The past few months have been difficult, mainly due to the “work from home” routine. Managing the same office tasks and household chores from morning to night can sometimes make you bored. Fortunately, there are several hobbies and activities you can get involved in right from your home, without having to burn a hole in your pocket. Here are five hobbies to kill time when you are bored and make life enjoyable.

Reading
Reading is super-affordable and easy. If you are someone who gets distracted quickly, try starting with more engaging genres like crime-fiction or thriller novels before moving on to slow-paced books like self-help or biographies. Books by authors like Agatha Christie or Sydney Sheldon are excellent for complete beginners. But if everything fails to interest you, you can always just read the Harry Potter series! If you still can’t sit down in one place and kill hours with a book, try listening to audiobooks while doing house chores or when out for a walk.

Gardening
Opposed to common belief, you don’t need a huge backyard or an enormous balcony to experience the perks of gardening. Even if you have an open windowsill that can hold a small planter or just one pot, you can still learn about gardening and reap the benefits of this therapeutic and relaxing hobby. If you happen to have the extra space, start with easier plant varieties that do not need much care, or else you’ll get demotivated if you kill your first few plants in the first week itself. As you feel more confident, plant some backyard vegetables and herbs you can use in your own kitchen.

Baking and cooking
Cooking and baking are some of the easiest hobbies to get into. With hundreds of recipes available on food blogs and Youtube channels, all you need to do is gather your ingredients, put on your apron, play your favorite songs, and get whisking. The best thing about this hobby is that you can do it every single day. If you feel confident enough, you can modify the recipes according to your preferences and, if they turn out groundbreaking, you can start your own cooking blog on the internet to share your passion with others!

Journaling
If you have fallen out of touch with your writing skills after school, you might want to consider picking up the pen again. Writing can be highly therapeutic for some people, especially when it comes to stream-of-consciousness writing, daily journaling, making gratitude lists, and so on. If you would like to burn off some of your creative energy, you can also try out bullet or art journaling, where you can create different journal spreads and entries based on a general theme or at random. You can also join several communities online that are involved in bullet journalling or any other journaling.

Yoga
Yoga is not only a great way to get your body moving and active but also an excellent way to help you de-stress and relax your mind. Practicing yoga has proven highly effective in helping people manage their stress and anxiety and can be a perfect hobby to get into for the long-term. The best thing about yoga is that even when you feel unmotivated and lazy, just doing ten minutes is enough to help you get out of the rut and keep your daily practice going.