England is back in lockdown with restrictions this time around made worse by winter weather and shorter days. With outdoor pursuits limited and social interactions once more relegated to video calling, here are five tips to help you battle the boredom until spring.

1. Take up an at-home hobby

In August last year Hobbycraft announced a 200% increase in online sales since the start of the pandemic. With the nation stuck indoors, and with large numbers homeschooling, crafting experienced a boom.

Taking up a new hobby, or revisiting a former favourite, is a great way to make use of your lockdown. It will give you something to focus on and it could even make you a little extra money.

Online craft marketplaces are big business. Etsy and Folksy are two of the most popular, so check out their sites and see if people are selling anything similar to the things you are crafting. You might get an idea of typical prices or find a gap in the market.

2. Be sure to get enough exercise

TV’s Dr Michael Mosely spoke to the Telegraph about the importance of exercise back at the start of the pandemic. He said that “Keeping fitness levels up means you’re much more likely to stay positive and feel better emotionally.” He went on to recommend daily High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) classes.

There are plenty of these available online, from Joe Wicks to POPSUGAR Fitness who offer a wide range of workouts for all abilities.

Be sure to get outside too. Fresh air – ideally somewhere with green space, trees, and birdsong – can have a positive effect on mental wellbeing, so why not combine the two and improve your physical health at the same time.

Walking, running, and cycling are all great ways to keep active, so consider a countryside cycle or a walk in your local park. With spring around the corner, you might also find it’s time to get back out into the garden.

3. Explore these new and upcoming book releases

We might only be a month into 2021 but there have already been some great new book releases.

If you’re looking for a suspenseful, psychological thriller to get you through the winter months, try Una Mannion’s, A Crooked Tree. An overwrought mother stops her children fighting in the backseat by ordering her twelve-year-old daughter out of the car to walk home. The consequences of that single action are far-reaching.

Cherie Jones’s debut novel How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House tracks multiple generations of Barbadian women through a powerful novel that Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo has called “A hard-hitting and unflinching novel from a bold new writer.”

Finally, and if you can wait until 2 March, British Nobel Prize for Literature winner Kazuo Ishiguro releases his first novel since winning the prize, Klara and the Sun. An Artificial Friend waits for a human companion in a story that asks what it means to love.

4. Try some simple DIY tasks to add value to your home

The first lockdown led to a surge in DIY as bored homeowners turned to those small jobs they had always meant to get around to. This lockdown might lead to more of the same, but what can you do to improve your home’s asking price?

A few simple and cheap DIY tasks can help give your home extra ‘kerb appeal.’ Repainting your front door, cleaning the windows, and hiding wheelie bins can all help to give a better first impression.

If you need a bigger challenge, you might look to undertake a loft conversion or knock down some interior walls to go open plan. Beware though, that poorly executed DIY jobs can take thousands off the price of your home.

Reducing the number of bedrooms – either by knocking two smaller bedrooms into one, or through conversion into a bathroom – could take as much as 20% off the value of your house according to research from home furnishings retailer, ScS.

5. Practice mindfulness techniques

Mindfulness can mean meditation but there is more to it than that. Building routines into your day, taking time to think about the things you are thankful for, and ensuring you get enough rest can all help towards mindful living.

The benefits of an evening curfew for electronic devices are well understood. The blue light they emit blocks the production of melatonin, the hormone responsible for making you feel sleepy. Relaxing in the evening with a bath and a book should help you get a restful night.

You might consider a morning detox too.

If you wake up and reach for your smartphone or tablet, consider an hour curfew after waking. This will give you time to ease yourself into the day, allowing you head space to think about the things you want to achieve, the challenges you might face, and how you intend to overcome them.

When the time comes for more focused relaxation, meditation might be the answer. Here electronic devices can come in handy.

There are plenty of mindfulness apps out there offering courses and exercises for everyone from meditation sceptics to experts. Try Calm, Headspace, or Portal to see if meditation can work for you.