What Can You Do When You're Bored?

Pick a category that matches your situation first—alone at home, with friends, outside, or in public—then use a random generator or list to choose one activity instead of scrolling through options. Random Things To Do organizes ideas this way: random games, drawing and painting prompts, writing prompts, challenges, jokes, and lists for specific settings like home, school, or the outdoors. The site's own public-activity page warns that "the public will hate you if you do any of these," so treat prank and public ideas as comedy reading rather than instructions.

Match the activity to where you are

The fastest way out of boredom is to filter by setting before you browse. The site's sections map roughly onto these situations:

If you already know the setting, go straight to that section. If you don't, start with the random page or random games—both are built to decide for you.

Use randomness to stop deliberating

Boredom often turns into twenty minutes of choosing and no doing. The site's random page and random game picker exist to break that loop: you press once, you get one idea, you do it. This works best when you accept the first result rather than re-rolling until something perfect appears.

For creative blocks specifically, the drawing ideas and writing prompts sections give you a starting constraint—a doodle prompt or a story prompt—rather than a blank page. A constraint is usually what turns "I'm bored" into "I made something."

Separate funny from creative, and know the limits

The site mixes two very different kinds of content:

• Comedy and prank material—prank call ideas, McDonald's pranks, weird things to do, shortest jokes, stupid challenges. These are written to be read and laughed at. The challenge page itself says "Please don't actually do all of these," and the public list warns about annoying strangers.
• Creative and hands-on material—drawing, painting, writing, Minecraft builds, things to eat. These are meant to be done.

If your goal is to actually fill time, lean on the second group. If your goal is to laugh with friends, the first group works as a shared read—just keep pranks aimed at people who'll find them funny, and skip anything involving strangers, service workers, or property.

Turn bored time into a small project

The most satisfying use of the site is to pick one creative prompt and finish it in a single sitting: one doodle, one short story opening, one Minecraft shelter, one new snack. The "things to eat" section even includes a practical note—precook meat and eggs to avoid foodborne illness—which is the kind of detail that keeps a fun idea from becoming a bad one.

A simple routine: choose a section, take the first prompt or idea, set a 20-minute timer, and stop when it rings. You'll end up with something made instead of another hour of browsing.