How to bust your lockdown boredom
We know it's not always easy being stuck inside, but you can still make the most out of your lockdown. For weeks now, our team have been using Slack to stay connected, commiserate, and share ideas to help get each other through social isolation. Their suggestions have already formed the basis of our OctoKids programme, aimed at helping parents keep their children entertained at home, and now they're back with a load more ideas for staying healthy and happy! Who knows? You might even come away from lockdown having discovered a hidden talent, learnt something new, or even with a smarter, more environmentally friendly home.
Set time aside for learning
If you ever wanted to learn a new language, or how to bake or code, now is the perfect time.
- Why not learn a dance with your kids like our data protection officer Lynne!
- Learn a language
- Ashley (our Head of Front End Development) has recommended his favourite resources for learning to code for free
- Sharpen up some vital life skills
- Check our designer Monica’s favourite places to create art online: Skillshare are running free courses for two months, and you can level up your design skills with Daily UI!
- Learn to bake
- Learn First Aid
- Learn to touch type
- Learn to play an instrument (free for 3 months)
Set aside some time for creating
Draw, paint, start a podcast, write blogs, poems or songs, build things!
- Make your own Macrame
- Max McShane, our full-stack marketer (turned martial arts enthusiast) recommends you do 5 minutes of Tai Chi 5 a day
- Craft something as a family
- Grow your own food
- Amy, who works on graphic design and illustration recommends you Take one of MoMA's free online art courses!
- Get into making music
- Improve your creative writing skills
- You could even film some family skits like our Head of Engineering, David!
Exercise
Use your one trip out to stretch those legs. Live in an apartment building? Take the stairs to the top floor and back. Alternatively check out our selection of home exercise guides and classes.
Some good guides for exercising at home:
PE classes for kids:
For yoga:
If you live around the South East, Trina from our tech team (an intrepid London explorer) has recommended her favourite walks:
Connect with friends and family
Either pick up the phone ‘the old fashioned way’ or chat or play games online. You can even play digital versions of classic board games...
- Here’s how some of our Developers have been meeting to Play board games together online!
- Another list of good ways to play board games online
- Or, try Netflix Party, a Chrome browser extension that lets you watch your favourite Netflix show simultaneously with friends, and opens up an onscreen chat where you can, for example, debate over whether Carol Baskin killed her husband.
Reward yourself
Remember to reward yourself for whatever great stuff you’re doing while on lockdown – whether it’s learning something new, creating something, finishing a project for work etc. This’ll help you focus on the positives, which isn’t always easy during these strange times.
Think about how you can help others
We've been inspired by our octo-engineers who have been working to deliver medicine and food packages from pharmacies and foodbanks to homes in the South East. Here's some more tips for how you can get involved, straight from the members of our team who've recently turned their attention towards helping essential services:
- If you know any other essential services in the South East that could use a hand with deliveries, give Octopus Energy Services a shout at: workwithus@octoes.com
Some of our skilled customers have even put their technical skills to use, helping out essential services by creating valuable tools/resources:
Ali, for example, has been putting her four 3D printers to work printing visor headbands for the NHS!
Woo price plunge alert from @octopus_energy , will be ideal while 3D printing some ear savers to donate to key workers. Got a batch printing for the Postie right now.
— Ryan Walmsley (@ryanteck) April 19, 2020
The NHS are calling for volunteers to help deliver food and medicines to vulnerable people:
Local charities also need help during the coronavirus outbreak:
- Help the lonely
- Do-it.org and the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action will show you who needs the most help in your local area.
Published on 7th December 2022 by:
Hey I'm Constantine, welcome to Octopus Energy!
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