30 Light, Fun Things to Do When You’re An Unemployed 20-Something

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1. Make a Spotify playlist of your favourite German pop songs and listen to them. Loudly.

2. Plan a trip on a budget.

3. Download a free app and learn a new language. My favourites are Duolingo and Mondly Languages.

4. Finally plan out and start writing that novel you’ve been talking about writing for yeeeears.

5. Read and answer all your emails. Radical, but worthwhile.

6. Unsubscribe from all those mailing lists that seemed like a good idea at the time but always end up in the trash before you’ve even tried to read them.

7. Watch the news. Decide that we’re all completely fucked.

8. Download the Stylist app and read all their back issues for free.

9. Take the time to actually appreciate a sunset or two.

10. Volunteer. It feels good and the experience looks good on your resume.

11. And on top of that, do some fundraising for your favourite charity!

12. Watch every episode of SciShow and CrashCourse. Make notes.

13. Learn to cook on a budget.

14. Paint each of your nails a different colour, rainbow-style.

15. Read that stack of books that you bought on a whim and have been meaning to get to for longer than you’d like to admit. We all have one.

16. Update your Amazon Wishlist. You never know when some kind soul will take pity on you and buy that Games of Thrones box-set you so desperately want.

17. Marathon the entirety of Will and Grace. Wish that Will Truman was your gay best friend.

18. Get on Skype or FaceTime and reconnect with a friend you haven’t seen in forever.

19. Watch David Attenborough’s latest documentary, Great Barrier Reef, on BBC iPlayer.

20. Go for a walk around your neighbourhood, take a camera, and snap loads of pictures.

21. Make a mixtape.

22. Invite your best friend over and build a blanket fort together.

23. Use sites like YPlan to find the best free things to do in your city. Grab a friend and get out there.

24. Grow a plant.

25. Clear out your closet.

26. Watch a whole bunch of TED talks.

27. Read neuroscientist David Eagleman’s Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain and learn about how your brain works.

28. Learn all the words to the soundtrack of your favourite musical.

29. Make your own zine.

30. Develop a bucket list.