I've been unemployed for the last few months. I'm single, no kids. I've had more of these 24 hrs of uninterrupted free time than I'd care for. Honestly, sounds wild, but I hate it now.
I've been in that situation. At first it's kinda nice being able to sleep in without worry for a little bit. But after a while it really starts to drive you crazy just not having anything to do with your time. That restlessness quickly turns into depression.
I was out for ~6 months a while back. I put a schedule on my calendar, so every day had some structure. Get up at 8 or 9, breakfast, practice an instrument, game time, lunch, write applications, gym, dinner.
Did the same through the lockdowns and some structure really helps.
Agreed. I was doing pretty well the first 2 months or so, but I crashed into a bit of a delayed depressive episode over it all the last month. I'll get sick of my own moping and wrangle myself again soon.
New skills? I spend my free time contributing to FOSS projects to pick up new things, or learning CAD, or soldering, on and on. Always been pretty good at filling my time, just need to learn the relaxing part.