Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

Many people struggle with spending free time productively. They often waste time on pleasurable activities of instant gratification that, although feel good in the moment, lead to failure and regret later in life.

How do you rest from work productively and do valuable things when you’re bored?

In this article, I want to suggest you 20 amazing activities that will help you deal with boredom, kill procrastination, keep yourself entertained, and achieve more progress in life simultanesously. Let’s get started with finding out how people often waste their time, and what are the consequences of this.

How NOT To Spend Free Time

People often think that free time is the period of the day when you can “recharge and have fun”, and then recharge by doing overstimulating activities that don’t give the mind any actual rest.

Scrolling on TikTok, watching Netflix shows, browsing YouTube, playing videogames, and watching porn are examples of unproductive habits that will ruin your life later. Why?

Even though they kind of feel good to do in the moment, they don’t have any value aside from pleasure. You merely stimulate your mind and bombard it with new information that is often of low quality and filled with edits to mess with your dopamine.

Be honest: you want to earn more money, get a good girlfriend, get into good physical shape, or learn a new hobby? You want these things, right?

Well, to achieve these goals you’ll have to make some sacrifices, and switch to doing hobbies that, even though seem boring at first, become fun and valuable once you take a step back from digital overstimulation you’ve experienced before. Here is the list of 20 activities that will help you stop scrolling, achieve more progress, and nurture your soul.

How to Spend Free Time Productively

There are many things you can do in leisure time aside from scrolling. In my opinion, the best one is learning a certain skill, and starting an online business based upon it.

1: Learn a New Skill

Everyone wants to make more money, but only the 5% are willing to do what it takes to increase income and achieve financial freedom. To be one of the 5%, start by learning a certain skill, like copywriting, content writing, SEO, and speaking in front of the camera. Learn basics, actionable strategies, and practice them on a daily basis.

Once you’ve mastered the skill to a good degree and are ready to provide value to those who want it, start an online business and show your work to the world. You will achieve fulfillment, start loving work, get a new great hobby, and if you work hard enough, obtain freedom.

2: Meditate to Spend Free Time

Another great habit you can do to spend free time better is meditation. Unlike mindless scrolling and trying to pick a new show to watch, it actually allows your mind to rest, process new information, and focus better.

Aside from these benefits, meditation will eliminate anxiety, help deal with depression, and make you in touch with the spiritual side of you. Try it out by reading the guide I’ve linked above.

3: Read Good Books

Reading a book is one of the best ways to invest in yourself and acquire new knowledge. YouTube videos about self-improvement can be good, but true wisdom is in the manuscripts written by authors who researched their topics for decades. Reading also stimulates your mind in a healthy way by developing imagination and text interpretation.

Read classic literature, history, business, psychology, and other books in different genres that might interest you. You will expand your knowledge and use it to your advantage.

4: Do Resistance Training

Everyone wants to have an amazing physique that attracts the opposite sex, but only a few are willing to put in the necessary work. Start resistance training that will build muscle, such as weighlifting or calisthenics.

Create a training routine, target different muscle groups, and use Pareto principle to do the best exercises, eat best meals, and make exceptional gains.

5: Practice Team Sports

Team sports don’t build muscle like resistance training does, but it certainly increases your physical activity. The more you more your body, the healthier it will be.

Join a sports team, or practice casual football, volleyball, basketball, and other types of team sports. You will build great friendships with like-minded men, stay active, boost your confidence, and acquire respect.

6: Play Pool Games

Pool games, such as 8 ball, are a great way of spending free time and building friendships. I’m speaking from experience: this game improves your muscle memory, movement coordination, concentration, and strategic planning.

You can play pool games in local billiards clubs, bars, and special time cafes. If you have enough money, you can buy your own billiards table and invite friends over to your house.

7: Spend Free Time by Journaling

Whenever you have tons of thoughts rushing into the brain, journal. It will help you soothe anxious thoughts, make important decision, learn more about yourself, your habits, past, and what personality you have in general.

Start journaling by buying an inexpensive notebook and grabbing a pen. Spend 10-20 minutes a day writing about yourself, your experiences, and thinking about your life.

8: Take Cold Showers

If you struggle with discipline and victim mentality, cold showers are a great way of combatting these issues. They also help you increase testosterone, increase blood, flow, energy levels, and make your skin glow.

Hop into cold showers early in the day, specifically in the morning. Stand under flow of freezing water for at least 30 seconds every day. You’ll love it.

9: Start Budgeting

Tons of people have too little money, because they spend way more than they should. Start spending free time on budgetting, for it will help you improve discipline, track expenses, cut unnecessary spendings, and achieve financial freedom.

Start budgeting by buying a little notebook, grabbing a pen, and writing down all the things you spend your money on. If you notice that you spend too much money on useless stuff, stop buying it, and sell it on a marketplace.

10: Plan Your Future

Most people fail in life, because they have no direction, no plans to follow. They simply allow life to throw them around and take them to situations they don’t want to be in. If you don’t want to be average, plan your future 1, 5, 10, 20 years from now.

Of course, you can’t predict everything. But you need to know where you’re heading, what goals you need to achieve, how you’ll get there, and how you’ll fix your past mistakes. Achieve that through regular introspection in a quiet room without technology.

11: Do Gratitude Journaling

You see people constantly whine and complain online about governments, politics, prices, their own families, and how they’re supposedly oppressed. Stop complaining, don’t be like them.

Start gratitude journaling by writing down 3-5 things you’re grateful for, like health, or family, every morning and evening. You will become significantly happier by adopting this habit.

12: Spend Free Time by Knitting

Now I know what you’re thinking: I’m a man, isn’t knitting a female thing? And my answer is no. Anyone can do knitting, and it has signficant benefits for you, such as mental clarity, experiencing flow state more often, and ability to make good gifts for your friends.

Start knitting by buying a special set of tools, practice basic techniques, dedicate time to slowly get better at this hobby, and you’ll develop a creative hobby that will keep you busy in free time.

13: Play Board Games

If you have done all your work for the day and want to spend time on nurtruring relationships, board games are an amazing way of doing so. They will improve your memory, improvisation skills, and erudition.

Buy a few board games, even as simple as UNO or Mafia, and learn how to get good at them.

14: Cook Your Own Food

Did you know that women love a man that can cook well? Yes, it’s true, and science backs it up. aside from this, knowing how to cook will help you make great gains in fitness and be healthier.

Spend your free time by learning how to cook your own food, following recipes online, and using the best quality ingredients. It is a habit that has great ROI and brings enjoyment.

15: Explore Your Neighborhood

Men need a sense of adventurousness. They need to explore their surroundings, new territories, feed their curiosity. Don’t be like modern guys who sit at home and scroll all day long.

Go out to nature and explose places you haven’t visited before. You’ll naturally feel happier because of discovering the unknown, and get closer to unlocking your masculine potential.

16: Spend Free Time by Drawing

Drawing is a great hobby that can help you express yourself, your ideas, and potentially become an artist whose work is admired by thousands of people worldwide.

It is also extremely cheap. All you need to start drawing and expressing your inner world is a pencil and a sheet of paper. Draw for 10-20 minutes daily, or if you like it, spend an hour of free time daily on this activity.

17: Play Sudoku

Mind games and puzzles, such as sudoku, entertain you in healthy way and give you opportunities to create more neural pathways in your brain, which will help you perform and focus better.

Learn how to play sudoku and solve easy puzzles. After you get comfortable, move on to sudoku levels with more blank cells, and try to fill them as quickly as possible. If you don’t want to buy journals and magazines, you can play sudoku for free here.

18: Start Gardening

One of the biggest reasons more and more people experience mental health problems is lack of interaction with nature. We as species became detached from natural environments where our ancestors grew up in, and instead live in cities with tall buildings that block sunlight.

To counter this effect, you can start gardening as a hobby. Buy soil, toolset, and a few plant seeds. Gardening on a regular basis will make you a kinder, more caring individual, which will help you in relationships and business.

19: Spend Free Time by Coding

With the rise of artifical intelligence, more and more people are needed to write quality code and manage AI software. If you want to get a high-paying job or start your own business, you can start by learning coding on high-demand languages like Python, JavaScript, SQL, and C#.

Look up online tutorials, solve simple problems through coding, and slowly build up the skill. After months of consistent training, you’ll be qualified enough to get a job that will help you save up money and start doing work that you enjoy.

20: Start Volunteering

Finally, another great activity you can do to spend free time is volunteering. Many people in third world countries and the city you live in need help from those who are willing to assist.

Sign up to a local volunteering club and actively participate in its activities. Volunteering will make you happier, since the purpose of human life is to help each other live better lives.

Summary

Millions of people suffer from short-form content addiction that distracts them, damages their brain, and limits their potential.

To help you spend free time productively, pick some activities from this list and do them on a regular basis:

• Learn a skill;
• Meditate;
• Read books;
• Do resistance training;
• Practice team sports;
• Play pool games;
• Journal your thoughts;
• Take cold showers;
• Do budgeting;
• Plan your future;
• Do gratitude journaling;
• Knit;
• Play board games;
• Cook your own food;
• Explore your environment;
• Draw;
• Play sudoku and other mind games;
• Start gardening;
• Learn and practice coding;
• Volunteer.

These activities are enough to help you take a step back from degeneracy, unhealthy habits, develop good ones, bring more value to the world, and become a happier person.

Commit yourself to self-improvement, strive to be better every day, and spend free time on little things that will compound over time and bring great success. Good luck on your journey, reader.

If you have any suggestions for future posts, questions about this article or want to leave your opinion about it, feel free to do so in the comments below. See you next time.