Technology isn’t terrible. It’s amazing. It makes our lives easier and connects us to people and ideas all over the world. But it’s also true that tech often distracts us from what’s important. With our faces constantly backlit by our screens, we miss all the wonderful things happening around us. These life experiences come and go, but we end up missing them if we struggle to unplug and find meaningful and creative ways to spend our time.
stuck for ideas of things to do?
whether you’ve got 5 minutes or 5 hours, you’ll be inspired by these simple ideas.
Creative ideas for one
- Sharpen that HP pencil and draw your fruit bowl
- Write a letter to a friend
- Take a nap
- Declutter one area of your house, or even just a single cupboard or drawer
- Paint your nails
- Make a techtimeout box - you can read our blog on how to create your own
- Bake bread by hand
- Do a crossword/sudoko/word wheel
- Make a black-out poem with any old newspaper or magazine to hand - click to find out how
- Enjoy a day-time bath
- Start a paint-by-numbers (there are so many available for children and adults)
- Explore an unknown area of your neighbourhood
- Take a walk in the local park and collect as many different leaves and seeds as you can
- Bake a cake and take it to your neighbour
- Sow some herbs and grow on the windowsill
- Cook the meal you’ve always wanted to and shop for all the special ingredients
- Read a book
- Start a new hobby - sewing, crochet, spoon carving, candle making
Ideas to try with family or housemates
- Put on a play - kids are surprisingly familiar with the classics such as Romeo and Juliet
- Learn a dance routine
- Cook a meal together
- Start a band (helps if there’s one musical instrument but pots and pans could work!)
- Play charades (the one where you act out songs, movies etc)
- Upskill - get your kids/housemates to teach you something (could be a science topic or a special skill they have such as sign language)
- Make a techtimeout box - see our blog on how to create a techtimeout box
- Go on an A-Z walk where you search for streets or house names that start with the letters of the alphabet. Tick them off as you go
- Make paper airplanes and have a flying competition (opportunity to reminisce about last year’s holiday!)
- Dust off the board games
- Make pizza from scratch whilst only talking in an Italian accent
- Learn some card games (Uno is a firm favourite, but there’s poker and patience too)
- Become designers and find ways to roll an egg down the stairs without it cracking using just paper, sellotape and toilet paper/cotton wool.
- Go on a camping trip (indoors or outdoors)
There are plenty of fun ideas here that can keep you busy for 5 minutes or 5 hours with the minimum of materials. Very soon we hope to launch a dedicated techtimeout tool to help you make the most of your time away from devices. By inputting how much time you have available, it will help you discover a range of fun, unplugged activities. To get involved send us your favourite, unplugged activities here.
