Lately, the topic of conversation is about what to do when you’re bored. There are literally a million things you can do to keep yourself from being bored. Some of those things will just fill up your time – like watching TikTok, but some of those things will help you be happier, more successful, healthier, and better at life (and even less likely to be bored in the future). Following are the top 11 meaningful things to do when you’re bored. Pick something from the following list and get busy making your time more meaningful.
1. Get Clear On Your Life Vision
One of the best things you can do when you’re bored is getting clear on who you are and what you want in your life.
Whether you are 20 or 70, getting clear on who you are and what you want will help you do things that matter most to you so that you can live your life vision and on a daily basis.
You will also be developing habits that will keep you busy, and you will be learning more about areas that interest you or need improvement, and you will be making the most of your time.
The best way to get clear on your life vision is to take Lifebook. Jon and Missy Butcher help you deep dive into your life and figure out what you want most and what you need to do to get there.
Taking the Lifebook course will help you fill up some of your time with meaningful things to do, and when you are done Lifebook, you will have habits and strategies in place that will keep you busy and not bored.
2. Take An Online Class
A lot of people are bored because they have no one else around. When it comes to things to what to do when you’re bored and alone, this is it.
You get online, you take courses, you interact with people from all over the world who are also taking those courses, and you forget about being along because you realize you are not alone.
If you know me, you know that I recommend Mindvalley for taking courses that help your mental, spiritual, and physical self improve. Honestly, a lot of what other lists on what do when you’re bored include stuff that Mindvalley teaches or helps you do.
The great thing about Mindvalley is that they create a Facebook tribe for every course you take, which means you can interact with many different people who are interested in many different topics.
There are so many different options on Mindvalley that you could never be bored again. And it’s super affordable because you can take all the courses all Mindvalley with the Quest All Access Pass.
3. Take A Nap
Yes, this can be a meaningful thing to do when you’re bored. Companies like Google allow their employees to take naps to help them regain energy and focus. If you can’t get out of the ‘I’m bored’ loop, then taking a nap may help.
A nap gives you the ability to recharge your mind and body. When you are bored and take a nap, usually you come out of a nap with the desire to do something.
If you really want to get creative with your naps, try to induce a dream that helps you figure out what you should do when you wake up. Your mind is powerful and if you tell it that you want to dream about something to do for when you wake up, your mind will likely have a dream that will give you an idea of what you should do. Basically, your inner self, who is never bored, will give you some ideas on what you should or need to be doing.
4. Meditate
There’s a reason that almost every list on what to do when you’re bored includes meditation. The benefits of meditation are many and they can, directly and indirectly, help relieve boredom.
Meditation can help you feel calmer, more in tune with yourself, and give you the ability to focus on something to do with your time so that you can stop being bored.
And if you don’t fully believe that yet and feel like meditation does nothing, think of this way – you are doing nothing anyway, so you might as well do nothing and feel good about it!
5. Get On A Forum Of Interest
If you want a tip on what to do when you’re bored that costs nothing but can boost your intelligence, social circle, success, health, and happiness, then this is it.
Get off social media and join a forum where people are talking about something that interests you. This will help you get rid of your boredom as you will find yourself engaging with other people and thinking about other people’s perceptions and knowledge.
You may find yourself researching what you learn and that’s where the rabbit hole starts. Before you know it, you will have spent hours engaging in something that interests you and you will come out with more information and new ideas that can benefit you in some way. Your boredom will be gone!
6. Contribute To The World In A Positive Way
One of the best tips on what to do when you’re bored is simply this – help someone else out. Whether you are stuck at home bored or you just don’t have any plans, you can find a way to contribute to at least one other person’s life.
We all know that there are plenty of people doing their part to contribute to this world in a negative way, but you can help counteract their hate, ignorance, or stupidity by doing something meaningful that contributes to at least one other person’s life in a positive way.
Some ideas include:
- Donate your time, money, or energy.
- Talk to someone online who needs an ear to talk to.
- Encourage other people online.
- Start a blog and spread a positive message or help people in some way.
- Talk to a neighbor or help them out.
- Go out for a walk and pick up trash.
- Clean out your closest and donate your clothes.
- Clean out your kitchen and donate the stuff you are not using anymore.
- Volunteer at an animal shelter or food bank or something that resonates with you.
- Create something that can help people in some way. (Some of the best businesses are started this way!)
- Create something that can help people feel good.
- Make the people you love feel as loved as possible so that they can contribute to the world in a positive way.
The list goes on and on. Choose something that will have an impact on the world, either directly or indirectly, and then do it.
7. Spend Quality Time With People You Love
Whether you do it in person or over a video calling device, spend some quality time with the people you love.
I see people all the time asking what to do when you’re bored while their loved ones are sitting in the next room. It shows how disconnected intimate relationships, family, and friends have become. There used to be a time where spending quality time together was one of the only things you did to relieve boredom.
Spending quality time with people you love will help you feel better and it will strengthen the relationship between you and the person you decide to spend quality time with.
And all of that will have a HUGE impact on your life because your closest relationships – and how good or bad they are – impact every area of your life.
8. Clean Something
Yourself. Your home. Your car. Your dog. There is always something to clean. When you’re bored, why not take the opportunity to get up and clean something that needs to be clean?
The real benefit is after you clean. Your mood will be higher than it was before because you’ve accomplished something – and that something makes you feel better because cleaning and happiness go hand in hand.
9. Get Addicted To Positive Things
If you’re looking up ‘what to do when you’re bored’ then the chances are high that you have some bad habits.
What do you do when you have bad habits that keep you bored? You replace them with good habits that ensure you are never bored.
Bad habits that keep you bored can include complaining, seeing the glass half empty, procrastinating, and laziness.
You can challenge yourself to get addicted to positive things, such as daily exercise, meditation, personal development classes, quality time with loved ones, dictating your feelings, etc.
As you start to get more addicted to positive things, those things are going to fill up your time, and boredom is going to be a thing of the past.
10. Write
I may be a little biased here because I love writing, but I know that writing is something that can help you when you’re bored. It takes your mind off your boredom and onto what you are writing about.
One thing you can do is free association writing. This simply means writing without censorship or restraint. This can help you release some inner feelings and thoughts that you may not even know you have.
Sigmund Freud developed this free association concept. He encouraged his patients to continuously talk so that he didn’t lead his patients toward certain issues of other people through his suggestions. Instead, they would find their own issues through continuously talking and then be able to work through them.
Apply this to writing. Continuously write whatever comes to mind, and sometimes you will amaze yourself with what you write.
You can also journal your feelings which will help you release some of the energy of being bored and could help you get focused on something you want to do.
And of course, there is writing on a blog, which will totally get rid of your boredom. When you are sharing what you know with other people, it’s hard to be bored.
You could also sit down and write purposely to write a book or an eBook.
Note: If you are interested in writing an eBook, I used this guide on writing and publishing your own eBook to create and publish some eBooks when I first started writing online. Those eBooks were very successful and earned me a passive income. I even ended up selling the rights to them and making a really nice one-time income off them.
11. Challenge Yourself To Dictate How You Feel
You’re looking for answers on what to do when you’re bored. Is that because you feel bored? I’m guessing yes. So, challenge yourself to feel something else.
Being bored is simply a feeling. You feel like there’s nothing to do or you feel tired because you have no interest in doing anything. But the good news is that you have control over your feelings, you just need to start dictating to yourself how you want to feel.
You can learn how to challenge yourself to dictate how you feel here. Once you start to challenge yourself to do it and start to make it a habit, you will be surprised at how little you feel bored going forward.
