Recently deleted Instagram, Reddit and disabled YouTube shorts. I now noticed how much I miss doing something — like when sitting in the train or during breaks at work.
So what do you do with your idle time? Any suggestions?
I bought a Steam Deck 1 1/2 years ago and most of my idle time is now spent playing all the games I never had time or energy for. It’s amazing if you’re into video games.
I did something similar and got a USB C expansion controller for my Galaxy S23. Find a few good mobile games and add in RetroArch and other emulators with a bunch of ROMs and you have yourself a mobile gaming rig!
honestly just sit with boredom for a bit, you will detox and find something interesting to do.
12 hours of laying in bed, staring at the ceiling later
“When does the idea happen?”
Dude, I have kids. The mere idea of this being even a possibility from time to time sounds amazing.
Thinking about having kids stresses me out already :o
I have so much Idle time during my commute, that I picked up duolingo to learn spanish. If that is too much I tend to just listen to audiobooks/a d&d podcast
That’s the same route I took. I hate Duolingo but used Memrise to improve my vocab for Italian. Needed something to do besides scroll aimlessly.
How do you disable YouTube shorts?
As for your question, boredom isn’t a bad thing. Have you tried using that time for meditation/introspection?
To disable shorts on android use revanced.
Just use NewPipe.
With the revanced client you can completely disable the shorts feature
How do you disable YouTube shorts?
I have a RSS reader that I check everyday for articles / blogposts from websites I subscribe to.
The interesting stuff gets saved in Wallabag to read later. It syncs with my phone, and I can read offline whenever I got some time to kill.
What RSS reader do you use? Would you recommend it?
Depends on the effort.
If you want a newbie friendly one with syncing: Feedly
If you care about open source and controlling your own data (but don’t care about syncing). Maybe liferea? There are tons of options.
If you care about syncing and don’t mind self-hosting: miniflux.
I use miniflux, but requires some tech knowledge to set up.
Thank you!
Any interesting feeds you’d recommend? My phone launcher has a built in RSS feed which is really nice
I follow the daily best posts on hacker news https://hnrss.github.io/
This exposes me to quite interesting blogs (mainly tech, but not always). If I find someone worth following, I’ll add their blog to my list as well. That’s how I’ve been building my RSS feeds over the years.
From the non tech blogs that I’ve found there, from the top of my head, these are nice
https://going-medieval.com/ - medieval history professor’s blog. She’s quite witty, and makes super interesting posts about the daily lifes of people in the middle ages.
https://brr.fyi - blog from an IT guy working in a scientific research center in Antarctica.
Endlessly screaming in to the void
Hang around on Lemmy
Lisinig to music
Practice norsk via Duolingo(I know it isn’t foss)
You might be interested in Clozemaster for language learning. It has collections of most frequent words where you get a sentence with a word missing that you have to input. That way you just get blasted with hundreds and thousands of sentences in your target language.
It isn’t Foss ether so I see no point to switch
Edit: I found librelingo but unfortunately it doesn’t have Norwegian as a language option https://librelingo.app/dev/
Duolingo is not FOSS
Video games, TV, books, music. Usually in that order.
Used to be reddit, but I left that crap during the great migration.
I still get sucked into Reddit stories from time to time, they’re so bad but so entertaining >:(
While commuting, I mostly read ebooks, listen to fiction audiobooks or long-form history/pop science podcasts/youtube videos. Depending also on whether I am driving that day or taking the subway. Breaks at work, I just chat with colleagues, and scroll lemmy or the birdsite on toilet breaks.
Sudoku, specifically 6x6 libresudoku (available on f-droid)
Thank you! Downloaded and love it
Podcasts and audiobooks.
And I don’t get hung up on those being “better” than YouTube videos. There are educational videos and there is enjoyable fluff and there is actively crap content (think stuff that makes you go into negativity spirals).
Educational YT is the same as educational podcasts or audiobooks, imo.
I read a lot of books.
And by reading, half is a actual book. The other half is a audiobook while doing chores, working out, or general crafting.
I can honestly say reading non-fiction books about various subjects helped me a lot in life. From social issues and self-help, to finances, to dating. I grew up poor in a pretty rough environment, and climbed out of it because of reading.
I talk to you folks lol. I use this pretty much the same way I did Reddit. Something kinda brainless to scroll when I’m standing in line. And the more you comment, the more you have to read/do on here, so when I’m particularly bored, I talk more. I also don’t have any other social media.
I have a couple phone puzzle games I play. If I know I’m gonna be sitting like in a waiting room for a while, I’ll take a book with me. For the longer moments sitting at home, podcasts and music.
Sleep. Read. Listen to my inner monologue review everything wrong with my life and all of the mistakes I’ve made.
Same but add existential dread about the future and “what if” scenarios. “What if my dog died?”
I am trying to reduce distractions and be more mindful of my surroundings. The sights, smells, and sounds of everything around me and my existence as part of it all.
It is still new to me and I find myself unconsciously getting my phone from my pocket and scrolling because it is boring. However, the effects I feel like reduced anxiety and depression are worth it. I also get to see things that I would miss if I were distracted by electronics.
Maybe practicing mindfulness could be beneficial for you as well.
