Three Projects for Your Self-isolation This Winter

Winter is traditionally a time when we spend more time inside, and more time in our homes, than any other time of the year. Marry this simple fact with the likelihood that the current coronavirus crisis is due another wave during the winter months, and it looks like we’ll be spending much of our time in a form of isolation this winter, as we try to stay safe from COVID-19. In light of this seeming inevitability, here are three projects to get your teeth into while relaxing alone at home this winter.

Animation

One of the most thrilling new skills you can learn form the comfort of your kitchen table, your couch, or your bed is animation. For a relatively small fee, you can purchase a subscription to an animation software that helps you build worlds and characters to populate them - and slowly make stories that will entertain your friends - or could even lead to a job in the future. 

The best animation software is generally regarded to be by Adobe. Aftereffects is the animation suite produced by Adobe, while you may use Illustrator to design the characters you’ll eventually animate. You’ll find useful guides and courses online for each step of your learning journey when you’ve decided to give animation a go: a huge help in the early days of your learning.

Electrical Engineering

Next up are the electrical circuits and control panels that we’re all vaguely familiar with in our homes and throughout our many devices. It’s relatively easy to learn how all of these work - which means that you could soon create your own mini electrical workshop. From this workshop, you can embark on mini-projects, or you can simply work on repairing your old and broken devices.

There’s nothing more satisfying than getting a piece of circuitry right. Buying all the gear that you need - including wires, DIP switches and other switchboards , and finally a soldering iron - will get you started with this new passion. Pick a project from those that inspire you most online, and get your hands on the materials you need to begin your new passion in electricity.

Coding and web development

Finally, if we are ly due a winter of isolation, with very little to do, then this is also the perfect time to finally try your hand at a little coding and web development. Although this takes years and years to master, it is both a skill you’ll take with pride to the job market, and a skill that’ll help you tinker with some of the software or websites that you use on a regular basis.

 Truly, coding and programming are your keys to another dimension, enabling you to learn the language of computing in such a way that you can create anything. Begin your journey as a coder by purchasing a Python manual, and finding basic tutorials on YouTube. If you enjoy what you’re learning, invest in a winter course, taken online, to polish up your skills.

There you have it: three projects to embark upon as a dark and potentially slow winter draws around us.