Do Something when You're Bored
Being bored can really be fun if you know what to do. All you need to do is find things to occupy your time and you'll find you aren't bored anymore. See step 1 to get started busting through your boredom!
Contents
Steps
- Bake or cook. The beauty of baking or cooking is that the act itself helps you pass the time and you get to eat something delicious (one hopes) at the end of it. Dust off your cookbook or look up fantastic recipes online and try one out.
- Glam yourself up. Try out different kinds of make-up styles to see how they look. Go through your clothes and put together outfits that you can wear for the next few days. Match up jewelry with the clothes and make-up and figure out accessories.
- Do your nails. Make funky designs with nail pens or paint each nail a different color.
- Watch a Movie. You can find a movie online, watch a movie that is on TV, or go to a movie store and rent one to watch at home. You could even make a trip of it and go to your local movie theater. Maybe see something you wouldn't normally watch like a documentary or a mystery.
- Practice for something. When you have nothing better to do, that is the perfect time to work on skills you're perfecting. If you play soccer, take a ball out to your backyard or nearby park and practice dribbling or shooting goals. If you play the piano, you can sit down and play a few pieces. You don't even have to practice scales, you could try out a favorite piece/song instead.
- Clean your room. Make sure everything is looking nice and tidy. Having a clean room can help you feel accomplished and tidy. A clean room can help give you energy to get over your boredom and do other things.
- Organize your wardrobe. When you're bored is a great time to do tasks you might not normally do, like organizing your wardrobe. Go through your clothes and see what you've outgrown or don't wear anymore. You'll feel good clearing out space for new things.
- Clean places you wouldn't normally clean. Go through your attic or garage and see what you can get rid of or clean. You might find something you've lost while you're cleaning.
- The places that people often forget to clean are their remote controls, behind the refrigerator, the toilet roll handle, light switches, and the dishwasher. Grab a cleaning rag and give these places a good wipe-down.
- Do a household project. When you have a little time on your hands, that's when you can do one of those household projects that you've been putting off. If you turn on some music, that'll make it fun and allow you to accomplish something!
- Decorate. Hang up that picture that's been in your basement for half a year. If you're allowed to, redecorate your living areas. Move your furniture around, or repaint your walls.
- Fix your household objects. Maybe your sink leaks and needs fixing, or the front steps sag. Take this time to fix that squeaky door and you'll feel accomplished instead of bored!
- Do something with your pet. If you have an animal, pamper them by giving them a bath, or clipping their nails. Teach Your Dog a New Trick to impress your family and friends.
Making a Video
- Phone or text a friend who you know is probably not busy and ask them to pop round to make a video together. This could be a friend you always speak to, or even a friend that you very rarely speak to.
- Explain to them, when they get to your house, any video ideas that you have. Say that you would rather do a 'What to do when you are bored' video.
- Make a list of 10-50 things to do. The amount depends on how many you can think of.
- Set up the camera. Whether this is an iPad camera, a camera that has a video, or an iPhone, it will work. Make sure you have the apps required to edit it and put them together; there are plenty of apps that can do this on the app store.
- Record it. It's always best to get one friend to say what the activity is, and then get the other friend to act out doing the activity after the first friends has said it, by recording two separate videos.
- Put the videos together using an app from the app store. Remember, there are plenty you can download and try out, and if you don't like it or it's not what you thought it was, delete it and find another one.
- Watch it back. If you don't like it, record the parts that you weren't quite happy with, or start over again. If you are happy with it, post it on a social media site like Facebook, Google+, YouTube or Twitter, or even Instagram, and show off to your other friends what you can do.
- Watch the video in future when you're bored. It'll remind you of all the great things you could be doing instead of being bored!
Entertaining Yourself While Traveling
- People-watch. One of the best parts of traveling is being in places where there are lots of people to look at. Whenever you're bored in a busy place )train station, airport, bus depot, cafe, and so on) look around you at the people you're sharing the space with.
- Make up stories about the people you see. That woman wearing the zebra print leggings? She's an international spy on her way to a meeting with her superior. She's wearing the garish clothes to draw attention away from her face.
- Eavesdrop. Listen to the conversations going on around you. try to find the strangest conversations to listen in on and make sure that the people don't notice you spying on them. Act like you're reading a book or magazine, instead.
- Write down what you hear and turn it into a short story or a poem.
- If you're traveling with another person, turn it into a game. See who can overhear the weirdest conversation or sentence.
- Make up a new persona. When you're traveling you can be anyone you want to be. Come up with a mildly plausible persona and stick to it while you're on the airplane, at the bus depot, waiting for the train, etc. See if you can get people to believe your persona.
- Make up games. Sometimes this is the only way to keep yourself amused, whether you're a child or an adult. You can do the usual "I Spy" games, which are especially good for kids in the car. You can also make up your own games, depending on where you are.
- Make up a points system for annoying people. This can help if you're stranded somewhere during the holiday rush season. There are always intensely irritating people and turning their annoying habits into a game can make them more bearable. For example: you get +10 points when that guy cuts you off in line, or +5 for the child who screams through the entire plane ride.
- Call or text a friend. See what everyone else is up to and relay your odd traveling experiences to them. You can brainstorm ideas for ways of filling your time. You'll have someone to talk to and you'll get to pass the time.
Entertaining Yourself Outside of the House
- Exercise. A great way to cure boredom is to do some exercise. You'll get your endorphins going, which in turn will help you feel better and will make your body happy. Run, bicycle, take a walk, investigate the town or city you live in, yoga, jump rope, hula hoop.
- Use this time to investigate the town or city you live in. You'll get exercise, fight your boredom, and maybe find out some secret spots.
- Go on an adventure. Get your car, your bus pass, or your bike and head out into your city or town. Take a bus somewhere you might not normally go, bike to that street that has all the wealthy houses, find a secret park.
- Donate Food. Especially if you've used your time to go through your house and get rid of things you don't need, you can now donate these to a food bank; things like clothes you don't need (but that are in good repair, not stained or ripped), or canned food.
- You can also donate your time to a food bank, helping to restock and or to serve food if they do that. It's a good way to help make a difference and to use time that might otherwise be spent doing nothing.
- Spend time at your local animal shelter. Help care for the animals, walk the dogs and keep them clean. Animal shelters often need volunteers to help out and it will be a great way to play with animals (especially if you don't have any) and you'll be doing something useful.
- Ask a friend or parent if they need help with anything. You don't only need to help strangers, you can help out people that you know. Offer to help them garden, or clean their house. This will put your spare time to good use, give you somebody to hang out with, and you'll be doing something nice for someone else. Not a bad way to cure your boredom.
Entertaining Yourself at Work or in Class
- Doodle. This is a great way to keep your hands busy while your mind focuses on what the teacher or professor is saying. You can also do this at work, when you're thinking about what project you should work on next, or if you're just trying to look busy for the boss.
- If you're subtle about it you can even have doodling contests with your friend or coworker. Try to out-do one another with fantastic drawings, or add on to one another's drawings, to create something really wild.
- Come up with a creative project. You want to challenge yourself at work or in class and if you're getting bored, you probably aren't being challenged enough. Try to come up with a project that would be challenging and interesting and propose it to your boss or teacher.
- Re-organize. When you have some free time at work or at school, it's a great time to do a little, subtle organizing. Sometimes this can even help you to find your productivity again. Clean-up your work area, or school binder. Make sure that everything is in its proper place and can be easily found.
- Clean your computer. Clean the screen, clean between the keys. If it used to be white, do your best to carefully restore your computer to its former clean condition.
- Organize your computer desktop so you can find things. Put pictures in the labelled picture folders and make sure all your documents are in properly labelled folders.
- Meditate. If you have some time and you're bored, you can make use of it by meditating. This can help calm your mind and get yourself focused for the work ahead of you. It's a great re-energizing tactic.
- Sit quietly at your desk and close your eyes (or pretend like you're working). Take deep breaths in and out and pay attention to your breathing. If you feel thoughts come into your head, acknowledge them and let them go.
- Read. Reading is fun and you could pick up a book, a magazine, or a newspaper. Reading something helps pass the time by giving you something to keep your brain interested. Some free time is a great time to try something new.
- You can usually hide a book beneath some textbook in your class or beneath your desk at work. It makes it look like you're really studying or paying attention to the material, while actually doing something a lot more fun.
- Read a mystery and try to guess the solution before the detective, or try some fantasy or science fiction. Look into something nonfiction or spiritual, philosophical, paranormal, or even holy topics like Bible, or the Quran.
- Check out what books you can get from the library and pick them up on your way to or from your work or class. Some libraries even have online databases where you can check out a book without having to leave your house or work!
- Learn something new. Having some free time is a great moment to learn something new and interesting. Then you can impress your friends and family. Learn how to do magic, discover how to breathe fire, or how to make chainmail!
- Go online. If you have your computer in front of you, you can use it to go online and surf the internet. Just make sure that you won't be caught by your boss or your teacher. You can use this time to amuse yourself or to learn something new.
- Go on something like Craigslist or Ebay and find the weirdest thing you possibly can. Post it to your twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr account.
- Go on Instagram, Facebook, or Vine. Upload photos, share stories, check out other people's posts and photos.
- Watch YouTube Videos on an iPad. Pick comedy ones if you want a lift, choose viral ones for entertainment and to stay trendy.
- Use Pinterest. Choose a topic you like and make a board for it, add pictures you like. Or look at other people's pictures.
- Chat with a coworker. Sometimes the best way to amuse yourself when you're bored is to enter into conversation with someone else. Pick someone you don't know that much about and ask them about themselves (where they are from? where they went to school? favorite thing to do outside of work?). You might even make a new friend.
Entertaining Yourself With a Friend
- Compromise. Okay, so you can't agree on anything. Pick one thing you want to do and combine it with something your friend wants to do. Say you want to watch a movie and your friend wants to bake a cake. Bake a red carpet cake with edible movie decorations (if you're a really skilled cake baker) and then watch a movie about cakes. Maybe that's a bad example, but you get the idea.
- Listen to music. Maybe there's something in your favorite song that will inspire you. This may seem like an odd idea, but try it! Try a song that describes something familiar to you, and work from there
- Eat. This can turn into a calorie-laden habit, but cook something with your friend. Then, work off the extra calories in a workout. Eating when you're bored isn't a bad habit if you work it off, especially if you eat healthy food. But if you're going to exercise, make sure to hydrate properly before, and you can turn the exercise into a game! Bike-race your friend, or just run and race your friend.
- Dare. Don't get carried away here. If you're in a crowded place, this is perfect. Dare your friend to go up to a stranger and ask if he or she would like your leftover lemonade, for example. If you're at school, a perfect way to make lunch more interesting is to dare a couple friends to sit at a different table, with a few or their enemies or the opposite gender, and act natural about it.
- Create a dance routine with a friend. First pick a good song, then pick your moves and last, create your costume. Then pick a date to perform your dance routine and practice it daily!
Tips
- Challenge yourself: do something you thought you never could do before.
- Most importantly, have fun! Have a good time doing everything you can.
- Boredom usually leads to creative thinking and unusual ideas—so at times, embrace your boredom!
- Look for things around the house that will give you an idea of what to do. Ex: If you saw a pencil, it could inspire you to write.
- Write a book or create a song. It will be fun and you can publish or perform what you made.
- Do something to keep your mind busy, like writing down all the 50 states in the USA in under 3 minutes.
- Invite a friend over or go to a friend's house.
- Go out with your friends.
- Sometimes if you have a pencil you can make beats! It's really fun and you can do contests to see who the best pencil beater is! Just make sure that if you're at school, you don't annoy the teacher.
- Make a bucket list and do the things with a friend.
- If you don't know what you want to do, make a bucket and fill it with ideas of what to do for when you get bored next time.
- Play with your animals if you have some, go outside, daydream, or let your imagination flow.
- Decorate your room, try to make something out of tape, or go on YouTube.
- Do some art work.
- Without telling your parents that you are bored just email or text your friends. They will reply soon, just be patient.
- Make something from Pintrest or Tumblr, it could be fun and there's thousands of projects on those websites.
- Search for tongue twisters and try to say them!.
- Go shopping with your friends or family and take your friends or family to a meal example: subway, McDonald's, KFC or maybe a restaurant.
- Go Shopping! Shopping is always a good way to beat boredom whether it on your own or with your friends.
- If you have a crush write down a list of stuff that you want to do with them. If you have an enemy make a list of ways to prank them so bad it hurts their soul.
- Go to your room and look at stuff and you will find your inspiration!
- Watch 'what to do when you are bored' videos.
- If you are really bored you can pick your favourite song, and you and a friend(s), or just you, could make a song or dance.
- If your are a kid and have a bunch of pillows, find an open space and make a fort! It's really fun, siblings or not!
- Bake, dance, listen to music, make a fort, and clean.
Warnings
- Many times what seems like boredom is actually avoidance of a task that you don't want to do. Stop procrastinating and do whatever it is that needs doing.
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- Teach Yourself a New Language
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