How To Yield Farm
December 1, 2023
So your bored and are wondering what you should do. I’m a productivity junkie and I honestly believe you should spend most of your waking hours either improving yourself or working on something. This article will go through everything one should do to be super productive.
Reading
Why Read?
Reading is an awesome tool to keep you from being bored. It sharpens your mind, expands your vocabulary, and can spark some amazing ideas. It’s truly amazing how much you can learn from reading books, especially ones from 50+ years ago. The more you read, the more you know. There are many different books to choose from including: self-development, business, sales, marketing, health, biographies, etc.
Choosing Your Next Read
I also recommend reading fiction in cases where a specific concept is started or talked about. An example would be “Ready Player One”, if your thinking about how the idea of the metaverse started or “1985”, etc.
You also can read books on super specific skills such as Programming in C++, this would teach you how to program using C++. A skill you could then go on and use to build an application or get a job. Also looking on YouTube for books or taking book recommendations from someone you look up to like Elon Musk or Warren Buffett.
Make Reading A Habit
Building habits in general is hard, so I want to preface the following paragraph with that. Making reading a habit isn’t super tough though. My recommendation is that you pick a number of pages to read everyday, regardless of the book you are reading. Setting a goal to read 5-10 pages everyday can drastically change your life, and also build the habit of reading.
Another thing to note here is that you can substitute reading with listening to audiobooks. Audiobooks can be an easier way for people to digest books. Audiobooks can be listened to while doing another activity such as exercising, cooking, or driving. Try also logging your reading, it helps create a small accountability coach for your new habit.
Exercise
Exercise is an awesome way to beat boredom and build yourself at the same time. Working out makes you feel alive and it also helps you feel good on the inside and outside. While you will obviously get tired, it’s probably the best thing you could do on this list.
Exercising keeps your mind and body strong. It also helps release endorphins which make you feel even better! Becoming disciplined about your workout routine or doing it when your bored helps keep you on track. That discipline will soon start to spill into other areas of your life improving you even more!
Finding Your Thing
Exercise doesn’t also have to be hard or burden, it’s a good idea to find what you like or can endure. If you like walking, jogging, running, or even just playing pickup basketball, all of those activities help keep you in shape. Also on the flip side, you can also switch between activities to keep things fresh. So if you spent the last week jogging, maybe try doing yoga or cycling possibly.
Making New Recipes
This one is one of my favorites. Cooking new food is always a great experience and you learn something as well. Adding new recipes to your belt can be a really rewarding experience. Imagine being able to cook food from every country on earth. While your probably not becoming a chef, you can wow your significant other or even your family.
Start Simple
If you’re new to cooking, no worries. Start as simple as possible. There are a ton of recipes on the internet for beginners. There are a lot of one-pot meals, basic baking recipes, even the perfect scrambled egg recipe. The big idea here is to start with something you can keep up with and build your confidence. At this level any mistake you make won’t matter as much.
Expand Your Skillset
Once you have the basics down, you can start trying other things. You could learn how to cut vegetables like a master or make complex sushi recipes. You can also try cooking meals from another country or even making handmade pasta. The options are endless at this point and you just google a few ideas and see what sparks your interest.
Social Events
Another awesome thing about cooking is you can make an event out of it. So if your making sushi tonight, you can invite your friends or loved ones over to share a nice meal. This does many things at once, you are learning, making food for others, bonding with family, and killing your boredom all at the same time.
Starting and Working On A Business
Starting a small business can not only kill boredom, but help you create something that is truly yours. Building something from the ground up and watching it grow is one of the best things you can do in life. It’s not just about the money, but also about learning valuable skills to use in work or life.
Finding Your Business Idea
What are you passionate about? What can you offer that people would pay for? Think of services or products that you already have or that you could build. These things tend to be a lot simpler than you think. I am programmer, so I could do some freelance work which would be me providing a “Service” or sell programming t-shirts which would be a “Product”. So think about what you know and like and come up with an idea.
Start Building
Okay now that you’ve picked an idea, it’s time to start building. The first thing you should do is start by setting some goals that are realistic and not outcome based. So an example would be not setting a goal to sell 1,000 programming t-shirts, but setting a goal of knocking on 10,000 doors and asking people to consider your shirt. While all 10,000 could say no, you would have learned valuable skills and completed your goal.
Finding Balance
Building a new business and balancing that with your regular life can be extremely difficult. Especially if what you have to do is on a deadline like shipping a product. A good idea is to set aside a specific time where you will only work on your business. Don’t get discouraged by not making money early on. Most businesses fail and if you do succeed the business will probably grow slowly over time. Success takes time and patience so don’t forget to be patient!
Learning New Skills
This is one of the most productive things to do when your bored. New skills can come in all form, it could be learning to make soap from scratch, or learning how to use a bow and arrow. Online there is treasure chest of information waiting for you. You can learn skills that beef up your resume or your personal skillset.
Learning Online
Learning online is super flexible. You can literally learn just about everything at anytime. There are awesome courses on Coursera, Udemy, and Skillshare. You could learn graphic design, a new language, programming, video editing, photography, etc. The options might literally be endless. Learning online is also super convenient because you can pause videos and then start them again whenever you want. Online courses are gateways to more skills and information.
Set Goals
Setting goals are key to your success. Want to complete a video course in a month or week? Set weekly or daily goals that break down the course into small achievable milestones. These smaller goals are pivotal in your success, because the hardest part about learning new skills is finishing the entire course. If you feel stuck or are in need of help try reaching out to the support community or forum associated with your course. Typically there are tons of people on the 3 platforms above who are all willing to help.
Apply Your New Skills
Applying your new skills is super fun, because now when your bored you have something to do. Imagine you took a photography course and when your bored, you now go to parks and take interesting photographs. Another example would be you learned how to program, and when your bored you now build chatbots that talk to each other.
Boredom Begone
Using the ideas above I am confident you can put an end to your boredom and become more productive at the same time. Whether your learning a new recipe, jogging on a treadmill, or building a t-shirt business, you will most definitely start making the most of your time.
Also remember that boredom isn’t a bad thing. Its just a signal for your to step up and do something different and possibly more exciting. The activities listed above are about expanding your skillset and building things. Improving yourself and providing value to the world is awesome way to flip bored free time to productive time.
So the next time your sitting around, wondering what to do, think back to this article. Pick one of these ideas and get to work. You might find a book or hidden talent you’ve never dreamed of, and who knows you might just build a habit that you can be proud of!