Volunteering Is Good For Your Soul

Volunteering doesn't take that much time each week, most places looking for volunteers would love any time at all that you can give, even an hour can help an organization immensely. I only volunteer 2 hours on Thursday mornings, but it noticeably improves my life/mood and, as important, it helps improve others' lives as well.

Committing to volunteering once a week adds some semblance of a schedule to your life, and as an indie, it's useful to add structure to my life.

There are a ton of opportunities available to volunteer at anything you can imagine. They can use help at schools, homeless shelters, gardens, community bike shops. You can find people who want to teach programming or art to kids, though I personally like non-game related volunteering because the rest of my life is already about games.

You can be social, but if you are an introvert, in my experience there's usually no pressure to say more than you feel like. You can talk while washing dishes or tending a garden, but no one thinks anything if you work quietly.

You can do physical work. (I know I'm not the only one who likes to get away from the desk/couch.)

You don't have to be an expert at anything to volunteer. Any time and effort goes a long way, most organizations just need people to get basic work done.

You are helping others!