Are you bored? Do you have nothing to do? Do you often find yourself wasting your hours when you’ve got free time? Well, it’s time to do something to change that!
Believe it or not, you can make your boredom an asset. There are so many ways that you can choose to spend your free time besides whiling away the hours. Besides, why would you want to do nothing when you can enrich yourself or be productive? Here are 5, or, more specifically, 22 useful things to do when you’re bored.
1. Learn
No time spent learning is a waste, even if you don’t think that what you’re learning is useful to you. Engaging your brain keeps it sharp and fresh! Here are some ways you can learn in your spare, empty time:
· Hone A Talent
Do you have something you’re good at? Time to try getting even better at it! Find your strengths and push yourself to get even better in that area. It’s a great way to spend your time, especially if your talents lie in areas that you don’t get to visit often.
· Pick Up A New Language
It’s very difficult to learn another language, especially if you’re getting on in years. But in your boredom, if you have lots of time to spare, this is one of the best times to learn something new. If you’re not already bilingual, you can even benefit from the many positive effects of knowing more than one language, especially when it comes to cognitive ability.
· Learn From Mistakes
Is there an error you made recently that’s been haunting you? Now that you have the time, you should reflect on it. Think about why it happened, who it affected, and how you can improve.
· Take A Class
There are all sorts of classes available in the world for virtually every single subject imaginable. Take one! You can sign up for virtual or in-person lessons depending on your needs and situation.
· Learn Anything New
Really, what this boils down to is learning new things, no matter what they are. Read a book on an interesting subject. Check out a video, documentary, or article you’ve had your eye on. Read through an interesting article that caught your eye. Pick up any new skill. Really, as long as you’re learning, your boredom is being used well.
2. Check Your Schedules
It can sound drab, but when you’re bored, that’s the perfect time to look over your schedules and check if there’s anything you’ve missed, forgotten, or can even do right now. It’s a very productive way to spend your time, and most studies find that planning is great for improving your stress levels, positive thinking ability, and general improvement and goal-achievement. Here are some ways to check your schedules when you’re bored:
· Review Daily Tasks
What is on your to-do list for today? How about tomorrow? How about for the week? Is everything in order? Reaffirming what you have to do in your mind lets you mentally prepare for them. You might also find things you want to add, remove, or swap around as your review!
· Plan Ahead
Not much of the planning kind? Start now! Think about big tasks you need to do and try breaking them down into smaller ones, each one with a set deadline. Or start trying to organize your days based on your errands, chores, tasks, and more.
· Review Future Schedules
Think about the next few months. Do you have big events to prepare for? Is there a trip you want to take? If there’s something you want to do next year, in what ways can you begin prepping in the closer future? You might have new ideas by thinking about the things you’ll be doing later on!
· Add A Routine To Your Life
Routines are a great way to stay organized and do a number of tasks in quick succession without thinking too much about it. Try adding a morning or evening routine to your life and plan it now, while you have the time and boredom to do so. Try implementing it over the course of the next several weeks, until it becomes a natural habit!
3. Train Your Brain
Your brain needs to be exercised in order to stay mentally strong, and since you have the time, this is a great way to spend it. No matter your age, you can benefit from training it. It’ll help you make better decisions, allow you to learn things more easily, slow cognitive decline, and just make you a quicker thinker in general. Here are some great ways to train your brain while you’re bored!
· Use Your Opposite Hand
If you want your brain to benefit from using both sides of its structure, try training your opposite hand to do tasks. If you’re right-handed, for example, try training your left hand. You can attempt to write, play an instrument, draw, or open jars with it. Just make sure not to use dangerous tools designed for a specific hand on the wrong hand!
· Do Some Number Puzzles
Number puzzles like sudoku can have innumerable positive effects on the brain, keeping it young, sharp, and healthy for longer periods of time. You can opt for word or jigsaw puzzles, too, but number puzzles provide the most benefits!
· Ditch The Calculator
In a similar way to number puzzles, trying to do calculations without a calculator can strengthen the brain. Sure, tough Math isn’t for everyone, but practice makes perfect – and what better time to start than when you’re bored? If you’re struggling, try simple equations first and work your way gradually towards tougher ones.
· Practice Memorization
Memorizing things is a skill that can come in handy if you tend to forget things easily. You can try to memorize anything, from phone numbers to email addresses and from poems to random details of objects. Need some help? Try looking up memorization methods, like using a mind palace or mind map, and see if that works for you!
4. Go Somewhere Enriching
If you’re bored and have the ability to travel, it’s a great idea to spend your time going to an enriching, educational, or special location. It doesn’t have to be an expensive trip or even require more than a few hours. Sometimes, a change of scenery is all you need to help bust the boredom, and changing the scenery productively is a fantastic move. Here are some ideas:
· Visit A Museum
Museums are probably the most enriching place you can go to. No matter what they’re about or how big they are, there’s always something interesting to find out about from them. Learn about all sorts of things at a museum and you’ll have spent usually boring time in a productive and powerful way!
· Visit A Library
Libraries have this wonderful, productive atmosphere to them that can make you feel motivated to just do things. Whether you read, bring some work along to do there, browse the shelves for books to borrow, or make use of their informational facilities, libraries are a great way to spend some extra time.
· Go Camping
If you have a lot of free time and you’re very bored, plan a camping trip. You’ll be close to nature, which will boost your positive thinking and reduce stress levels, and you’ll get to practice some rugged skills. Ideally, you should have some camping knowledge before going on a spontaneous camping trip, but you can still do this as a beginner – just bring someone along or opt to camp in a safer spot. Even just pitching a tent in your own backyard can be wonderful!
5. Organize Your Computer
Your computer is likely where you do a lot of your work (and if your personal computer is pretty barren, then you probably have a work computer that’s getting cluttered). In everyday working life, it’s tough to find the time to just slow down and tidy up. When you’re bored, this is a useful way to while away the hours! Here are some ways you can organize your computer:
· Update Your Passwords
If you’ve been using the same passwords for months, if not years, it may be time to change them. Try going through your most commonly used sites and updating them!
· Clean The Desktop
Is your desktop a mess of too many icons and temporary files you saved there for easy access? Time to delete some shortcuts, throw out screenshots you don’t need anymore, and make it all neater!
· Organize Files
If you can’t easily locate your files, what’s the point? A computer should be organized to cut down on time, not so that you spend hours looking for a file you’ve named with a keysmash and put in a random folder! It may take a while, but try organizing everything that you can!
· Clear Spam
Head to your emails and check your spam folder, then empty it of everything you don’t need. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t delete emails, it’s probably time to do so. Mass-delete all the ones you don’t need, “star” the important ones, and update your contact lists, while you’re at it!
· Update Your Computer
Have you had an update pending for a while? Well, now that you have nothing to do, you have no excuse not to get around to it! As a bonus, updates run in the background, so you can do this and still have time to do lots of other productive things. You may also contact a pcb solutions company to upgrade your computer hardware with new circuit boards.
· Clean Your Whole Computer
Computers get gunky and dirty because you use them so often. If you haven’t cleaned your computer in a while, you should get around to trying it! Use a special cleaner or just give your monitor a wipe, your keyboard a clean of the crumbs and dirt, and – if you know what you’re doing only! – open up the inside and give it a nice dusting.
Final Thoughts On Some Useful Things To Do When You’re Bored
There are so many ways to occupy yourself when you’re bored, most of which simply couldn’t fit on this list. Finding useful ways to spend “boredom time” is a great way to improve yourself and make your life better. Just make sure that you’re also getting enough time to rest!
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