While you’re living out your best socially distanced life, you can always stay informed with the latest ’rona news by visiting the CDC, the WHO, and JHU websites, and check which events are canceled here.
- Here’s a beautiful dashboard that tracks the outbreak.
- Here’s a list of all the corporate goodwill efforts that are going on.
Things to Do When You’re Not Working
Learn new skills
- Be productive while others are “Netflix and Chilling” and take up a new skill. We recommend diving into the world of data science or “No Code.”
- Tips to learning new skills fast: Take Short Breaks, Early And Often
- 450 free Ivy League online classes
- Free educational courses offered due to school closings.
- Chess.com
Read long-form articles
- Business Strategy
- More
Read books
- 50 best nonfiction books of the last 25 years
- Great website with tons of recs → Five books
- Full list of Bill Gates’s reading list from 2012 on
- An adventure: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (Copywriter Henry Stockwell)
- A story that veers in and out of reality: The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (Retail Brew writer Halie LeSavage).
- A hilarious, self-referential tale: Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Editorial Coordinator Jamie Wilde).
- A fictional pandemic story: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Writer Eliza Carter)
Exercise
Buy a few key pieces of equipment that you think you’ll use the most, like a yoga mat, kettlebells, and free weights. Then find some workouts you can follow from home. Some options:
- Workout database: This should have everything you need
- Simple but effective: This guide to at-home workouts
- YouTube channels: Yoga with Adriene, POPSUGAR Fitness, and Blogilates
- Amazon Prime Video has a ton of workout videos included in your membership
Stay connected to others
The WHO released some tips on how to deal with anxiety. Here’s what you can do if you’re stuck at home, especially if you’re alone…
- Call, text, and FaceTime your friends and family
- 7 ways to volunteer remotely
- Read this message from Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky
- Bring back Houseparty!
Cooking
- Coffee: Making your own coffee can save time and money. Here’s a good guide.
- Casseroles: Get out your grandma’s Better Homes & Gardens and make some ‘60s-style casseroles. Our favorites are green bean and vegetable.
- Sites for recipe inspiration:Ambitious Kitchen and Serious Eats
- Easy-to-cook meals
- Drink: Spring cocktail list
When you don’t feel like cooking: Uber Eats has waived delivery fees for independent restaurants
Parenting
- Homeschooling:
- Online education: This Facebook post is full of free resources, including Khan Academy and BBC Learning
Clean up your life
- Digital:
- Delete old and duplicate pictures so that pesky iCloud storage reminder finally goes away
- Clean your desktop (and build a separate folder so you can stop saving to desktop)
- Delete unused apps, update your software
- Physical:
- Clean out your closet and donate clothes you don’t wear anymore
- Cancel unused subscriptions
Just Have Fun
Watch…
- Business movies
- A few of the most talked about: Too Big to Fail, Wolf of Wall Street, The Founder
- Learn about the best business people of all time: Becoming Warren Buffett, Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates
- Some favorites
- Amazon’s Fleabag, HBO’s Succession, and Better Call Saul (old epis on Netflix)
- A more general list
- Lists of comforting TV shows you can stream: list 1 and list 2
- Not necessarily comforting, but a long list of spring 2020 TV shows
- Anything from The Ringer’s “exhaustive” streaming guide
- Westworld season 3 is back on HBO, Marc Maron has a new Netflix special,Frozen 2 is on Disney+, Dave is now on Hulu
- Or if you want to revel in the apocalypse: I am Legend (Prime), Zombieland (Prime), World War Z (Hulu, but read the book first), The Day After Tomorrow, Mad Max (Cinemax but who has that), This is the End (Prime)
- How to watch Netflix with your friends
- Cultural thingz
- Aquarium live cam
- A magazine of virtual tours, live streams, and online cultural programs
- The National Gallery of Art is giving virtual tours
- 12 museums are giving virtual tours
Listen…
- Podcasts
- Great episode → Reply All: The Case of the Missing Hit
- Music
- The Seattle Symphony is livestreaming their programs for free.
- Now’s your chance to get into opera: The Met is streaming performances for free.
Play…
- IRL Games
- Social/party: Monikers, Codenames, Taboo, Salad Bowl (DIY), Monopoly Deal, Bananagrams, Fibbage/Quiplash
- Strategy: Settlers of Catan, Bohnanza, Power Grid, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic(seriously)
- Video Games
- Not all games are first-person shooters. Here are some relaxing picks from our in-house video game correspondent:
- Explore Possum Springs and steal some pretzels in Night in the Woods(PS4, Xbox One, Switch)
- Glide through the ocean in Abzû (PS4, Xbox One, Switch)
- Create a cute animal getaway in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (out soon on Switch)
- Not all games are first-person shooters. Here are some relaxing picks from our in-house video game correspondent:
- Corona Memes
Neal Freyman – Morning Brew