100 Things to do  

While social distancing 

 

 This year will bring new challenges to how we interact with others, complete 

everyday tasks, and navigate a world living in a pandemic. While here at HSU we hope you will be able to connect virtually with others, explore the beautiful place 

you live, and remain safe and healthy during your time spent with us in the residence halls. 

Below you will find activities to do at your own pace and at your own time while social distancing. Residence Life will also be creating programming throughout the year hosted 

by our RAs and student leader organizations. 

1. Try to grow an avocado from a seed: Directions here: https://youtu.be/TDd_QU9Crmk 

2. Check out the Arcata Farmers market on the plaza. Make sure to wear a mask. 3. Discover the weird and wonderful world of absurd tutorials on YouTube. There 

are a lot of them. 4. Research interest groups in humboldt on facebook and other social media 

platforms. Join or participate in local meetings or virtual get togethers. 5. Take time to learn something that’s… not exactly essential in life, like juggling. 

Three balls minimum. 6. Overwhelmed by the news? Sign up for a link curating service like refind.com 

and read the articles it recommends as most relevant to you (or just as many as you can manage). 

7. Create a shared playlist on Spotify and ask all the people you love to add a few songs to listen to in moments of stress. 

8. Keep a quarantine diary: it will be "fun" to read it again in a few years. Probably? 9. Make a list of all the annoying tasks you’ve got coming up in the next few 

months, and try to schedule them: checkups for health, homework, exams, bill payments, work out, etc. 

10.Watch some films that you wouldn’t normally pick, ones that you’ve been avoiding because they’re too “demanding”, niche or simply not really “your thing”. 

11. Transfer photos from your phone to an external hard drive. This is your chance to banish the "full memory" warning for at least a month. 

12.Choose 12 photos that represent 2019 for you and make an album. As soon as the situation improves, you can take them to a print shop, but in the meantime you can relive all the good memories. 

13.Practice outdoor yoga. You can also find free yoga classes online! 

 

14.Are you far from your loved ones? Send them an email to tell them what everyday life is like without them. Or handwrite them a letter. 

15.Learn a poem by heart. 16.Start keeping a dream journal, especially if it’s something you’ve wanted to do 

for a while, but you always put off. 17.Check out the clubs on campus and join a club! At least email the club officer 

asking for more information. 18.Tell your friends or family how much they mean to you. By phone, letter, or kind 

deed. 19.Go for a hike in the Redwood forest or on the beach. 20.Write an email to your future self and schedule send on the day of your choice. 21.If you have a long distance partner, call them and play truth or dare. If you don't 

have a partner, call your best friend and do the same. 22.Sign up for a pen pal program! Click here for more information. 23.Choose at least five people that you haven't heard from in over a month and 

write them a message to find out how they’re doing. 24.Join your hall's council and develop leadership skills! Connect with your RA for 

more information. 25.Open a Google Doc and share it with all your friends: turn it into a sort of 

logbook where you can share articles, videos, songs, or even just stray thoughts. 26.Decorate your room by exploring different inexpensive DIY life hacks. 27.Learn to hand sew and repurpose some old clothes. 28.If you have a creative hobby like photography, painting, sculpture, writing, or 

graphic design, consider entering an online competition. 29.Update your resume and portfolio, so the next time you see a job listing that 

inspires you, you can be the first to apply. Schedule a meeting with an Academic Advisor from Academic Career & Advising Center (ACAC). 

30.If you have an animal teach them something they don’t know or decorate their living environment. 

 

31.Take your camera (digital/phone/manual) and take a photo walk. 32.Explore the local beaches with friends while social distancing. 33.If you have a bike, go for a ride on the Hammond trail or the Arcata Marsh trail. 34.If you like organizing, clean out your email and unsubscribe from all the 

newsletters clogging your inbox that you never, ever open. 35.If you're under quarantine, visit your local government's website to see what free 

goods and services companies have made available for you. 36.You've likely already started reading a bit more than usual these days. Why not 

get into the personal history of your favourite authors, through articles, videos and documentaries. 

37.Check out a few books to read for pleasure from the library. You can also create an online account and access digital copies of some books. 

 

38.If you are a writer, or even if you are not, write your own short story. 39.Reading is nice, but talking about the books you've read is even better: join an 

online book club. And if none of them are piquing your interest, start your own! 40.Go through your closet and pick at least three items that you no longer wear to 

sell on sites like Depop or other second hand thrift sites. Take some nice photos, describe the product, and wait for the cash to roll in. 

41.Pick three more items of clothing that you no longer use, and set them aside to give or give them to friends. 

42.Fix up the clothes you’ve shoved to the back of your wardrobe, the ones with pesky holes or loose buttons. 

43.Rearrange your clothing drawers. Especially the one with all the mismatched socks. 

44.Tidy up your Instagram profile and take some new shots to share with friends and family. 

45.Why not take some shears to your Instagram feed too, and unfollow all the boring people you've accumulated there over the years. 

46.Repopulate your Instagram feed with some really interesting people: maybe artists, psychologists and other experts in their respective fields or new subjects that interest you. 

47.Open a second, themed IG account. Now is the time to get creative. If you are an artist, influencer, or have some skill to show off, devote this IG page to your passion project. 

48.Browse through the most absurd IG filters and, if you have the design chops, try to create one yourself! Your follower count will grow like never before. 

49.If you haven't already done so, download TikTok(if it doesn’t become banned in the near future) and start exploring. 

50.Film a TikTok. It’s not that hard! 51.Create TikTok challenges and encourage your followers or friends to duet! 52.Take a walk through the Redwood Park or set up a place on the lawn to study. 53.Download some games for your phone and have a friend download them so you 

can challenge yourself online. 54.Have you spent the summer humming songs you don't know the meaning of? 

Maybe it's time to study those texts, or at least skim them. 55.Karaoke is always a great idea. See if you can convince your suitemate to play 

along. 56.Sooner or later after all this, we’ll return to our usual frenzied rhythms. Why not 

trak your health through an app and start a healthy daily routine? 57.Clean every washable surface in your home, especially the ones you usually 

ignore. You will feel better afterwards. 58.Learn how to crochet or knit: you can create that beanie you always wanted to 

buy! 59.Give yourself a manicure, do a hair mask, or anything else you can think of that 

can be plausibly passed off as “self-care”. 60.Experiment with your nail polishes at home. Get DIY with it. 61.Put together one of those homemade face masks, the ones that only require 

basic kitchen ingredients. 62.Watch a DIY crafting tutorial and see if you can “Nail it”. 63.Download a meditation app, try it out when you are feeling stressed. 

64.If you are feeling depressed or anxious or need someone to talk to, call the Counseling & Psychological Services on campus at 707-826-3236. They are a 24 hour line and now would be a great time to start counseling if you were at all apprehensive in the past. Its free & it will help you to work on yourself to create effective coping skills to deal with this stressful time.  

65.Go to https://theuselessweb.com/, a useless site that will take you to other random, useless sites. 

66.Here are three ways to make a tie-dye t-shirt at home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBadLUHLe6E 

67.And 10 different ways to cut one. https://sewguide.com/t-shirt-cutting-ideas/ 68.If you have a car and feeling adventurous check out Fern Canyon at Redwood 

state park. You won't regret it (bring waterproof shoes). 69.Make little cards of appreciation and stick them to your suitemate’s doors. 70.Start vlogging your quarantine. It’s up to you whether you want to publish them 

or not, it will still make for entertaining personal viewing in the future.  71.Document what is happening, how you feel, and what you do during the day, 

because despite how scary it all is, we are in the middle of a unique historical moment. 

72.Have you been meaning to look up some historical event or subject you wanted to learn more about? Now would be a good time to educate yourself on history that you may not have learned in prior classes and learn more about other people's cultural history. The more you know, the better you’ll be able to connect with folks. 

73.Listen to apps like soundcloud or other emerging artist apps to find music you really enjoy that not many people have heard and share. 

74.Learn about the native land that HSU sits on (http://www.ncidc.org/NWCA_Tribal_Map_and_Info) (https://www.wiyot.us/148/Cultural) and register for a GE course in Native American Studies next semester. 

75.Make a savings plan, you know, to get yourself ahead of the game when you graduate. You can use finance apps like Mint or GoodBudget. Also check out financial aid on campus https://finaid.humboldt.edu/ 707-826-4321. 

76.On that note of budgeting, see what scholarships and other free money you can apply for so you can avoid taking out loans! 

77.Find out different ways to make your residence hall more sustainable. Check out https://facilitymgmt.humboldt.edu/sustainability for what HSU offers and what is being done! 

78.Make not only your home, but also your shopping more eco-sustainable. Start to familiarise yourself with the concept of draught products in supermarkets and get used to the idea of doing groceries with not only a reusable shopping bag, but also with a few jars and containers for non-packaged products. 

79.Check out this DIY T-shirt grocery bag you can make: https://youtu.be/xbNdVDuXXk0 

 

80.Now that you have the time, try to rethink your food waste. Open the cupboard and check to see which foods are about to expire, and use them up in the next few days. 

81.Just, think. Take a few minutes every day to rethink your life and experiences, redefine your goals and devise strategies for how to achieve them. You'll come back stronger than ever. 

82.Knowledge is power, always. Learn about topics you know little to nothing about by watching documentaries and studying online. ResearchGate and Academia.edu are two great places to start. 

83.Like to draw? Download a drawing app or pull out your sketchbook and test out your skills! Need a drawing prompt? How about gathering seashells at the beach and drawing them! 

84.If you miss the cinema, try to recreate its atmosphere at home. Popcorn, total darkness except for the screen, and maybe there’s a projector you forgot about lying around somewhere? 

85.Watch Jane Fonda's iconic aerobics classes on YouTube. Let her knitted socks, one piece swimsuits and leg-warmer combos take you back in time to the 80s for an hour. 

86.Dust off the old Nintendo and finish off all the games you left incomplete when you were younger. 

87.Start a new free online game and convince your suitemates to play with you! Its virtual and you can even download discord to talk to each other while playing :). 

88.Start a D&D online campaign: check out: Roll 20 for a cool & free online visual platform the DM can walk players through. 

 

89.Ten minutes of stretching a day can only do you good. That's what Youtube tutorials are for. 

90.Watch an old cartoon you used to like when you were a kid, and ask yourself: did I really go crazy over this stuff? Yes, yes, you did. 

91.Watch your favourite TV series from start to finish again. There's nothing wrong with that. If you want to feel less guilty and more productive, try watching it in another language. 

92.Own a bike? Get it registered with UPD and tune it up at the bike library on campus https://wrrap.humboldt.edu/bicycle-learning-center.  

93.Create a calendar with all your family and friends' birthdays and send them sweet things to let them know you are thinking of them.  

94.Read your horoscope. If you really want to delve deeper check out this sight https://www.astrology.com/us/home.aspx. 

95.Try to quit a bad habit! Find an online support group and track your progress. 96.Listen to podcasts. 97.Create your own with friends! It's free! Try podbean. 98.Need a job? Check out https://acac.humboldt.edu/hsu-handshake? 99.Watch a cooking tutorial and follow along! 

100. Reach out to an old teacher who really made an impact and update them on your progress in college and how they influenced your success. 

101. Check out ways you can volunteer safely in the community while social distancing. Call organizations and see how you can help! 

 

 

Remember to stay safe and wear a facial covering when going out. Be responsible when interacting with suitemates and friends. Practice social distancing and avoid large groups of 

people. If you have further concerns visit the HSU Campus Ready website https://campusready.humboldt.edu/ to get up to date information on how campus is 

responding to Covid 19.