Lockdown isn’t easy, but whether you’re looking for something fun, to keep you fit, entertain a fad, or just fun, we have some ideas.
With much of Australia’s population stuck in lockdown until vaccination rates are higher, the 2021 edition of the 2020 pandemic can feel like a frustration that just won’t end. This is hard, and we’re all in it together, but there are things we can do to pass the time until life returns to some sense of normality.
Many of these are online, with services that allow you to continue some semblance of life you’re used to, while others may give you the chance to explore something else. An opportunity you’ve never tried, gain some skills you’ve always wanted, or just experience a new musical sensation you’d never have encountered previously.
And these run across four Fs: fitness, fun, food, and fad.
Each of these provides something for you to do using the power of online, allowing you to stay inside, or even going outside for only when you genuinely need to, with essential workers outside. Pandemic lockdown is very much about staying inside and keeping your distance, and these apps can let you do just that.
Pro-tip: Set a reminder for when you want to cancel trials
We’re not going to be in lockdown forever, and so rather than regularly pay and subscribe, you might only want to try some of these services. That’s not bad at all, and why trials exist.
So before we go through the list, here’s a quick pro-tip: if you sign up for something with a trial, set a calendar reminder three days before the trial is due to finish to decide whether you should cancel it.
Many services offer trial programs to ease you in, and that’s great, but trial programs can also work as a bit of a hope that you’ll forget you’ve subscribed, keeping the subscription going even if you don’t use it. Setting yourself that calendar reminder can help you decide whether you still use the service, and to cancel it and save money. It’s your wallet, after all.
Fitness
At the start of lockdown however many months ago, you might have been game for fitness and losing weight, but a good ten weeks or so in — however long we’ve been in this? — sustaining it might be more difficult. It’s worth giving it some time, however, as fitness does provide an outlet, it’s still handy to turn to it somewhat regularly.
Online, there are services that can help you stay active, not just physically, but mentally, helpful if you’re keen to exert energy inside and outside, and get out some of that pent-up lockdown frustration we’re all feeling.
Headspace
Price: from $19.99 per month
We’ll start this guide with Headspace, an app focused on getting your head in the right space, calming down and relaxing.
Headspace offers exercises and methods to do just that, with meditation advice, mindfulness activities, and things to do to relieve stress, because lately, we all have so much of that, it makes sense to do something to clear it from your head altogether.
Available on iOS and Android
Endel
Price: $9.99 per month
A different take on relaxation, Endel is less about the activities you can use to clear your mind and more about building music that does that.
Using a bit of science and technology, Endel essentially builds music aimed to improve focus, lower stress, and depending on if you’re wearing a supported smartwatch, may even adapt to how you’re feeling at the time.
Available on iOS, Android, Mac, Amazon Alexa
Apple Fitness+ and Time to Walk
Price: $14.99 per month plus Apple Watch
Apple’s approach to fitness is a neat one, because it delivers heart rate tracking on a TV, iPad, or iPhone in front of you, and even gives you someone to walk with if you’re not a fan of walking alone.
You do need an Apple Watch to make Apple Fitness work, making it squarely for folks living in the Apple ecosystem, but if you have one, the abundance of fitness activities on the platform, plus the regularly updated “Time to Walk” walking program, means you can get your fit on in a way that makes it feel like there’s a personal trainer and companion on the other side of a gadget.
Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV
Centr
Price: from $29.99 per month
Australia’s Chris Hemsworth may have an idea or two for you to use with your free time, and it’s one that takes fitness programs to another level, hoping to get you as ripped as the actor himself.
Like other fitness programs, this one will include more than just exercises to build up muscles, with meditation and mindfulness also covered, plus diets you might want to follow, providing a holistic approach to fitness programs for folks keen to do something healthful in hibernation.
Available on iOS and Android
Fun
Fitness is great, but being stuck in lockdown might mean you want to do something more fun, and for that, there are a bunch of services worth checking out.
Granted, you’ll probably pay monthly, but with many offering trials of weeks to a month, it should be long enough to cover more of this lockdown, and even tell you at the end whether you’ll use it regularly, as well.
Any gaming service: Apple Arcade, Google Play Pass, PlayStation Plus, Xbox Game Pass
Price: from $6.99 per month
If you own a computer, video game console, or pretty much any phone, you have access to a service that’ll grant you a smorgasbord of video games on offer.
For iPhone and iPad owners, it’s Apple Arcade, while Google Android owners get Google Play Pass. Folks living with a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 can nab PlayStation Plus, while Windows PC owners and folks with an Xbox can check out Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, and all of these offer an assortment of games on demand.
The list is growing, too, allowing you to sink your teeth into mobile entertainment without needing to spend up massively.
Any streaming video service: Binge, Disney+, Netflix, Stan
Price: from $6.99
Looking for a good way to kill some time? Video services do just that, providing TV on demand for all sorts of things, be it movies, TV shows, documentaries, and more.
We’re not going to dive into the ins and outs of every service, but each has their positives and negatives, and whether you’re checking our Foxtel’s Binge, the original player of Netflix, Australia’s answer in Stan, or the massive assortment of Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic, Fox and Disney that is Disney+, not to mention countless others, there’s no shortage of things to watch on TV.
You might even accidentally spend all your time looking for something rather than watching anything at all.
Available on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox
Any music service: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music
Price: from $11.99
Music may well be the food of love, but it’s also a tonic for our souls, and something we’re all entirely familiar with. There’s so much music in the world, it can be all too easy to get lost in what’s out there, and that’s not a bad thing.
Between the regulars we all know and love — Spotify, Apple Music, and so on and so on — plus others you mightn’t know exist that cater for other musical varieties and tastes, music services could be a way to get stuck into lockdown and waste the hours, dancing and singing and jamming to music you love, plus discovering something you’ve never heard before, as well.
Available on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, web, PlayStation, Xbox, Amazon Alexa
A bunch of podcasts, too
Price: free
While music services typically cost something, podcasts typically do not, so you can get stuck into a barrage of information without really having to spend anything.
Every platform has an app and every app has a directory, and all you really need to do is go for a search on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, PocketCasts, Listnr, or any other app to find something that suits what you’re interested in, and start downloading and listening.
There are countless hours of podcasts online, allowing you to get stuck into any topic, as this alternative for radio delivers just so, so much to listen to.
Available on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Windows, Mac
All the reading: Kindle Unlimited, Readly, Apple News+
Price: from $9.99
And there’s always that old chestnut: reading.
We probably don’t need to tell you that reading is a great filler of time and a brilliant way to dissolve into information and imagination, and even though it’s not something everyone does all the time, it’s something you can use to move the hand on the clock. Perhaps unsurprisingly, reading time has gone up since the pandemic began last year.
From reading websites such as this one (thank you) to reading magazines and fiction, there are options out there to help to get through the days and nights. If you own a Kindle, Amazon offers an unlimited Netflix-style approach to books in Kindle Unlimited, while Apple News+ has magazines aplenty and Readly offers magazines, comics, newspapers, and more.
Simply put, there’s plenty to read up on online, and available on nearly every platform.
Available on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac
Food
Next up is food, because you’ll want to keep your stomach filled and your energy levels up, and while making food is one way of doing that, so too is getting food you love.
Cooking and delivery are both ways we can keep our connection to normality active, doing the things that give us yummy food and treating our stomachs and souls.
Tasty
Price: Free
Looking for ideas on what to make and don’t know where to start?
There’s clearly no shortage of places to find recipes, but Tasty’s app offers over 4000 things to make with an instruction mode, giving you some of the confidence to make food from a variety of cuisines and styles.
Available on iOS and Android
Apple News+ with cooking magazines
Price: $14.99 per month
We’ve technically already covered reading material, but one of the things we’ve found since returning to magazines in Apple News+ is cooking magazines. Scores of cooking magazines ideal for learning to cook with.
BBC Good Food, Delicious, Olive, Taste, Southern Living, and others can be found on Apple’s news and magazine service, with an assortment of titles to help inspire and get you cooking at home. All you need to go is bring some time and maybe organise for some food to arrive at home to get you going.
Available on iOS, Mac
Deliveroo Plus
Price: from $6.99 per month
If you’re thinking of ordering food on the regular and tire of making it yourself, Deliveroo Plus offers a way to kill the delivery fees and can offer discounts on food, as well, though is dependent on offers at the time.
Without Deliveroo Plus, delivery fees can add five or six bucks per order, which is money you could be saving depending on how regularly you’re buying, and with a 90 day trial during lockdown, it might be a trial worth checking out, using that pro-tip to find out whether it’s worth keeping in three months.
Available on web, iOS, Android
Fad
Finally, there are the fads, the things that you do to make yourself learn something or pass the time. Hobbies and fads could be things you already love, or things you’ve always wanted to do, whether it’s learning and instrument, a song, or grabbing a new skill entirely.
Fender Play
Price: $13.99 per month
If you’ve been putting off learning to play an instrument for the longest time, now might be the time to get stuck in and learn a song or two.
With lessons for guitar, bass, and ukulele, Fender Play covers some of the more popular and social instruments, handy for when this whole thing is over and you want to spend time with people, playing some music all over again.
Learning how to play music tends to take time, so if you’re doing this, don’t judge it off one or two lessons. Rather, give it a proper go and let those new skills gradually take hold, taking the time to learn to play.
Available on web, iOS, Android
MasterClass
Price: from $23 per month
One of the more unusual educational platforms, MasterClass gets information from celebrities and famed leaders in their class, offering over 100 classes across lots of categories, ranging from acting, writing, cooking, photography, music, business, fashion and style, and more.
It’s where you can expect the likes of Steve Martin, Gordon Ramsay, Dr. Jane Goodall, David Sedaris, Neil Gaiman, Natalie Portman, Helen Mirren, Aaron Sorkin, Frank Gehry, Alicia Keys, Aaron Franklin, Ron Finley, Penn & Teller, Annie Leibovitz, Martin Scorsese, and so many others, all on videos to teach you how to do something.
Available on web, iOS, Apple TV and Android
Skillshare
Price: from $19.99 per month
Finally there’s the career upskill, because you can use this time in lockdown to grab a new digital skill to boost and improve your resume.
With courses running from creative arts to technology training and business skills, Skillshare offers a library of courses to attend to help you add to your skill set and upskill when you feel like it.
Available on web, iOS and Android
