Even Steve Jobs was a fan of boredom. He believed that boredom allowed room for creativity. We all know how that turned out.
So, why don’t you take a page out of the latest from mind science and celebrate the doldrums of inactivity? You can do a lot of random things on the internet, but here are the best sites to visit if you need to kill some time.
1. The Secret Door
It won’t open into a dark nook at Hogwarts, but it can take you to equally unexpected places around the world. The idea is simple — open the secret door and let Google’s Street View transport you to an interesting place on the globe.
Think of it as a portal for virtual globetrotting. And if you don’t like it, just click the Take Me Somewhere Else button. It definitely ranks as one of the more fun ways to use Google Maps and Street View.
2. Museum of Endangered Sounds
Want a dose of serious nostalgia? Maybe, the sound of a dial-up modem will do it for you or the dial of a rotary phone. The Museum of Nostalgia will send you back in time. The single-person effort from Brendan Chilcutt aims to preserve the signature sounds of old technologies.
3. I Need A Prompt
This neat website will cure your boredom with a thunderbolt of inspiration. Maybe, just a gentle prod if you aren’t a writer. But if you are a person of the pen then try the creative writing prompts on the site that will make you think about unfamiliar situations. The online tool is also an Amazon Alexa skill now.
4. NSA Haiku Generator
You wouldn’t combine the NSA and poetry even within a few words of each other. But this automatic haiku generator manages to pull it off. So, go ahead and stoke your wildest imagination with weird mashups of wonderful syllables.
The source of the random words is the NSA’s database of search terms it uses to red flag terrorist threats.
5. Sketch Something Daily
Creativity is the magic pill to zap boredom. Sketch Something Daily is the antidote to your artistic mental blocks. So, pick up a pencil, pen, or even a paintbrush to take on a daily sketch challenge with the help of the illustrations here.
Try it as a daily habit and stifle the yawns as you interest yourself enough to learn the basics of drawing with the help of other sites on the web.
6. One Tiny Hand
Apply a Photoshop trick to one part of the human anatomy and you have a viral hit. One Tiny Hand gazes at only one thing and make you laugh at the images of celebrities with one hand reduced in size.
Surprisingly, the Tumblr blog started with Beyoncé Knowles and not the two head of states who are parodied often.
7. 2 Kinds of People
Another humorous Tumblr blog. Another dosage of laughter. The simple illustrations show that there are only two kinds of people in the world. Those that have a sense of humor and the rest who don’t.
If you fall in the former, then you will have cured your boredom. If not, read on.
8. Stinkmoji
Switch on your speakers. Turn on your webcam. And make a face at your computer. Stinkmoji is a face recognition experience that uses a 3D emoji to mimic the faces you make at the camera. It even includes an Easter egg when you open your mouth wide enough.
Oh, just make sure it’s not on your list of timewaster websites when you are in the office.
9. Gross Science
YouTube alone can take care of your lifelong boredom. So, I am cheating by mentioning the Gross Science channel. But, I couldn’t help myself as I got pulled in by all the bizarre but scientific videos here.
So, find out about clothes made of slime. Or, why your pee can change the world. As I said, I couldn’t help myself.
10. Innovation Station
While we are on the subject of science and videos, could I also mention Innovation Station? This website alone could give you enough energy to ward off boredom. It showcases the latest videos on innovation and futuristic technologies.
It is a wonderful learning platform. As their charter says, “We aim to inspire and educate by putting innovations and innovators in the spotlight.”
11. Weird or Confusing
Wonder how unicorn meat tastes. This site will make you wonder about things like that. Press the button and it will beam you into the crazy aisles of eBay and its shopping universe where everything can be sold.
Well, it’s not all useless. That inflatable unicorn horn for cats sounds like a better deal than unicorn meat. Just hope it’s not a new eBay scam.
12. frankenSim
The web toy is a wonderful simulation project by a London based animation studio. Here, you get to play “God” or Victor Frankenstein. The interactive may sound grotesque but it interesting as you manipulate the different organs and see what results.
In short, the developers say that this is a musing on how Frankenstein might have experimented with modern web tools.
13. The Symphony of Blockchain
Visuals can help you understand even the most complex of technologies. Blockchain and cryptocurrency are all the rage now. The Symphony of Blockchain takes you on an interactive, visual and auditory exploration of what it’s all about.
It’s wonderfully hypnotic as the 3D Bitcoin blocks move and expand against the background of music. Click on each block and it opens to give you more information.
14. The Passive Aggressive Password Machine
Let’s not underrate the value of a strong password in keeping the world safe. The PaP Machine is a neat little side project that can bring you out of your boredom fairly quickly with its funny and honest feedback on the strength of your passwords.
15. Arbitrary Awards
Did you know that most awards are paid for? Well, if you didn’t then that’s what this site tells you. The developers here made their own awards and gave you a platform to gift yourself one with the many choices available.
You deserve an award if you have scrolled so far down the page. And, if we managed to cure your boredom then we deserve one too. Just a nice word in the comments will do for now.
The Cure for Boredom Is Curiosity
We cycle back to what dreamers and achievers believe in. And to add an official stamp of approval to it, let me tell you about the Boredom Conference held every year. Yes, it is a scientific conference with a scholarly purpose.
So, don’t try your best to zap your boredom. Use it creatively and who knows you just might light up a new motivation.
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