How’s it going guys, I hope you are all well.
In this video we are going to look at 10 productive things to
do when you are bored, and have absolutely nothing better to do.
I believe we can all attest to squandering our most precious resource: Time.
And often, we waste it on some of the most useless things you can imagine.
My friend Derrick here is no exception.
You see, Derrick is like you and I.
He’s a millennial, he works a 9 to 5 he has a love and hate relationship with, and
when he can, he finds time to hang out with his friends on the weekends.
And he is a relatively cool guy to hang out with to be honest… and I think you guys
would really like him.
But like most of us, Derrick suffers from the occasional lapse in judgment, as in he
makes poor decisions.
When my friend Derrick is bored this is what he does: He'll binge watch a Netflix series
and when he’s done with that, what does he do?
Well, what else… he picks up his phone and starts scrolling through it
to see whether they are any new messages on his social media accounts.
Popular guy, eh?
So he browses through his phone to find a game to play, but none of them look any fun
at all.
So he puts the phone down and starts mindlessly staring
at the ceiling.
Derrick is officially bored!
It's said that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop; which is why you are likely to make
some really bad decisions when you're bored.
Why?
Because the dopamine you could have gotten from being productive
in one way or the other, now needs to be found by making impulsive decisions that feel good
in the moment.
It is, therefore, imperative that when you're bored, you find something productive to do.
I promise you, it will feel better than staring at the ceiling,
mindlessly wondering whether you should order pizza or
Chinese for dinner, or whether that girl who keeps staring at you in the office has crush
on you…
Well, if she knew you spent all your time watching
Netflix and staring at the ceiling, the answer is probably not.
In this video, I'll give you a list of 10 things you should do next time you catch yourself
bored and killing time.
And oh here’s an interesting fact.
According to time management specialist Michael Fortino, over
an average lifetime, you will spend seven years eating, five years waiting in line,
four years cleaning your house, three years in meetings, one year searching
for things, 8 months opening junk mail, six months
sitting at red lights and 120 days brushing your teeth.
Well I’m not sure if this information is relative, but it’s good to know.
So if you want to increase productivity and feel much happier at the end of the day, which
I believe we all do, here are 10 things you can do with
your spare time.
1.
Exercise
I think exercising is a no brainer, the sheer benefits alone are just staggering and if
you guys aren’t exercising already I suggest you start dusting
off those old trainers and get yourself moving.
Just to name a few benefits of exercise; You'll look
better, you'll lose weight, you'll become lean, you will gain
muscle If you want to, and generally you'll become fit as a fiddle.
And these are just the physical benefits of exercise.
Others include, improved sleep, improved memory, less depression, and thanks to the
endorphins released during exercise you will feel much better and happier, plus so many
more benefits!
Plus you get to live longer too…
If you want to find out more benefits of what exercise can do for you, I
highly recommend you check out my exercise video, which did pretty well, if I do say
so myself.
2.
Start a business
We live in an age where it’s never been easier to start a business or a side hustle
and start make a living from it.
The internet has fundamentally changed the way people and businesses do things, and it
has literally created hundreds of different ways
to make money online and earn a living from it.
You can start a blog, write a book, start an Instagram
page, do Shopify or do what I did and start a somewhat
successful YouTube channel, nice.
There is literally a ton of different ways to make money
online, you just need to do a bit of research, start something, stick to it and don't give
up.
3.
Read a Book
Successful people never stop learning, and reading books is in fact a great way to get
inspired and motivated, increase your knowledge and also
your income.
Books teleport you into a whole new world.
Some books take you to the stars, and you meet a guy like Han Solo while others take
you into Westeros, where seven kingdoms with the craziest
people are found.
Some books will teach you how to develop a new skill, others, about our history,
while others will teach you something new and interesting
about our world.
Reading books is a sure fire way to increase ones knowledge.
Also it makes you a more interesting person to talk to.
4.
Evaluate your goals and set plans
I know all of us have some goals we would like to achieve, whether you wrote them down
on a piece of paper or stored them in your minds memory
box, we all have goals and aspirations we would like to
achieve.
So since you are bored… and supposedly have nothing better to do?
why not start evaluating your goals?
If you are interested, here’s a tip!
Make short and long-term plans of how you intend to achieve your
goals.
In that moment you are mindlessly staring at the celling and wondering whether that
girl in the office likes you, begin planning in your mind
how you intend to achieve your goals.
A good tip I learned from the 7 Habits of highly effective
people by Stephen Covey is to begin with the end in mind.
See yourself already achieving the goal and work your way backwards.
For example let’s say derrick, plans on buying a car this year.
What he can do is, start putting aside a little cash every day or week, by cutting
down on unnecessary expenses.
For example at the end of a long tiring day at work, the last thing derrick
wants to do is make dinner, so what he usually does is
order takeout from his favorite restaurant, which if you're like Derrick, ends up costing
you a few hundred dollars each month.
And if your favorite takeout restaurant is as good as mine, adds on a
couple extra pounds come winter time.
Realistically, Derrick knows he should be putting money aside
for his car.
So what he can do instead is, in his spare time on the weekends or when he’s not too
busy with work, derrick can prepare meals for the
week and freeze them in the refrigerator, so every day
after work all he has to do is heat up the meal.
This should save him a considerable amount of money
each month.
And he'll probably end up looking a little trimmer.
But this is just one simple way derrick and you can setup a goal and save some cash.
If you don’t have any goals, or instead, haven’t defined them
clearly, when you are bored is the best time to come up with
some!
Setting goals gives you a sense of purpose and the type of focus that you need in order
to achieve them.
5.
Meditate
One of the most productive things you can do in your spare time is to meditate.
And I know what you are thinking, productive?
meditation?
Can those two even go in the same sentence?
Isn’t that a self-contradicting statement!
And I know a lot of you are probably thinking this, but meditation is one of
the most important and productive habits you can foster.
There are literally thousands of studies which support that even meditating for only 5 minutes
in a day can lead to a plethora of benefits.
My favorites being peace of mind and happiness… and I
know meditation can seem like one of the most boring
mundane things in the world, especially when you are bored, but the benefits are worth
it!
If you can't sit still when things are totally silent, try guided meditation.
If enough of you guys are interested, maybe I'll even add one to my
channel some day.
6.
Do some chores
Do me a quick favor and just take a look around your house or bedroom and tell me what you
see.
If your house is anything like my friend= derricks,
it’s probably a disaster.
S o here’s what you can do… start cleaning and arranging your house.
I know doing chores can be one of the most boring tasks in the
world, believe me I know!
But walking back home to a clean neat house after the end of a hard day’s
work is definitely worth it.
To make the task more appealing, switch on some good music; something you can sing or
dance along to; something that warms up your blood.
Turn up the volume and then fire up the washing machine.
Who said only characters in movies get to dance when cleaning their houses?
Before you know it, you will have gotten your chores out of the way, and you will probably
be feeling very exhausted, but also a lot happier and
hopefully you'll have a sense of accomplishment.
7.
Develop a hobby or skill
There is a high probability that the reason you are bored is that you are uninspired to
do anything, or you simply have nothing to do.
You can easily deal with both issues simply by developing a new skill or a
new hobby.
So let’s get back to my friend Derrick, when derrick was a lot younger, he had always
wanted to learn how to play the guitar.
It was one of those things, that he would tell himself that he would start working
on, but never actually got around to ever doing it, and he would always blame the lack
of time for not ever getting started.
Unfortunately a lot of us suffer from this form of procrastination and derrick is no
exception.
But fortunately for him he now has some time on his hands.
If you have nothing to do, and are hence, bored, you should think about developing a
new skill or finding a new hobby.
Hobbies include cycling, making new friends, and traveling, among others.
You can use them to get out of your comfort zone and challenge
yourself some more.
For example, bungee jumping is a pretty crazy hobby, and doing it could
give you the courage to finally start that company you keep
talking about.
Other productive things you can do are…
8.
Take a class
Why not learn something new, a new language, try out a new cooking recipe, take an online
course or just about anything… there are tons and
tons of new skills you can add to your arsenal, and best of all
you don’t have to pay to learn most of them.
For example I learned how to animate by watching videos
here on YouTube.
And in a few weeks I will be taking a personal finance course, which means I should have
some great new content for you guys!
9.
Plan your year and mark important dates.
Perhaps you got a couple birthdays and weddings you should probably mark on your calendar.
And finally last but not least.
Clear your damn web history!
I mean some of the things you guys are browsing online, my word!
I'm just kidding guys, I know the practical wisdom
community are innocent folks.
At least I hope so.
Ok so finally, perhaps try getting a job, if you don’t already have one.
Thank you guys so much for watching!
I hope you have enjoyed this video.
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below and tell me what you
think, I’d love to hear your thoughts, and also why not
comment below some other creative ways you guys spend your time.
With that said, thank you so much and I will see you all in the next one.
Cheers.