Are you left alone? No fear! You don't need someone to help you occupy your time. Here are some easy, cheap and fun ways to spend time alone without getting bored.
Steps
Step 1. Take photos
Go out for a walk and take pictures of the scenes that strike you, with your camera or mobile phone. Look for quirky looking people, unusual murals, animals, anything that catches your eye. Take several close-up photos of the most interesting subjects you find, as if it were an art project.
- When you get home, you can assign captions to your photos and then print them, or give them catchy titles and post them on the internet.
- Make up a story that connects all the photos together and write it down.
Step 2. Make a collage
Cut out old magazines and then glue heads to the wrong bodies or match facial features from different people, and maybe draw a comic-style speech bubble for them to say a few witty lines.
- Prepare a few hundred, well glued on high quality cardboard.
- Hang them on the living room walls and then dress elegantly.
- Sipping sparkling water from a goblet, look at them very, very seriously.
- You say something like, "This definitely looks like post-modern art" or "This is a Kandinsky, it seems to me."
Step 3. Go to the library
Do you think this is boring? Think about it better. Basically it's a bit like shopping in a place where they let you steal. Go check out books, movies, comics and music, for FREE! How can you not like it?
Alternatively, take that book off the shelf that you always wanted to read but always put off. If you have your own personal library at home, take advantage of it
Step 4. Make a 15-minute horror movie, in which you are the protagonist
The lunar base is now abandoned and the last remaining Earth astronaut begins to hear voices. Terrifying rumors. Write down the story in outline and then record with a camera or mobile phone. It does not make sense? And what does it matter! Make sure you adjust the lights for the mood.
It also plays the parts of the other characters, you can modify them on the computer at a later time. Or, to stage other characters, or cut out your mouth from drawn masks and put your own on it to show your lips moving. Or you could use some stuffed toys, or even your brother
Step 5. Write flarf poems and send them to strangers
A flarf is a type of poem made up of quotes that you can take anywhere: from internet advertisements to YouTube videos, but also from magazines and books, cutting them out and then juxtaposing them to compose strange poems.
To compose a non-digital Flarf poem, cut out individual sentences from newspapers or magazines and then randomly glue them together. You can mail them or scan them and email them to friends. Start a Tumblr blog using your poet pseudonym. The internet is the place where you can become famous for your weirdness
Step 6. Make a casual gesture of kindness
You can just sit outside at the bar and compliment the people passing by. Phone someone you admire to tell them how much they mean to you.
Step 7. Write to someone or make some phone calls
Haven't you talked to your grandmother or a childhood friend in a long time? Call. Instead of vegetating in front of the TV or wasting time on video games, reconnect with someone you haven't heard from in a while. Sometimes even just a short phone call can mean a lot in someone's life and make them feel your presence. Ask them how they are, what they have been up to lately, if they have any news.
Alternatively, you could dust off a pen and paper and write an old-fashioned letter. Yes, a real letter with real pen and ink, handwritten in your own handwriting! Draw drawings, tell about your week and your plans and ask the other person how things are going. Even if the recipient lives just across town, a letter or postcard is always a nice thought. Of course, an e-mail is also fine when needed
Step 8. Go for a run
Run, you know? it's that thing one does when they move their legs faster than usual and wear shorts. Some people find it funny, believe us! Maybe you can listen to some music while you run.
Step 9. Do the cleaning
Ok, ok, that's not funny. However, if you are home alone and have to kill time, there is nothing more useful than cleaning and tidying up. In addition, the clean and tidy rooms convey serenity. Set yourself a short-term goal; for example, clean your room in less than 30 minutes or tidy up the house within an hour, and then move as fast as you can to win the challenge and make it more exciting. Maybe put on some wild or loud music to feel like in a super-fast movie.
Step 10. Record an a cappella album
Don't worry, not even Britney Spears can sing! Get on your computer and download a free program to create and edit audio files with a wide range of effects. GarageNabd and Audacity, for example, are widely used free programs. Create a new track and start recording.
- You can make a sound of a cat choking or sing a hymn in a little mouse voice. Then, overlap the recording with other strange sounds, or perhaps simulate the sound of percussion by tapping on the desk with the pencil. You can also create a track where you mimic the police siren.
- Play back your tracks and play with the available effects to make them sound like electric guitars and synthesizers. Use effects like echo and reverb to make a track that appears to be transmitted by aliens. Have fun!
- Give your songs ridiculous names and then have your grandparents listen to them.
Step 11. Dance to different music than you usually listen to
Search YouTube for the most unusual things, from Tibetan choral music to Japanese punk rock, and listen to them. Invent new steps. Explore different types of weird music until you find something you like. Try with:
- Robert Ashley
- John Fahey
- Black Moth Super Rainbow
- Jefre Cantu-Ledesma
- DIIV
- Ghost TV
Step 12. Keep fit
Anyway, exercising isn't fun if someone is there watching you. Do some hoops maybe, or a bit of aerobics, or a few sets of push-ups and sit-ups. In short, keep moving! Feeling good is fun.
Step 13. Make a Vlog and upload it to YouTube
YouTube is the ultimate place to kill boredom. There are a lot of people who do weird things and then post them on YouTube, where others comment on them. Some common themes in Vlogs are:
- Hauls. When you come back from the supermarket, the mall or the bookstore, or wherever you go to stock up on something, when you come back record a video, called "haul", in which you show each item to the camera and describe it, explaining why you bought it.
- What's in my bag? Record yourself rummaging through your purse or wallet and talk about everything you find. Have each item throw you into telling a weird story or talking nonsense.
- How to. Teaches in front of the camera "how to do" certain activities; for example, how to put on makeup or how to play a certain song on the guitar. Teach something the audience wants to learn.
- Reviews. Are you an expert on a certain topic, like shoes, heavy metal or hot sauce music? Choose a product and review it. Test that product in front of the camera, showing viewers an example of how it works, and then rate it as you think it deserves.
Step 14. Troll
All those who troll on the Internet, that is, who participate in discussions on the web with provocative messages to sow discord and irritate other users, did not start other than out of boredom. If you are alone and trying to pass the time, find a discussion group or blog and launch provocations under different identities. Just be careful not to be offensive. Don't hurt anyone's feelings.
Step 15. Talk to strangers
Are your friends busy? Stop pitying yourself and go make new ones! Hang up with someone at the bar or school.
Try to learn something interesting about a person you've never met. Hook up with someone at the bus stop, or the school canteen, and try to make a new friend, at least for a few minutes
Step 16. Join a support group session without saying anything to anyone
Check out the meeting calendar at your local community center, library, or school. Find out where people gather to talk about their problems. Participate by listening carefully, without disturbing, and be polite. You can join these meetings to learn something new about a group of people or a community that you have never considered before. These are generally free and often interesting encounters.
Alternatively, reading meetings, lectures, and church services are all generally free and relatively uncrowded events that you could crash into to learn something new on topics you have never considered before
Step 17. Volunteer
If you are alone and bored, find a productive way to spend your time doing something for others.
- The ENPA, for example, always needs volunteers who spend some time with the animals, take them for walks and give them some attention. If you like animals, devoting yourself to them is certainly not a bad way to spend your free time!
- You can check if the soup kitchen in your city accepts volunteers and do something useful for your community.
- Some cities have shared gardens that often need to be watered. If you have a green thumb, but don't have the space to create your own private garden, take care of publicly owned plants.
Advice
- Listen to fun and uplifting music.
- Don't give up on doing something you think might be fun just because you feel embarrassed. Maybe you're not the type who usually goes to the library, but trying once won't hurt you, will it? After all, there is no one around to make fun of you.
- Just think about having fun and don't worry if your time hasn't been particularly productive.
Warnings
- Don't do anything dangerous, however captivating it may seem. If you really want to hang your new chandelier from the ceiling, wait for a friend to lend you the ladder and don't try to get by by trying to balance on a chair.
- Be cautious and don't give out personal information about yourself to people you don't know.
