something romantic with your significant other

• Share a bottle of champagne for no reason at all

• Go to bed early

• Play truth or dare

• List your favourite memories of your time together. Look at old pictures and messages. Make a collection.

• Make a plan for monthly or weekly dates and add them to your agenda. Tip: pick stuff from this list to do together.

Get to know your partner, friends and connections better

• Get inspired by these deep questions. My favourites:

- Do you believe in fate, or do you think that things happen because of our decisions?

- How would people close to you describe you in three words?

- What skill do you envy in other people?

- If you died tonight, what would you regret not doing?

- Do you give advice to others, and why?

Develop yourself personally and professionally

Learn a new skill. Some ideas:

- Focus

- A new language

- Self-defense

- Dance moves

- Survival skills

- First aid

- Strategy

- Communication: Public speaking, copywriting, listening, leadership

• Teach someone something you know very well, and ask that person to teach you something new

• Study something you don’t know anything about

• Improve current knowledge

• Train your brain with riddles and calculations

• Set goals and make a plan for yourself - think where do you want to be in x amount of years with your career, financials, health, relationships, society contributor…

• Map out your reason for being with the Ikigai diagram

• Make a list of business or side-project ideas

• Visualise your dreams with a mood board/drawing

• Read about philosophy

• Make a bucket list of things you want to experience and do before you die

• Change a habit or start a new one and stick to it for a week (at least!)

• Do a 30-day challenge in a domain (e.g. writing, fitness, sleep, learn about a topic, social media…) you want to develop. Make a list with tasks on your own, or look one up online.

• Freelancer? Check this list for 50 ways to group your freelance business from the comfort of your home.

Exercise

Outdoors

• Run

- Sign up for a digital race or train for a challenging distance/pace

- Do a virtual running challenge with a group of friends

- Mix exercises with running (lunges, squats, push-ups, planks…)

- Mix running fast and slow

• Cycle

- City exploration

- Countryside

• Bootcamp (get inspiration from bodyweight exercises you can do anywhere by searching for them online or join a FB group)

• Join a digital event by an OCR (Obstacle Course Racing) organiser

• Walk

- Discover new places

- Make a scavenger hunt (map out tasks or trivia on a map)

- Take pictures

- Walk a shelter dog

- Schedule a walk & talk with a friend or business connection

- Go for a walk at sunrise

- Walk in a forest

- Research tree- and plant species and go out to find them

- Watch people passing by and make up stories about them

- Go off-road and do a hike

• Parkour (be careful!) - instead of walking find ways to run, jump and flip through your environment

Geocaching - a global treasure hunting game

These exercise methods require access to specific material:

• Skateboarding

• Rollerblading

• Surfing

• Paddle boarding

• Kayaking/rowing

• Mountain biking or road biking

Indoors

• Yoga

• Pilates

• Martial arts

• Strength exercises

• TV Aerobics/Zumba/HIIT (alternatively write down exercises and use music/timer for a screen-free option)

• Have a dance party

• Get a mini trampoline

Read/Write

Read

• Cheesy novels

• Magazines

• Philosophy

• Make a book chain = read a book and then give it to another friend who passes it to another friend etc. Write a note in the book for the next reader.

Write

• Write a short story

• Make a cartoon

• Practice journaling, e.g. morning pages; Morning Pages are three pages of writing done first thing in the morning. The idea is to just write anything that comes to mind.

• Write a dirty story

Audio

• Listen to audio books.

• Listen to podcasts - one or more people engaged in a discussion about a particular topic or current event. You can find podcasts for any topic, from life- and business advice to true crime, politics, food, music, sports and anything in between.

• Start a podcast.

Food & Drinks

• Try a new recipe

• Make something that is technically challenging. Examples:

- Croissants

- Béarnaise sauce

- Beef Wellington

- Paella

- Soufflé

• Do meal planning and cook for days ahead

• Brew kombucha

• Bake sourdough bread

• Do a wine discovery

• Make fancy cocktails

Improve your home

• Declutter your home - try the KonMari method my Marie Kondo

• Clean out your closet while listening to Eminem

• Donate unused items to charity and/or sell them

• Do home improvements (paint)

• Redecorate your interiour

• Restore furniture or antiques

• Practice woodworking or whittling

• Repair things

• Deep clean (scrub shower, dust off lamps, vacuum under the sofa and beds…)

• Wash windows

• Start decorating for X-mas

Photography

• Learn how to take better pictures, either by smart phone or with a DSLR camera.

• Make a photo project, e.g. breakfast arrangements like this one featuring Pantone cups.

• Sort your pictures

• Print your best pictures and make an old-school photo album

Music

• Sing

• Play an instrument

• Write song lyrics

• Compose music

Games

• Learn how to play chess

• Play DIY Pictionary (pick words from a random word generator like this one and draw them. Tip: buy a memo board, like this 9.99€ one from Ikea.

• Play various board games

• Play cards - Solitaire if you're on your own.

• Escape games

• Solve Crosswords

• Do Sudoku

• Tired of playing? Create a game!

Beauty

• Learn to make hair styles

• Learn braiding

• Practice makeup techniques

• Learn nail art

Crafts

Involving pen & paper

• Paint

• Draw, e.g. with Bob Ross - an American painter and art instructor

• Doodle (e.g. social or business experiments)

• Calligraphy

• Visual sketch notes

• Colour in colouring books for adults

Involving textile

• Knit

• Sew

• Crochet

• Embroidery

• Felting

• Darn socks and garments in unusual ways

Other crafts

• Glass art and mosaic

• Pottery and ceramics

• Flower arrangements

• Shrink plastic

Thank you:

Dobrinka Barzachka, Maria Alexandrakis, Sarah Martens, Marlies De Bonte, Barbara Symons, Lien Vandeputte, Marie-Helene Dibenedetto, Ilse Van Dyck, Maarten Verschuere, Monica Nicolle Dimitriu, Diana Schulz, Koen De Braekeleer, Nicky Wijns, Delphine Van Belleghem, Laura Dixon, Laurens Heinen, Stephan Van Der Wildt, Anna Mulock Houwer, Sara Reyniers, Elise Van Hoecke and many more for contributing to this list!

This list is written by Jenny Bjorklof, Co-founder and Community Manager of Freelancers in Belgium.