11 Ways To Be Productive When You’re Sick (Or Too Lazy To Move Around)

When you’re a workaholic, one of the most frustrating things about being sick is how much time you’re wasting. If you don’t want to feel like your entire day has been useless, but you can’t muster up the energy to do anything more than tap on your keyboard, here are a few ways you can be productive:

1. Browse through Amazon and Etsy for presents. Do you have any weddings coming up? What about birthdays? Baby showers? Graduation parties? Instead of waiting until the last second to pick up a card from the supermarket, take the time to search for something meaningful.

2. Browse through Pinterest for new recipes. You might not be in the mood to cook right now, but once you’re feeling better, it’ll be nice to have some yummy (healthy) new recipes to test out. You could even have your friends over for a dinner party.

3. Look through Google and Facebook Events for activities to attend once you feel better. Don’t you hate it when you want to hang out with friends but nobody can come up with a good idea for where to eat or what to do? Prepare early by searching for events coming up in your town.

4. Sort through your Gmail account. If your number of notifications has reached double digits, you have some organizing to do. You can answer emails. You can delete emails. And you can unsubscribe from company emails that won’t stop clogging up your inbox.

5. Contact your loved ones. If you’ve lost touch with someone you used to see all the time, use your spare time to check in with them and catch up with them. Ask them about their life. Tell them about yours. Make plans to see them as soon as you feel better.

6. Update your social media accounts. Have you had the same Instagram page since college? You can change your bio, change your highlights, change your profile picture, change your aesthetic.

7. Listen to a podcast or audiobook. You won’t have to strain your eyes skimming through pages or staring at a screen. You can close your eyes and learn while resting your head.

8. Search through job listings. Or therapist listings. Or dog walker listings. If you’ve been meaning to hire someone new to cut your hair or fix your sink, then look up reviews while you have plenty of time to read each one.

9. Pay your bills. Make sure your credit card payments and student loans payments and car payments are all up-to-date.

10. Map out your next few weeks. Write down a to-do list for when you get better. Separate the items into different days so you never have too much on your plate at once. If you think your schedule through ahead of time, there will be a lot less rushing around in the future.

11. Sleep. It might not feel like you’re being productive when you fall asleep at nine PM, but the quickest way to get yourself better is to sleep enough and stay hydrated. Don’t feel lazy for resting. The quicker you recover, the quicker you’ll be able to work again.