How to pass the time when you have nothing to do at work and just your phone?
I find myself very bored at work. I have nothing on my plate to do, and I have exhausted everything I can think of doing on my phone. Browsing Tildes, and a little reddit though I hate Reddit now, making spreadsheets on Google drive for hobbies, catching up on any news, playing a dumb phone game, watching YouTube (though this is much harder and I can only do something audio based when I sneak away to a private corner which I can only do for limited amounts of time), browsing LinkedIn for other jobs/career path.
I'm at a loss for what else to do. I'm at the point where I have many hours in my day with nothing to do, and boss doesn't care I'm on my phone as long as my shit is done, which it is.
Obviously can't do much video watching or actual video game playing or anything requiring audio.
Also phone games have to be vertical so it isn't obvious I'm playing a game if a client walks in. Any suggestions?
Maybe be a good time to read some books, either on your phone or if you bring an ereader or physical books.
It would have to be a reader on my phone, cause I have to put up appearances that I'm working. And being on my phone is just gray area enough that I could be working. Definitely something to look into, never tried an e-reader app or anything like that before so I'll do some looking.
If you are from the United States, you can get a Library card and then you can (most likely) use the Libby app. That app lets you borrow a digital book from Amazon Kindle and then read it on your phone using the Kindle app. Amazon will handle returning the book at the end of the loan period or you can return it early if you prefer.
Each library offers different services so you may have to look around to find one that allows you to receive Amazon Kindle book loans. At the very least, it is a free way to read books and pass the time.
Oh nice, thanks for the tip!
If you happen to have an iphone and access to epub files or pdfs of books for whatever reason, the native iOS Books app will open them and save them to iCloud.
Want to also mention, you can read the libby books on your computer too if that's allowed.
adding on two other library card apps: Kanopy and Hoopla. if your library doesn't have one, it probably has one of the other ones.
Kanopy is just for watching films and TV, as far as I'm aware. But Hoopla has a variety of content including ebooks and comics, and often I've found titles available there that weren't available through my library's normal catalogue using Libby.
It's worth going to your library's website and seeing just what services they collaborate with, because often they have free access to other book resources beyond Hoopla, learning apps, etc.
There are some things you can read on the internet which will take up a large amount of time to get though all the content.
First off is Admiral Cloudberg's articles about plane accidents. A typical article will take 30-60 minutes to read and there are certainly a ton of articles to go through. They are all at https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/
Second is Damn Interesting which also posts long form articles. You have a few hundred you can dig through there. They are at https://www.damninteresting.com/
XKCD (known for their comic strips) has a What If series of articles that they created. They later on made several books. Still, you can read the articles on their website (even though the articles are shorter than the ones I previously mentioned). The first article is at https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ and each other article can be accessed with the arrows at the top (or by incrementing the number in the URL).
Learn a language. The best way to learn a language imo is to first master a basic vocab of 1k to 2k words with something like Anki. This is a common enough philosophy that there's 1k to 2k vocab anki decks for free for basically every common language. Just grind through some sets while you're bored.
Anki's UI is very gray and boring, so it shouldn't look out of place.
FarmRPG! It’s a game, but no audio. Only text and menu based. Community and dev team are awesome. Free. Not pay to win. It filled all my procrastination hours when I was writing my last book. Highly recommended!
Also tried this and its really fun! Thanks for the recommend. I see in another reply there you said you stopped playing, but you should have shared your referral code so both you and the new players get a gift basket!
Also if anyone is playing FarmRPG and reads this, feel free to add me as a friend, because why not!
You can search for me as just
kaffoand my start date was the 17th December.I'm considering trying this. Thanks for the friend invitation
If you do, feel free to use my referral code to get yourself a gift basket
98F294I'm not sure whether I love you or hate you just a little bit. I'm now completely obsessed with this game! I can't believe it's as good and as deep as it is, and having just scratched the surface I'm looking forward to seeing what else it has to offer.
If anyone else is considering having a look, it's amazing, so take that as either a recommendation or warning, depending on how much free time you have...
Haha. If it helps: after a year of playing I kind of finished the fun part of the game. So there is an end to your journey. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, I’m now perpetually looking for a simple mobile game that’s as fun as farmrpg.
Enjoy it while it lasts!
It's a suboptimal way to do it, but an ebook reading app could fill an untold number of hours.
This is a good suggestion - you can also find browser versions of some of the major reading apps (like Kindle) that will allow you to read on your computer.
I knew a guy who worked for the Social Security Administration (USA) and had scripted his job responsibilities so that he was done with a week's worth of work in half an hour on Monday. He wasn't allowed to do anything else, his boss didn't care, he just had to be AIS* during working hours. So he became a day trader. I don't know if day trading is wise though, so take it with a grain of salt.
*ass in seat
As a rule, day traders underperform the market. It's much safer to put it all into index funds then stop looking at it till retirement.
The perfect activity is looking for a new job on your phone!
This is clearly a place that doesn't value your time, so I don't see a reason why you should give any of it.
I did mention in my post that I browse LinkedIn. I have been applying to jobs for a while but haven't gotten any bites :/
Are you allowed to go for a walk?
Can't really leave the building in case something pops up and I'm needed, I will walk around the building sometimes, but that gets boring.
I've been spending a lot of time playing Merriam-Webster's daily crosswords. I usually hate crossword puzzles, but these are small and easy enough that I can usually almost finish them before looking anything up
There's also Quordle, Octordle, and Victordle
Also sexaginta-quattuordle for when you want to solve 64 wordle type puzzles simultaneously
These could be interesting, I'll give it a shot
May I also suggest Squardle? That was the only Wordle fork that ever grabbed me personally.
Are you allowed to wear headphones? If so there are many interesting podcasts worth listening to depending on your areas of interest.
If it's a question of browsing the web or watching videos discreetly, you might find the Decreased Productivity plugin interesting (there's also a version that works on Chrome).
Can't wear headphones. I have plenty of podcasts I could listen to, I do that when Im driving, but at work I have to put on appearances that I'm working even if I have nothing to do so headphones wouldn't work unfortunately.
Even a discreet Bluetooth earbud in only one ear wouldn't be possible? Look up invisible earbuds, those might be low profile enough to get away with
Not even for IT-related training, or anything else along those lines?
I feel like if your concern is getting caught, it might be best to fill most of your downtime on stuff that could actually be construed as work, such as professional development.
Is there anything else that looks kind of like work? Some of my goofing off at work is looking at economic data, which is usually tables and charts. I work with a lot of tables and charts so at worst it's maybe working on my data viz skills?
Why do headphones make it look like you're not working more than anything else? What is your job that has you sit at a desk and never use headphones?
Honestly, this sounds like company over-reach where their employees have to look busy no matter what. At one of my old workplaces we couldn't have books, music, head/earphones, and phones were almost banned.
It certainly seems to be just that, but I don't get at all how having headphones plugged into your computer while you do something that is clearly training (it's almost always extremely obvious when that's what you're doing) could seem less "busy" than using your phone. I would assume you aren't working 99% of the time if you're on your phone.
What do you do and where do you work? I'm curious about boredom. I had to start anti-anxiety meds due to my fucking insane fire hose of gasoline torching everything to the horizon of a job. If there's something that's maybe a bit less money, but not literally triggering a physiological flight or fight response several hours a day, that'd be interesting to me.
I do IT support, but don't have an office so any of the clients in our building could walk by at any moment, so I can't have a laptop, kindle, gaming device of any kind cause then it would be obvious I'm not working. I have to put on the appearance that I am working even when I have nothing to do. Which right now is a lot of the time being holidays, there's not many people in the office, so not many fires I have to put out. So I'm basically on standby until someone needs something.
This definitely doesn't reflect all IT jobs though, I think mine is a bit unique in that regard.
I would assume someone is working if on a laptop tbh. Much more so than in their phone.
Problem is the company laptop is very distinct, and restricts access to almost every website that isn't working related.
I would need to bring my personal laptop to actually do anything, but it looks completely different and would be obvious. My boss wouldn't appreciate me on my personal laptop either.
You could probably prop a tablet up against the laptop screen?
But also, what does your boss say when you say you have done all the work you can do? If you have no specific tasks, what are you meant to do in that downtime? If it was me I would say go learn skill xyz that might be useful for the company.
You should be able to access localhost on the web browser, right?
I recommend programming games in javascript. I made a complicated version of snake while waiting in a client's conference room for two weeks once.
With these circumstances, I would recommend learning how to program. A code editor filled with code is a good indicator of serious buzyness(tm). And it's probably good for your job as well! Not expecting you to turn into a software engineer techbro, but to get some automation skills in (I recommend Automate the Boring stuff with Python).
EDIT: Seeing that you may have a restricted access on your laptop, learning javascript might be a better choice (every major browser in the market is a full programming runtime, complete with debugger and all; try having a look at the developper console).
Do you have a boss that you could ask about upcoming IT-related work that you might want to prepare for while things are slow? Seems like with computers there is usually something changing or that could be improved.
I'm in a similar situation but WFH so thankfully I have more flexibility in what I can do. I'm a consultant for an insanely small company and we have a record low number of clients. Still getting paid though. I should have my bachelor's degree by summer and I'm going to start applying for jobs like crazy after that.
Learn sign language? There must be apps, and obviously sound shouldn't be a key component.
I'm not sure I'm understanding the issues with headphones. Every IT job I've had has let us wear headphones for music if we wanted to, it's very common to listen to music while working. Have they actually outright forbid them? If it's a job where there's a literal alarm you need to be mindful of I could maybe understand but then I would just get some bone conduction headphones.
I find it hard to get into a full-size book on my phone, but as time killers I've been enjoying Choice of Games, which has a whole collection of "choose-your-own-adventure" stories in all kinds of different genres. They're purely text-based, so you can stay in vertical mode and it doesn't look like a game at all. The longer and better stories cost $5-$10 each, but they do take several hours to get through and could potentially be replayed multiple times. There are also plenty of shorter, less in-depth stories available for free that you can try out first to see if you enjoy them or not.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.choiceofgames.omnibus
Audiobooks.
I have literally thousands of hours of audiobooks I keep on my phone - I get constant reading time in while having my hands free and being able to do other things.
If you're allowed to be on your phone, I am going to guess that having busy hands isn't a problem. At least for women, hand crafts that involve fabric/thread are usually okay. You can drop that in a moment's notice and it doesn't have to interfere with the ability to be instantly ready for whomever comes walking by.
If you are a man, then picking up a hobby like that can even be a conversation starter even moreso than for women.
Can you bring another device? An eInk based ebook reader is easier on the eyes and can help you focus on books. Lots of low cost or free books out there, or if you get one that can support library checkouts you can checkout books for free from your local library (I'm assuming the US, or some other country with Libby access)
Unfortunately no, because then it would be obvious I'm not working. On my phone its a gray area cause I could be working if a client walked by. Otherwise I would bring my personal laptop and work on stuff all day.
Looks just like a phone:
https://shop.boox.com/products/palma2
:) (the original Palma is probably cheaper now since the 2 was just released)
I enjoy the NYTimes free games, which are Wordle, Connections, Strands, The Mini Crossword. I think there is a free daily Sudoku as well. That's only up to about 15 minutes per day though. Edit: The Mini Crossword also plays the "crossword complete ditty"
Simon Tatham's Puzzles is one that I (and others here) often suggest. It meets your criteria of not having sound, and being vertical to play. The puzzles are well thought out and engaging, and you can ratchet up the difficulty to be whatever you want.
I definitely agree with the others who have recommended an eReader app. I have been using the Kindle one on my iPad, and despite the relatively poor ratings that the app has, I find it perfectly usable, plus the books from the library as someone else mentioned is pretty great. There are also a lot of options for books in the public domain.
Probability Puzzles is a pretty good one for learning things, though it gets to the point that you'll need paper to do working out relatively quickly (the "getting serious" game mode probably needs paper), and Pythagorea is similarly educational. If you ever found yourself missing your second year "history of maths" course, then it's perfect. If not, then YMMV.
Neal.fun has a bunch of fun games that tend to work fairly well on your phone.
There are a variety of online comics to read - Questionable Content, XKCD, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal are the ones that spring to mind.
TvTropes and SCP Foundation are both pretty interesting rabbit holes to fall down into. TvTropes is a well named site that's entirely about tropes that you will find in television (and movies, books, comics, etc). SCP is a fictional set of files that have been released about a Foundation the "Secure, Contain, Protect Foundation", a clandestine organization that protects the world from a lot.
When I was in college, I got me a job just like that. I used it to do all of my homework: I did all the readings (and took notes), did all the math problems at the end of each chapter (not just the recommended ones), did research, wrote papers and essays, etc.
It was great: my job was paying me to do my homework and by bringing just my homework to work, I was too bored not to complete it. I graduated with honors.
If you're not interested in college, are there classes you could take toward whatever career goal you might have? Another field you might be interested in, a certification in your current field that might open up some options?
If not work-related, what about a small-footprint hobby? You could do knitting/needlepoint/crocheting easily enough, or whittling, or origami, or anything small and portable.
Kinda hard to do that kind of thing on my phone I feel. Also they usually have audio components
If you work in IT, I'd imagine they'd be fine with you doing IT training like networking, sysadmin, security etc. on your work laptop or from a book?
If they don't care about you showing initiative to improve, maybe consider looking for a different job?
Do you not have a work computer or are you not allowed to do training on it? I'm confused.
They restrict pretty much every site that isn't directly work related.
I would work with your manager and IT department to make an exception for a site that you can use. It's in their best interest that you continue to learn.
Sadly most phones took away the headphone jack.