Feeling restless? Pick up an activity from our list to feel recharged

You want to rest and relax during the weekend. But sometimes you get bored of just lazing around and want to do something to entertain yourself. Then again, you don’t want to go out either. So, what can you do? Here are our top five suggestions.

Paint with a friend

Make hay when the sun is shining. By this, we mean take the opportunity to sit out in the feeble sun in between spurts of rain, with a glass of cold beverage, and paint a masterpiece. You can gift the art you make to a friend who has a birthday coming up or display it proudly in your home. You don’t need to know how to paint to be able to have some fun on paper or canvas. Invest in some paint and materials to paint on depending on the medium you prefer and make art. It can be relaxing and therapeutic.

 Put on some music and whip a dish

Regular food—the dal, bhat, tarkari kind—can feel a little mundane on the weekends, when most of us want some finger-licking good food. Rather than opting for takeaway or going out to eat, why not whip up a dish that you can be proud of? What’s more, you are in complete control of the ingredients so your food will be fresh and to your liking. Put on a solid playlist (we recommend upbeat indie pop or jazz), look up the recipe of what you want to make, and have a blast in the kitchen. Take time to slice the veggies and relish the process.

Bake a cake or make a cocktail

Few things can make you feel better than the smell of vanilla essence wafting in your kitchen or a refreshing beverage in hand when there’s a cool breeze blowing in the evening. There are countless recipes to choose from online. Instagram has many easy, accessible recipes for some scrumptious cakes. Bake one for yourself or your family, to enjoy for dessert with some melted ice-cream. Alternatively, learn to make some cocktails. It can be fun and rewarding. And you can impress your friends at the next party.

Pick a project and tackle it with gusto

Everyone has a list of things they have been meaning to do for a while but haven’t gotten around to yet. It could be repainting that childhood bookshelf a bright yellow, making a macramé wall hanging, or tending to your flower beds. Pick something you have been putting off and get on with it. Listen to a podcast or an audiobook while doing it or make it a meditative process by just focusing on the task at hand. You will have crossed something off your to-do list and that will feel just wonderful.

Learn a useless skill

No skill is useless. What we mean to say is when you are bored, learn to do something that your day-to-day life or job doesn’t require you to know. It could be origami, playing the ukulele, learning random phrases in different languages, or mugging up the value of pi, say, up to 25 decimal places. Trust us, it will be both engaging and entertaining. Try to do a handstand, make balloon animals, look up some knock-knock jokes and learn them, or learn some magic tricks—there are many random things you can pick up.