Well, the inevitable happened. Despite all your preparation, you now find yourself with the looming prospect of five days holed up in the room of your choice. 120 hours, 7200 minutes, or 432,000 seconds worth of things to do but not sure where to start? Luckily, I recently had to deal with this situation myself, so I’ll share some tips on what I did that helped me pass the time. 

I think the first most important thing you can do is just find a way to relax- you’re in a situation that is out of your control, and you’ve done the most to keep yourself and others safe. You’re not the first or last person in the world to be in this situation, so don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything or doing something wrong. Right now, overthinking is probably your worst enemy, so just meditate and soothe yourself. 

Now, after five minutes of meditation, you’re probably bored and are slowly starting to realize that five days is a very long time. The first thing I thought to do was finally hop back onto the guitar train that I’d been “too busy” to actually get on. An instrument is a very good way to pass the time because it’s a  practical hobby and you can end up leaving quarantine with a cool new party trick. (Wonderwall can’t take more than five days to learn, can it?) You can substitute the guitar with your instrument of choice, and if an instrument isn’t within the near vicinity, it could be time to learn the drums using your desk and some pencils.  

Another option for things to do if you’re feeling well enough to do so, is to attempt to get your 10,000 steps in by doing laps of your room. I have to admit I spent a lot more time than I’d like to say having done this, but there really was no other option.  

A more serious suggestion that I found really helpful was engaging in any sort of writing, whether it be creative, non-fiction, or just personal. When I write, I feel like time tends to pass by faster since you’re focused on the writing itself and thus can keep you entertained for a long time. This also tied into one of my New Year’s Resolutions, which is journaling in order to record my exact thought process during the year so I could look back when I’m fifty and relive what twenty-somethings worry about. 

One final option is of the more social variety for those who have a phone or laptop and a handful of friends. On the final day of my quarantine — which happened to be a Friday — I, along with a couple of other friends started a Zoom call to play some online games together and have fun while staying safe. It ended up turning into a late-night session with a lot of laughs and optimism for the days after my recovery. Some choice websites for the night are Gartic Phone and jklm.fun, which is a Pictionary game and a collection of typing games respectively.   

Staying inside your room for five days is not really something too exciting, but between the rest and recuperation you will be doing, there are still ways to keep yourself entertained. Being in your room gives you an opportunity to try things you’ve been putting off for a while and also an opportunity to start new habits that you may not have got a chance to start otherwise. Looking back, I was doing a lot of lying down trying not to make my body angrier at me than it already was, but these few things were able to keep me entertained and distracted as I passed the time until the period was over.