How To Keep Yourself Busy When You Are Alone

When you’re alone and bored, your mind tends to wander, which seldom leads to anything productive or good. If you let yourself dwell too much on things that yield nothing but negativity and a waste of time, it can easily get out of control before you know it. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to make good use of your time alone, and it doesn’t have to be boring either. 

To keep yourself busy when you’re alone, find and focus on something you will enjoy doing alone like a hobby, learning about something new, starting a side hustle, meditating, journaling, cleaning, decluttering, working on personal grooming, or exploring someplace new in your area.

The key is to take control of your focus and shift it towards something positive that interests you. Since you get more of whatever you focus on, focus on finding something that will keep you busy, and eventually, you are bound to come across something that is sure to keep you busy.

In fact, because you focused on finding ways to keep yourself busy alone, and looked it up, it led you here to this article, which will go over some of the best ways to keep you busy when you are alone. 

But before going into how to keep yourself busy when you are alone, let’s discuss the significance of staying busy in solitude.

Why is it important to keep yourself busy when you are alone?

When you’re by yourself, being busy isn’t just about the things you need to do. It’s about taking care of your mental health, being open to change, and being happy and content with your own company. It is a skill that makes life much better in deep ways.

Here’s why keeping yourself busy when you are alone is important:

1. Mental Health: Keeping busy can prevent feelings of loneliness or depression. It’s not about avoiding thoughts, but rather engaging in activities that foster positive mental health.
2. Skill Development: Alone time is a golden opportunity for learning and honing new skills. Whether it’s a language, a musical instrument, or a professional skill, this time can be transformative.
3. Creativity Boost: Solitude can be a breeding ground for creativity. With no distractions, the mind can wander, explore, and create in unique ways.
4. Reflection and Self-Improvement: Busy doesn’t always mean active. Reflecting on personal goals, journaling, or meditating are vital activities that require quietness.
5. Stress Reduction: Engaging in hobbies or tasks you love can be a powerful antidote to stress. It’s about finding joy and peace in the activities you choose.
6. Building Independence: When you’re comfortable being alone and keeping yourself occupied, you cultivate a sense of independence, which is vital for personal confidence and resilience.
7. Preparation for Life’s Challenges: Life throws curveballs. Being accustomed to managing time alone prepares you for times when you might have to be solitary, whether by choice or circumstance.

Moving on, let’s explore how to effectively utilize alone time. The next section offers practical activities and strategies for enriching solitary moments, enhancing personal growth, and nurturing well-being.

How do I keep myself busy when I am alone?

Find a hobby

Any hobby will do, as long as it keeps you busy progressing towards something positive. The best part is, that there are endless hobbies out there for you to try, which means you can even make a hobby out of trying out as many of them as you like until you find something you will truly enjoy. To get you started, here are a handful of great hobbies to get into.

Read a book

Reading is easily among the best hobbies you can indulge in alone since it exercises and stimulates your mind while also keeping you busy. It is a hobby that you can easily lose yourself in and enjoy, especially with the right book. Plus, there is more than one way to consume books, either as audiobooks, e-books, or classic physical books. 

Complete a puzzle

Puzzles are great because they are very straightforward and can be done by just about anyone. They are easy to get into and provide just the right amount of challenge to keep you busy alone without being too difficult. Furthermore, completing a puzzle makes the time and effort feel worthwhile, especially when marveling at the full picture you created.

Gaming

Gaming is immensely popular, especially since games are generally designed for having fun, which is an experience that can vary among people. The beauty of games is that there is an abundance of options out there, with a game for just about everyone regardless of their definition of “fun.” If you are looking for something to keep you busy when alone, gaming will do just that and even make time fly while you’re having fun.

Handicraft

If you are good with your hands, handicrafts will more than keep you busy, they will keep you productive. Whether it’s a custom piece of jewelry, sculpture, decoration, etc., handicraft is an excellent way to keep yourself productive alone while also creating something unique and meaningful. Especially if you work on something you’re interested in, handicrafts can become a highly rewarding way to spend quality alone time.

Painting/Drawing

Let your imagination and artistic side wander through some painting or drawing, and it will keep you busy for hours. Expressing yourself through a piece of artwork can be especially great for alone time since you can focus on letting your hands and mind create something worthwhile and beautiful.

Photography

The idea of capturing moments in an image can prove to be a very therapeutic and relaxing experience, which makes photography a great way to spend your alone time. Photography can be a great way to engage in the beauty of the world around you and even allows you to express yourself through the pictures you take. Especially if you enjoy finding and capturing meanings and stories within images, photography will no doubt keep you busy and happy alone. 

Genealogy

Although many may not know it, there is always something interesting to uncover when tracing family trees and exploring their roots. Genealogy allows you to feel more connected with not just your current and past relatives, but also with yourself through a sense of identity. Exploring your family history, culture, traditions, and history can be an immensely intriguing hobby that is sure to keep you occupied when alone.

Play an instrument

If you’re looking for a popular hobby that healthily stimulates your brain (and that many find attractive and cool), play a musical instrument. And if you don’t know how it’s never too late to learn. Besides, learning to play an instrument, any instrument is perfect when you are alone, and it is sure to keep you busy. This is a great hobby that is not only good for keeping your brain active and your emotions in check, but it can also turn into a passion.

Play a sport

Sports are healthy hobbies to get into, and luckily, there are plenty of sports you can play alone to keep you busy. An active hobby that gets your body moving will serve as an enjoyable and healthy exercise that is sure to keep you occupied in catching your breath. Here are some sports to keep you busy when you are alone:

• Swimming
• Biking
• Golfing
• Dancing
• Rollerblading/ ice skating
• Gymnastics
• Martial Arts

Learn something new

Alone time is arguably one of the best times to try and learn something new since you are better able to focus and absorb information without disruptions. If you want to ensure an enjoyable learning experience, try to find topics that you will enjoy or have any interest in. And if you don’t have any interests, find something that may interest you. It’s simply a matter of searching and trying out various topics until you find one that intrigues you. Here are a handful of highly beneficial topics that are well-worth learning about, even if it’s just the basics.

Learn to cook

Cooking is an important skill to learn if you want to be independent. Especially when you are alone, being able to prepare your meals, even just the most basic ones, will go a long way. Furthermore, honing your cooking skills is a productive way to spend your alone time, and is sure to keep you busy on your toes.

Study personal finance

Finance is another area of life that is crucial if you want to live a sound independent life, and if you want to get busy, learn about money. With so many interesting topics in enhancing your financial well-being, you are bound to come across an idea or concept that will keep you busy with curiosity and interest. Everyone enjoys money, and learning about the skills for making more of it is well worth investing your alone time into.

Learn about business

No matter what path you take in life, you are bound to come across something related to business. Even if you don’t necessarily need or want to get involved with anything business related, learning about the business will help you better understand the world around you and how things work, which is always helpful. If you find yourself alone and in need of something to learn about that can be interesting and beneficial, business is a great topic to get into. And who knows, you might even come up with some brilliant ideas by exploring many intriguing concepts, like the importance of independence in business and how it translates to other aspects of life.

Learn about personal development

Alone time is a great opportunity to focus and work on yourself. Learning about how you can improve yourself in any aspect of your life is a lifelong journey that will significantly help shape your future and the person you become. And by investing in yourself when you are alone, you are creating the habit of getting busy and becoming better.

Learn about health and diet

Speaking of working on yourself, learning about basic nutrition and health is sure to have some good effect on your life. Even by just understanding some key basics of health and nutrition, you can make better health decisions since you have an idea of what you are putting into your body and how it can affect you. 

Start a side-hustle

Starting a side hustle can open up opportunities for you, especially in the future if it ever grows into a serious income-generating asset. Side hustles can help you build something in the background of your life, and are excellent ways to remain productive and busy during your time alone. They can be as simple as passion projects or part-time jobs, either way, you are developing your skills and creating something of value for yourself.

Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness is essentially being self-aware of your thoughts and emotions, and being able to control and shift your focus. It is a kind of exercise for your brain that trains your mental muscles in order to gain control over what you think about as well as how you feel about things. In your alone time, developing your mindfulness capabilities can be a rewardingly valuable way to keep you busy, and focused on the positive things in life. You can do this through meditation 

Plan your future

Whenever you have time to yourself, it can be a great opportunity to do some planning ahead for the future. Consider scheduling your regular tasks and organizing your calendar or planner, so that you make the most efficient use of your time and energy when deciding what to tackle on which day. Planning should include short and long-term goals, and

Journal

The serenity of being alone can allow for mental clarity, making it excellent for writing things down in a journal. Many might not realize this, but writing down your thoughts, goals, plans, ideas, etc. can help shed light on things that matter most to you. It allows your dreams to take on a form into reality and onto a page, bringing it one step closer to achievement.

Get physically active

Being alone and letting your mind wander tends to bring about negative thoughts. As stated in the Bible: “The idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. By getting up and out of your head through some physical activity, you are keeping your mind and body busy. Especially when you are alone, some regular physical activity will go a long way towards ensuring a productive and healthy well-being. What’s more, exercise doesn’t have to be anything too complex and can be as simple as walking/ hiking, stretching, running, and some easy sports.

Clean your house

What better way to make use of your alone time to get busy than by tidying everything up? Especially without anyone getting in the way of your cleaning, you can use the alone time to efficiently clean your environment from top to bottom. Plus, cleaning can be quite the workout, allowing you to get in some healthy movement while cleaning up.

Declutter your belongings

In addition to cleaning your house, you might as well declutter your belongings while you’re at it. Especially when you are alone, purging your room and house of things that you rarely or never use can be a productive way to keep you busy. Especially if you have your storage spaces full to the point where they are overflowing onto the floor and just about everywhere else, decluttering should be a top priority before you start cleaning. If you want to take it a step further and keep clutter down to a minimum, you can learn and practice essentialism, where you only keep the things that you truly need and get rid of everything else.

Work on personal grooming

Alone and want to work on yourself to keep you busy? Try working on your personal grooming. Fortunately, the hygiene game is something that can be complicated yet fun to learn about and play and is likely to keep you busy alone for quite some time. Especially if you don’t have one in place already, putting together a maintenance routine for your skin, hair, and body can be complex since it tends to vary among people.

And finding one that suits you, can be quite the task. You can start by first learning about your specific skin, hair, or body type depending on which one you want to work on first. Then do some research on the best products and methods for your specific needs, and try them out to find what works best for you. From here, you can keep learning and trying different products and methods until you find what suits you best, and start to put together your personal grooming routine.

Go exploring

If you’re an outgoing type and find yourself alone and looking for something to help keep you occupied, a little adventure can be just what you need. Instead of letting your mind wander, which tends to do you more harm than good, get up and go wander in real life. Go explore your house, city, neighborhood, park, or just your backyard. The beauty of going on little adventures and exploring something is that you are likely to come across something you never knew about, which can even be in your own home or backyard.

Putting yourself in a state of curiosity is great when you’re alone, especially if it is for something good or helpful, like discovering a grocery store with much cheaper prices than the ones you currently shop at, or finding a cute family of bunnies living in your backyard. The idea is to keep yourself busy by learning and discovering things in your area that you may find intriguing or beneficial to you.

Conclusion

Although it may seem difficult to get productive when you are alone, there are plenty of productive and enjoyable things you can do to make the most of your alone time. 

The key is to find an activity that you may find interesting and enjoyable to do and to focus on that. If you don’t have any interests, go try different things out until you find something that suits you.