With the presence of the Coronavirus in our borders, students, parents, and administrators alike are getting more worried each day. The Governor has issued a state wide quarantine that will last until further notice. While this might seem like the perfect time to mess up your sleep schedule and eat up your entire pantry, there are some ways to be productive and maintain a normal life schedule. Here are a few ways to conquer the boredom that you may find yourself in:

Read a Book:

The excuse people our age often use for not reading is that they don’t have time, but with the quarantine, a lot of time that would be spent sitting in class is now freed up. Reading is a great way to spend your time because you could expand your vocabulary, get inspired by an author’s style, or just be entertained for a few hours. Believe it or not, books can be just as fun as movies or TV shows if you find something you like. A few books that I’m reading now and would recommend include Looking for Alaska by John Green, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or any Harry Potter book). You could enjoy it way more than you think you will—and if you really don’t like reading, try listening to an audiobook. One I recently listened to on Audible is It by Stephen King, and with how long and suspenseful that book is, it’s sure to eat up loads of your time (in a good way) when you find yourself with nothing to do.

Check Google Classroom:

Unfortunately, school being closed doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll get a break. Who else got the crazy influx of Google Classroom notifications the second they exited school last Thursday? To make sure you’re being productive during this time, you should check Google Classroom soon after you wake up every morning and devise a schedule for the day to get all your work done. You could even look ahead to see future assignments (a lot of teachers just post everything that we need to do for the week) and get more than you need to done so that you’ll have more time to do things that you actually want to. It’s important to not get bogged down in work these next couple of weeks because when we do return to school, you don’t want to be lost in your classes. And once you get your work done (which will take up some time), you could fill up the rest of your time doing the other, more enjoyable things on this list. 

Exercise: 

Exercise is a key component in living a healthy lifestyle. In quarantine, most people have a lot of time to spare. So, get yourself out of bed and stay active. If you have a treadmill in your home, you definitely have an advantage. You can sprint, jog, or walk at your own pace and incline. It is a perfect way to get your heart rate up and gives you energy for the rest of the day. But there are a lot of options for different workouts that one can do, even without an exercise machine. All you have to do is pick any piece of floor that’s available and browse YouTube for some great workouts. Working out can make you feel healthy and happy with yourself, so get to it when you feel like you need an energy boost in the next couple of weeks.

Watch Netflix: 

Let’s be real. What can be better than binge-watching your favorite Netflix show while having all this time during quarantine? That’s right: nothing. Netflix has a variety of different show genres that can keep you busy for hours. When it’s late at night and you’ve finished all of your homework, watching TV is the way to go. Start a new Netflix series like Grey’s Anatomy or enjoy a funny movie like The Interview. Either way, Netflix always entertains. If you don’t have Netflix, I highly recommend asking your parents for it because it is a life changer (or maybe beg your friends for their login information). Being in quarantine does not have to be all about doing work. Give yourself a break and watch your favorite show. 

Write for The Tenafly Echo: 

You try everything on this list and still find yourself lying on the couch scrolling mindlessly through TikTok or other social media apps for hours. You have already watched everything worth watching on Netflix, read two pages of a book, avoided homework, and were too lazy to exercise. But actually, you can easily be productive from your couch. Put down your phone, grab your laptop, and start researching the latest news (preferably not COVID-19 related). There are many categories of articles waiting to be written about that include: art, food, opinion, student life, science and technology, sports, and anything else that interests you. Feel free to email your pieces to Mr. Whitehead or share them with 20kzheng and/or 20nshaker. 

The next time you find yourself in a quarantine rut, take a look back at this list for a couple ways to keep your mind and body engaged. But most importantly, do the best you can to stay safe.