Finding yourself with more time on your hands at home can be frustrating, liberating, or a mixture of both. There’s pressure to use this time productively, to reconnect with your inner creative; take an online art course, start that novel or learn a new language. There are also lots of sites online that offer to help you achieve your aims. We’ve put together a list of suggestions and say - if it inspires you, do it, if it makes you feel anxious, leave it for now. We so rarely have empty diaries that it’s okay to do absolutely nothing, too.
Take an online course
Future Learn offer free short courses (from 2 - 8 weeks) covering a huge range of subjects, from science to medicine, computing to tech, philosophy to the arts. The courses are produced by universities around the globe and stand up alone, or as an introduction to a subject for future study. Courses have a set start time so you join a global community of students, sharing ideas and gaining feedback from them as you go.
Learn a language
Using an app like Duolingo or Babbel can be a good way to start learning in daily, bite size chunks. Duo Lingo is a free app which uses listening exercises, flashcards and questions to help you learn words, phrases, and sentences. Great for beginners, it will give you the basics in your chosen language. Babbel also uses speech recognition and includes conversational examples. Babbel charges a monthly subscription but is currently offering 6 months for free (t&c’s apply), with a 7 day free trial. Top up your learning by watching international films on streaming services, or check Radio Garden a rather nifty website which lets you listen to any radio station around the globe by just clicking on the region!
Inspire your creativity
Seeking inspiration? Order a copy of The Artist’s Way, a cult book that guides you through a process of recovering or discovering your creative self over a 12 week course, helping kick start a creative routine while working on the assumption that everyone has a creative side. Another good self-help book is Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit by pop artist and graphic designer Corita Kent, offering inspiration, ideas and lessons for wannabe artists and designers. Online, the Creative Independent is a newsletter and website that provides ‘a growing resource of emotional and practical guidance for creative people’ via essays and views from a global community.
Make a radio show
This one’s closer to home: Crediton Radio is a new station which is currently releasing podcasts. Join their What’s App group and use the voice recorder to record a show about anything you fancy; poetry, a reading or a tale you have to tell. Previous shows include birdsong, a dawn chorus recorded at Shobrooke, a serialisation of a play, and interviews with local folk. They say this is your radio - make what you’d like to hear.
Make music
Electronic music producers and DJs swear by Ableton, who make music production and performance hardware and software. Right now they’re offering Ableton Live for free for 90 days. Ableton Live enables you to create, produce and perform tracks - be the bedroom producer you always aspired to be!
If you like your electronic music a little more retro, try the Mini Moog , an app from Moog, an analog synthesizer manufacturer used by bands and producers since the sixties. Since Covid, they’ve made the Mini Moog free to download. It features a wide range of synth sounds, layers, beats and effects and is a lot of fun.
Contemporary art via MoMa
You can’t travel to New York’s Museum of Modern Art, however you can take a course. They’ve made their short courses available, for free, via Coursera, allowing you to ‘Immerse yourself in ideas and see your world in new ways through art’. Courses include What Is Contemporary Art? and Seeing Through Photographs.
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