In today’s society, almost every second there is a child, including some adults too, that are claiming to be bored. While there are several reasons to get bored, smartphones and the other smart devices always tops. Everyone I mean everyone spends at least 90 minutes a day on one of these smart devices including toddlers.
When boredom is a problem, there should also be a solution, right? (Just as, the locks are never manufactured without keys)
Well, the solution is ‘use that time for self-improvement ‘ rather that being bored. Self-improvement may also sound bored and the hardest thing any human can ever do, because convincing ourselves for ourselves is really hard, right? But once if we do, that can change our lives.
Here are the 5 things that you can do when bored:
1. Read a book
2. Take an online course
3. Learn a language
4. Try your hand at meditation
5. Start your own blog
6. Embrace nap time
1. READ A BOOK
One of the main reason why you should read a book is because Reading reduces stress. Reading about something you enjoy or losing yourself in a good novel is an excellent way to relax. It can ease tension in your muscles and heart while letting your brain wander to new ideas and live in someone else’s shoes. Reading can help you improve some cognitive skills like thinking, learning, paying attention and etc. And also let you live longer, build your vocabulary and help ward off brain deterioration.
If you are an absolute beginner, I recommend you to start reading with a minimum of 3 pages goal every day and try to increase that number as you progress. Always go for physical copies as a beginner and once you reach the intermediate level, start reading e-books and listening to audio books.
Here are a few beginner friendly books:
- The black beauty – Anna Sewell
- The little princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett
- The invisible man – H.G.Wells
2. TAKE AN ONLINE COURSE
Online courses comes in handy when you want to learn some non-academic stuff and they have become a major part of our lives ever since the pandemic had begun since people are ahead to learn new skills. Why take an online course? Online courses enables you and the teacher to set your own learning pace and there is also a flexibility of scheduling that fits your agenda. As a result, using an online educational platforms allows you for a better balance of work and studies, so there is no need to give up on your skill learning goals.
There are paid and free courses available out there you can get access to. Prefer paid courses only in the times when you want to learn something in the certain period of time, since all the required information can be found altogether at one place. If not, prefer free courses, because you can find paid content on various sites and YouTube channels for free but in a little chunks, which requires a lot of research to search for the right info and brain power to connect the dots between the information you’ve collected.
Some of my favorite online sites are:
- Coursera.org
- Alison.com
- Udemy
- Great Learning
- Hubspot etc. for both paid and free content
3. LEARN A LANGUAGE
We all know that language is a ‘vital part of human communication’. Although all species have their own way of communicating, we humans are the only ones that have mastered cognitive language communication. One of the main reason of being able to communicate a second language is that it helps you to connect with more people (one of the rewarding aspects of human experience is, the ability to connect with others). You can also build a stronger relationship with the outer world when you hold the power of bilingualism.
For instance, if you only know English, it’s no surprise that you will more likely connect with English speaking people only, and also if you know Spanish you will also own the ability to connect with Spanish speaking people as well, which means you are having an influence on many and different people in a community. Being a bilingual, you will have more career options too, you can work in any place you want around the world only if you can speak different languages.
Here, you can give these two a try:
- Duolingo.com for any language basics
- https://silo.pub/practice-makes-perfect-complete-spanish-grammar.html for Spanish grammar
And also there are many other courses on Coursera, Udemy, Alison available for free if you want to get perfect at English
4. TRY YOUR HAND AT MEDITATION
A long back the importance of meditation was only known to great sages and to great philosophers, they were the only people who were meditating, back then. Doing meditation has a lots of benefits on health. Meditation reduces stress, controls anxiety, promotes emotional health, may help fight addiction and etc. Now-a-days the importance of meditation is being emphasized everywhere. Researches are looking deep into meditation over and over again, just to conclude that meditation is necessary for everyone.
But we still take a step back, even after we know all. Now, if you ever thought of meditating, but didn’t. Then this is the best time to give it a try. First start it with 5 minutes and increase the number gradually as you do it every day. It will be hard at the beginning, but as time goes by you get used to it.
For beginners:
- Use headspace App, they will guide you through everything that you need to know while meditating.
5. START YOUR OWN BLOG
Do you love writing or interested in literature and you’ve already written something? Then blogging is a best choice to go for. But don’t know what to write about? Start writing about yourself, describe every corner and every area about your life. People love hearing stories and if those stories are from a real life, can make it even more interesting. As a beginner, blogging about yourself is a great way to explore yourself, you get to know many hidden facts about you, and as you get good at it, you can slowly start writing about anything that fascinates you the most.
Do not know where to blog your ideas?
This is so simple, you do not need to have any professional coding skills, just a simple idea about how your site/blog need to be, is enough. But how?
Platforms such as wix.com and wordpress.com can make your desired website for free of charge. Of course there is also an option to customize the site as you like. Just create an account in any one of these platforms and they will guide you from there.
Medium.com is another platform where you can type your sentences and publish directly to the world through the app. You do not need to customize any site, hit that publish button once you are done with writing, just as simple as that. If you are a total beginner, try this out and slowly move onto your own website.
6. EMBRACE NAP TIME
Here comes the interesting thing, embrace the nap time. If you are feeling lazy or bored and don’t feel like doing any kind of chores, it’s time to take a nap for 10 to 20 minutes. If you are an adult, it’s great to do it in the mid-afternoon.
A short nap in the afternoons can boost your memory, lift your mood, makes you more alert and ease stress, when done properly (yes, there is a ‘right’ way to take naps!). A study published in April 2016 found that naps lasting more than 60 minutes a day increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by 50 percent. So, have an alarm turned on before you take a nap.
There were a few rumors spreading that taking naps can harm you but trust me there’s nothing wrong with taking a nap.
