Bored button: something to do without your phone

When you are bored your hand goes to the phone by itself, and half an hour later you are just as bored. Try the other way: tap the button and do whatever comes up. One idea, something real, now.

A bored button that does not lead to another screen

Most bored buttons send you to a random website, so you end up scrolling again. This one gives you something to do away from the screen: press it, read the idea, put the phone down. Not for you? Press again.

Why scrolling does not cure boredom

Scrolling covers boredom for a while but does not end it: it is stimulation without effort, and when you close the app the boredom comes back, often with a bit of fatigue. What tends to work is doing something with your hands or your body, however small: cooking, walking, tidying, drawing, calling someone.

Boredom is not bad. It is the signal that you want something else. The idea is to answer it with something real instead of another screen.

Then: Off mode

If you got something you like, tap “Do it phone-free”. atitb opens Off mode: put your phone face down and it counts the time nobody touches it. No account, nothing to install.

All the ideas (101)

10-minute ideas

• Make a proper cup of tea or coffee and drink it at the window. Nothing else. (home)
• Stretch on the floor: neck, back, legs. Ten slow minutes. (home)
• Clear one drawer. Just one. (home)
• Write three lines about today on paper. Nobody will read them. (home)
• Water the plants and wipe the dust off their leaves. (home)
• Do 50 squats, spread however you like. (home)
• Sketch the nearest object. Badly is fine. (home)
• Write a postcard or a short note to someone and leave it where they will find it. (home)
• Sit with your eyes closed and count ten slow breaths. Then ten more. (home)
• Sew on that button that has been missing for months. (home)
• Make your bed like in a hotel. (home)
• Peel and eat an orange slowly, piece by piece. (home)
• Fold a paper plane and find out how far it flies down the hall. (home)
• Read one poem out loud. (home)
• Call someone just to chat. No reason needed. (home)
• Shine your shoes. (home)
• Learn to juggle with three rolled-up socks. (home)
• Write tomorrow’s to-do list on paper, then stop thinking about it. (home)
• Sit on the balcony or by an open window and just listen for a while. (home)
• Walk round the block without earbuds. (outside)
• Go and buy bread at the bakery, not the supermarket. (outside)
• Find a bench and watch people go by. (outside)
• Take the stairs to the roof or the highest floor you can reach and look out. (outside)
• Count how many kinds of tree there are on your street. (outside)
• Walk to the nearest corner shop and say more than "hello" to whoever is there. (outside)
• Sit in the sun for ten minutes with your eyes closed. (outside)
• Walk in a direction you never take, for five minutes, and come back. (outside)
• Plan next weekend on paper: one place to go, one person to see. (home)

Half-hour ideas

• Put on one whole album side and lie on the floor listening. (home)
• Cook something you have never made, with what is in the fridge. (home)
• Read 30 pages of a paper book. (home)
• Play cards or a board game. Solitaire counts. (home)
• Write a real letter by hand and post it tomorrow. (home)
• Rearrange one room. Move one big thing. (home)
• Go through your clothes and set aside a bag to give away. (home)
• A 30-minute workout on the floor: push-ups, plank, squats, rest, repeat. (home)
• Learn three chords on a guitar, ukulele or keyboard, if there is one at home. (home)
• Draw your room, or the view from the window, in pencil. (home)
• Write down everything you remember about a place you lived as a child. (home)
• Fix something broken: a wobbly chair, a dripping tap, a loose handle. (home)
• Make a proper sandwich, take it to the table and eat it with no screen in sight. (home)
• Do yoga or a long stretch on the floor. (home)
• Have a bath with a book. (home)
• Clean the kitchen properly, music on. (home)
• Learn to tie three useful knots with a shoelace. (home)
• Sort old printed photos, or a box of things you kept. (home)
• Do a crossword or sudoku from a paper or a book. (home)
• Make lemonade or iced tea from scratch. (home)
• Plant something: a herb, a seed, an avocado stone in a glass of water. (home)
• Have a proper conversation with whoever is at home. Ask them something you never asked. (home)
• Write a short story of exactly one page. (home)
• Try origami: a crane, a box, a frog. (home)
• Mend or customise a piece of clothing. (home)
• Make a list of ten things you want to do this year, on paper, and stick it on the fridge. (home)
• Iron the shirts. With the radio on it is almost pleasant. (home)
• Play chess or draughts with someone, or against yourself. (home)
• A 30-minute walk with no destination and no earbuds. (outside)
• Go for a run, however slow. (outside)
• Go to the park and read on a bench. (outside)
• Walk to a café, order, and sit there without taking out your phone. (outside)
• Go to the market and buy one fruit or vegetable you have never tried. (outside)
• Visit a bookshop or a library and leaf through whatever catches your eye. (outside)
• Go and watch the sunset somewhere you can see the sky. (outside)
• Ride a bike around the neighbourhood. (outside)
• Pick up litter on your street or at the nearest beach or park. (outside)
• Go to a church, museum or old building you always walk past and go in. (outside)
• Walk to the nearest water: sea, river, fountain, pond. Sit by it. (outside)
• Kick a ball or throw a frisbee in the park. (outside)
• Go and sit in a busy square for half an hour. Notice three things you never noticed. (outside)
• Walk your dog the long way. No dog? Offer to walk a neighbour’s. (outside)
• Learn a card trick and show it to someone tonight. (home)

An hour or more

• Bake something simple: banana bread, cookies, a sponge. (home)
• Do a jigsaw, or start one and leave it on the table. (home)
• Take a sketchbook to a square and draw a building. (outside)
• Take the bus or tram to the end of the line and come back. (outside)
• Go to the gym and leave the phone in the locker. (outside)
• Go for a swim. (outside)
• Walk to a viewpoint or the highest street around and look at the city. (outside)
• Go to a second-hand shop or flea market and just look. (outside)
• Invite someone over and cook together. (home)
• A long walk somewhere green: a park, a trail, the edge of town. (outside)
• Go to a free museum or an exhibition. (outside)
• Go to a cinema. The phone stays off for two hours by itself. (outside)
• Take a picnic to the park or the beach. (outside)
• Find a free class nearby: dance, yoga in the park, a language exchange. (outside)
• Go to a local match, a concert in a square, anything live. (outside)
• Spend an hour on a hobby you dropped: drawing, an instrument, knitting, a model. (home)
• Volunteer for an hour: a food bank, an animal shelter, a neighbour who needs a hand. (outside)
• Go and visit a relative or an old friend without warning (or with a quick call first). (outside)
• Cook a big pot of something and take some to a neighbour. (home)
• Read a whole short novel in one sitting. (home)
• Go on a photo walk with a real camera, or no camera: just look. (outside)
• Hike to somewhere you can only reach on foot. (outside)
• Have friends over and play "la pila": all phones stacked on the table, the first to grab theirs buys the next round. (outside)
• Go to the beach or the pool with a book and no phone. (outside)
• Bake bread from scratch. It takes hours, but most of it is waiting. (home)
• Go to a café alone with a notebook and write about anything. (outside)
• Walk to a neighbourhood you do not know and get a little lost. (outside)
• Make a meal from another country you have never cooked. (home)
• Clean and tidy the whole flat with music on, then sit in it. (home)
• Go to bed an hour early with a book and the phone in another room. (home)

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