Brief Summary
This video provides 101 ideas to avoid mindless internet scrolling and spend time more productively. It covers improving your scrolling habits, creative activities, learning and exploration, physical activities, social interactions, organisation and planning, journaling, and games.
- Improve scrolling habits with time limits and focused content.
- Engage in creative activities like crafting, writing, and cooking.
- Explore learning new skills, languages, and places.
- Stay active with stretching, running, and outdoor activities.
- Connect with friends and family through calls and games.
- Organise your space and plan for the future.
- Reflect through journaling and goal setting.
- Enjoy games and puzzles for entertainment.
To make scrolling less of a time sink, set strict time limits using built-in phone features. Focus on specific accounts you enjoy. Limit scrolling to when you're walking or standing to be more aware of the time passing. Declutter your feed by unfollowing accounts that don't add value. Leave thoughtful comments instead of generic ones. Consider using Pinterest as a more relaxing alternative to other social media. Block or indicate "not interested" on content you dislike to refine your algorithm. Turn off endless scrolling if the platform allows it. Regularly check your screen time to stay accountable and disable notifications to prevent unwanted distractions.
Get creative by making trendy beaded necklaces, crocheting a simple project like a hat or scarf, or writing a poem or song lyrics. Write a decorated letter to a pen pal. Paint decorations for your room, even with beginner-friendly techniques. Experiment with making fancy tea or coffee drinks. Bake cookies, cake, or pastries. Organise a photoshoot with friends, seeking inspiration from Instagram or Pinterest. Customise your backpack with embroidery. Craft friendship bracelets or try origami, creating garlands for room decor. Write a song, perhaps using lyrics from a poem. Knit a scarf or another rectangular item as a beginner project. Tie-dye a t-shirt using online tutorials. Create eclectic jewellery dishes from air-dry clay. Cook a meal for yourself to practice cooking skills. Print out posters to decorate your walls, finding high-resolution images on Google by filtering by size. Make paper garlands using a Cricut machine or simpler shapes. Experiment with new outfit combinations and document your favourite looks. Consider temporarily colouring your hair for a dramatic change.
Watch a documentary, such as "My Octopus Teacher" on Netflix. Use a language learning app to start or continue learning a new language. Join a free online course from top universities by searching for MOOCs. Visit the library to find a book to read, whether fiction or non-fiction, or download ebooks from your local library using the Libby app. Read a news article or a magazine. Explore Wikipedia rabbit holes for mildly educational scrolling. Watch a YouTube tutorial for a new skill, like plumbing, or find a new recipe to try online or in cookbooks. Take virtual museum tours to explore digital collections from museums worldwide. Go thrifting in person or online using apps like ThredUp for a sustainable way to update your wardrobe. Try a new restaurant in your area and order takeout. Explore the world using Google Street View. Research and plan a dream trip for the future. Try something new at Starbucks. Research your home city as if you were a tourist and visit interesting local spots. Organise saved posts about local places and food in Google My Maps.
Do some stretching for a gentle and beneficial activity. Go swimming, running, or jogging at an easy pace. Learn a TikTok dance. Do a plank for as long as you can manage. Follow a yoga or workout video on YouTube. Go for a bike ride for low-impact cardio and sightseeing. Go for a hike, even if it's just a hillier route in your neighbourhood or a local park. Learn how to do a handstand, taking precautions to avoid injury.
Talk to an old friend or make a new one. Leave a thoughtful comment on a friend's social media or reply to their story to start a conversation. Reach out to someone new. Talk to a family member or chosen family member. Have a FaceTime call with someone. Play a group game with friends, such as Skribbl.io or Town of Salem. Compliment a stranger, either in person or online. Wish someone happy birthday, sending cool gifts or GIFs with a virtual birthday card.
Colour-code your Google Calendar for better organisation. Try Notion for digital planning. Sort through your backpack, especially after the school year, and get rid of old papers. Declutter a part of your room, reading Marie Kondo's "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" beforehand. Declutter your digital space by deleting unneeded files from your laptop, especially in the downloads folder and desktop. Clean out your photo library of duplicate photos and unnecessary screenshots. Start a bullet journal. Delete unused apps from your phone to free up storage space and improve performance. Deep clean your room to remove clutter. Clean out your email inbox by deleting and archiving messages.
Journaling is a great way to have a conversation with yourself and document your thoughts. Consider these prompts: list 10 things you want in your future, create a vision board to visually represent your goals, write about what you did today including pictures and mementos, check in with your current thoughts and feelings, write about your regrets, write affirmations (positive statements to repeat), write down your goals for the next month, year, five years, decade, and your entire life, think about what happiness means to you, write a letter to your future self, or write a letter to your past self.
Play frisbee, which is easy to learn. Spikeball is also fun but requires equipment. Play card games like BS (use Google to find instructions). Play board games like The Resistance or Scrabble. Skribbl.io is a fun online game to play with friends. Play an instrument if you know how or want to learn, using free online tutorials. Do crossword puzzles. Do regular puzzles, which can be mounted on your walls afterwards. Use adult colouring books.
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0:00 the internet provides an eternity of content to mindlessly scroll through but you don't have to let it suck away all your time and energy and attention if you want to do something else with your time here are 101 ideas of course if you're gonna scroll let's try a couple of better ways to do that set yourself a time limit that you'll actually stick to i like to use apple's built-in time limits only look at a particular account that you know you like and you feel good scrolling through only scroll when you're walking or standing because then you become very aware of time passing declutter your following feed leave thoughtful comments instead of just likes or very generic comments that you don't actually really think about go on pinterest at least for me i find
0:46 it a lot more relaxing than every other social media platform block or click not interested on anything you don't really like fine tune that algorithm for yourself turn off endless scroll i know it's not an option on every platform but if it is turn it off check your screen time it's good to be aware and to hold yourself accountable turn off notifications because then you can't get reminded to check things when you never really wanted to in the first place you can make those trendy beaded necklaces that i see everywhere by just buying beads at michaels and stringing them together crochet something if you've never done it before i think a hat or a scarf or some other rectangular
1:31 thing can be a fairly easy beginner project write a poem or song lyrics or anything just write something fun also you could write a letter to a pen pal and put some effort into decorating things nicely paint some decorations for your room even if you're not very good at painting there are a lot of beginner options for slapping paint onto a canvas try making a fancy tea or coffee drink or some other sort of beverage whatever you like to drink consider baking something cookies cake pastry whatever you're capable of do a photo shoot with your friends i recommend checking out instagram or pinterest for some inspiration embroider your backpack i think i did a video about this if you'd like a kinda sorta tutorial
2:17 make friendship bracelets maybe try origami you can make a garland of origami things to decorate your room or just learn how to fold paper write a song maybe you can use the lyrics from that poem you finished earlier or maybe if you know how to play an instrument you can play that and write a song knit a scarf or any other project you like i just think a scarf or any other sort of rectangular thing is the easiest thing for a beginner to work on tie dye a t-shirt there are a lot of great tutorials online and you can do a lot with any old white t-shirts you have sitting around i've seen a lot of cool eclectic looking jewelry dishes going around and you can try making one of your own using air dry clay cook yourself a meal maybe you're already a master chef or
3:03 maybe like me you want to learn how to cook either way it's good to get some practice in and have something nice to eat at the end of it print out some posters to decorate your walls pro tip you can find higher resolution images on google by going to the search tools option and then filtering by size you can also make paper garlands to decorate your room i made these with cutouts from a cricut machine but you can also cut out simpler shapes to make a still very cool looking garland string try putting together new outfits if you're not going out it's a great time to experiment and document your favorite looks for later and the most dramatic you could try coloring your hair go with temporary or semi-permanent just in case you don't like it though [Music]
3:52 watch a documentary if you need a recommendation one i recently watched on netflix was my octopus teacher use a language learning app to start or continue learning the language of your choice they're great because they come with so many structured lessons join an online course if you search up m-o-o-c you can find free online courses and lectures from top universities and professors go to the library find a nice book to read it doesn't have to be non-fiction it doesn't have to be that educational but reading is fun if you don't want to go to the library in person you can download books on the libby app which allows you to borrow ebooks from your local library maybe read a news article it still allows you to scroll on your phone too or maybe read a magazine one of my
4:37 favorite things to scroll through that's mildly more educational than instagram is just going down a wikipedia rabbit hole watch a youtube tutorial for a new skill whatever you feel like would benefit your life at the moment like plumbing or something i don't know and you can search through the internet or cookbooks to find a new recipe to try [Music] virtual museum tours are a great option a lot of museums made digital collections after covered hit and you can still explore museums around the world just on the internet you can go thrifting as a more sustainable way to add to your wardrobe in person or online the app i'm using here is thredup go to a restaurant in your local area that you've never been to and get takeout if that's necessary for your
5:23 safety you can also explore the world in google street view check out the streets of europe from the comfort of your home all that stuff and in more fantasizing about places we do not get to go you could research and plan a dream trip for your future bringing it more local try something new at starbucks and staying home research your home city as if you were a tourist i know i spent my whole life under appreciating my home city but it's actually not that boring and if you can go to one of those cool places that you find during your research i don't know about you but i'm constantly saving posts about places to go and things to eat near me so i like to organize all this stuff in google my maps take a walk around your neighborhood if you can and it's not too unfriendly to pedestrians i know the u.s
6:10 kind of sucks with walkability [Music] do some stretching it's not too strenuous and it is good for you you could go swimming go for a run or jog it doesn't have to be really fast take it easy maybe learn a tick tock dance i look incredibly dorky doing this because i do not know how to dance do a plank for about a minute or however long you can survive it for i know it's not the funnest of times if you're on your phone already maybe open youtube and do a yoga video or you can do some other sort of workout video go out for a bike ride another more low impact way to get your cardio in and see the sights in your area or you
6:56 can go out to hike even if you don't have nice trails near you maybe you could just find a bit of a hillier route through your neighborhood or to a local park learn how to do a handstand please don't break your neck while doing this i am not liable for anything you try [Music] talk to an old friend talk to a new friend leave a thoughtful comment on the social media of one of your friends leave a thoughtful reply to a story to start a conversation that way reach out to someone new just say hi promise won't be that awkward talk to a family member or someone who is part of your chosen family facetime call someone play a group game with your friends maybe scribblio or town of salem compliment a stranger on the street or online whatever floats
7:44 your boat wish someone happy birthday i recommend sending some cool gifts or gifs to go along with it for that virtual birthday card [Music] color code your google calendar it is so satisfying and genuinely helpful for keeping track of everything try notion for digital planning and organizing it's what i've been using since quitting bullet journaling sort everything that's in your backpack especially if you just finished a school year there's a lot of old papers in there that you can get rid of declutter some part of your room i recommend reading marie kondo's life changing magic of tidying up book as well before you do that to declutter your digital space you can delete
8:29 unneeded files from your laptop the download folder and desktop are two main areas to scope out clean out your photo library of duplicate photos or like random pictures and screenshots that you don't need anymore start a bullet journal i don't use one anymore but i still think it's a great method that works very well for many people delete apps that you don't use off of your phone because they're just wasting storage space and slowing down your phone deep clean your room that depression coating of random junk it needs to go away and clean out your email inbox get rid of those 10 000 unread messages by deleting and archiving them as needed journaling is also very great fun because the way to have a conversation with yourself
9:15 and document it here are a couple prompts 10 things that you want in your future they don't have to be physical things they can be like concepts like i want to be happy make a vision board a kind of visual representation of the things that you want in your future write about what you did today and you can include some pictures and mementos and other things to help you document the happenings of your life check in with your current thoughts and feelings this is something i've been working on i'm not very good at it so it's all right if you find this hard write about your regrets from yesterday from three months ago from your entire lifetime whatever you want write some affirmations this means positive statements that you want to repeat over and over to yourself until you maybe finally actually believe them
10:00 write down your goals for the next month year five years decade your entire life think about what does happiness mean to you write a letter to your future self any point in the future you like 5 10 50 million years or write a letter to your past self [Music] to play frisbee i find it to be the easiest group game sport to get a handle on spike ball is also great fun it's just a little more complicated because you have to buy that spike ball net equipment i love card games if you want a fun one to play with your friends that's also relatively easy to learn i recommend bs which stands for um actually i can't
10:46 say that word without getting demonetized but you can google it for instructions like an old person i also like board games the resistance is a fun one scrabble is a little less fun scribbly out very fun to play with friends especially if you can't see them in person play an instrument if you know how or you want to learn how most common instruments have tutorials and lessons for free on the internet crossword puzzles are also very great fun to play by yourself except when you get to like the last clue and you have no idea what it means and you have to google it regular puzzles are also great especially because you get a fun artwork thing that you can like mount on your walls at the end of it and coloring pages not just the ones for kids there are those like specifically for adults coloring books
11:32 and last but not least you can watch a couple more of my videos no i'm kidding if that's mindless scrolling for you you don't need to continue i hope you found this video helpful and if you have other ideas feel free to share them with other people in the comments down below i upload new videos about student life every week and you can visit my instagram my tic toc and my second channel for some sometimes studying related content see you next time
