How do you spend your idle time?

Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 99 points – 9 months ago

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?

https://pastebin.com/2cHLLhaC

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.

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.

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!

Endlessly screaming in to the void

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 >:(

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I'm almost constantly crafting something. I've been knitting for about 16 years and have picked up various other small/portable crafts along the way. I like to put a podcast on and listen while I keep my hands busy.

dominion.games

Audiobooks

Stream tv on my phone. I used to watch Crunchyroll (anime streaming service) on the train.

How do you disable YouTube shorts?

I'm on android so I used ReVanced, though I recently deleted the YouTube app and installed LibreTube which has no YouTube algorithm and no shorts tab. (I use the IzzyOnDroid repo with F-Droid)

Libretube is fine but it crashed a lot on my phone i'm now using" newpipe xsponsorblock" it took me a long time to import all my subscriptions but it works really great. The only alternative I would considered is freetube for android

There is a critical bug in the F-droid release, but the maintainers seem to have a bit of an internal conflict about publishing the app on F-Droid, the IzzyOnDroid/GitHub release is pretty stable.

Yea i use the izzyondroid repo its fine

Using my Miyoo Mini, or my DS Lite or DSi XL.

IMHO handhelds are truly a gem to be kept, and until streaming gaming (appears to be "the future") is widely available for everyone we are better with the retro gaming community.

Honorable mention to larger handhelds such as the Switch or the Steam Deck...

Purely idle would for me be a walk, meditation or just sit down and just listen to music. When I'm commuting, it would be gaming or quick chess puzzles.

learn something

exercise

stretch

listening to music staring at a wall while blazed out of my mind

gaming

options r endless really (i say while laying in bed doing nothing)

Just what I'm doing right now. Not much else to do.

I listen to gdc talks and other tech related talks. They are pretty informative (with a grain of salt). Bonus point, they make me feel smart because of the reverb and the audience clapping ^^

Gaming, 3d printing, wood working, and whatever project my wife has cooked up for me that week.

And you do all that in a train?

You can do all the conceptual and planning stuff, which is the longest part for me.

Maybe I'm just too fast. What's the benefit being faster than light if you have to life in darkness?

Airline travel tactics, which for me is basically catching up on shows or watching movies. I’m used to starting and stopping a movie 10 times throughout the day and still enjoying it. Gotta have the downloaded though, that’s key.

Basically just anything I can while waiting for time to pass. I can't get deeper into something, because there's not enough time. Usually that ends up being walking back and forth and thinking, having a fake conversation in my head.

like when sitting in the train

I don't consider that idle time, but a fun activity. I often take a train or bus nowhere. That means, as far as I can go and back. Or try to make my commute as long as possible. For example, I found nice connections allowing me to extend my commute from school from just 18km to 133km, and it's only €0.90 more expensive.

I listen to music and have imaginary concerts sometimes. Now if I could only have a good voice and be multilingual...

Listen to music. It’s something you can enjoy without using your eyes, so you can rest them especially if you work in front of a screen all day.

Depends on how much idle time there is.
For short periods I spend my time just staring in the distance and letting my thoughts wander.
Commuting is spend either reading or here online. Maybe a Youtube video once in a while for diversity.
For lunch breaks and other spare moments I have a small sketchbook where I like to draw whatever comes to mind.

Read some blogs, program, learn some math, play a ctf, play quake 3, browse lemmy etc

Knitting and crocheting. "Yarning" is seriously the best hobby.

Research, Two Minute Papers (YT), Programming, Music

For long drives/commutes I love listening to podcasts, banter/discussion-heavy streams, or audio books. Also love a bit of karaoke in the car.

If I'm at home, I'd often get into something for bit. Maybe try a new game for a week or two before I grow bored or maybe try out a niche hobby for a while like figurine painting.

I'm not the type to do much productive things at home so my main hobbies are usually outside. Golf, kendo, gym, bouldering - anything that I can sink time into and gradually get better and meet new people is my jam. I also spend the idle time at work or at home learning or researching more on the hobbies I enjoy.

I'd recommend giving audio books a try. There's so much to choose from and you can find whatever book to match your mood at the time.