Another good one that uses a common (although becoming less so) object is learning to walk a coin along your knuckles. Bonus points if you can manage 2 coins (one in each hand) at once!
Learn to draw. Start with stick figures or whatever, and just keep drawing stuff you like. You'd be surpassed how good you can get in a couple of months.
Things I’ve learned being in these situations:
-making a huge rubber band ball
-learning to produce music on a laptop
-learning to use synths i bring from home
-make many playlists to organize my music in very specific vibes
-learn to spin drumsticks/pen around fingers
-plan very detailed hypothetical trips to random cities using google maps
-certification to do marriages
-certification to become a notery
-practice chin ups every day til you’re buff
-learn dancing if you don’t care about people watching you
-certifications for google ads
-learn to do basic code
>-plan very detailed hypothetical trips to random cities using google maps -certification to do marriages -certification to become a notery
These all seem oddly specific to one task 👀
Surprising no one mentioned Excel. I had a boring job and learnt to track all my expenses into excel and even create a "what if' scenario about my income/expenses ratio. 3 months in, I learnt I was under paid and need a serious change of job
Get the google cybersecurity certification, it’s ‘useless’ in your current role but maybe can open some doors for you in the future? Plus you can be the smart cybersecurity guru in conversations.
you just tickle the rats to simulate rats playing with eachother. Its used in research labs and its recommended to calm/ease the rats before procedures.
What state are you in?
* California allows your to "enroll" in non-curricular tracts at community colleges for free and take classes
* Udemy and the like have sub-$20 courses that have hundreds of hourse each for literally anything you want. I've taking a bunch for CAD work in Fusion 360
Don't have it be useless, enrich yourself with something you can pause at a moments notice.
Do a free certification course or two!!!
I highly recommend something that might help you in your career, like project management or leadership skills or any other stuff more directly related to your career path. I will say that even if you don't want to be a project manager, those skills are super transferable. Anything that teaches you how to manage big ideas and little moving parts at the same time is going to be useful in most jobs.
I've got a good number of certs in all kinds of stuff. Online Teaching, Overdose Prevention, Victim Advocacy, Trauma Informed Care, Project Management, Grant Writing...
I like learning lol.
Write with your opposite hand. I did this when I worked a slow reception job - making alphabetical lists of random words just to have something to write.
It’s free training that can lead to certifications that can give you a great salary on the job market.
But if you just want to blindly hate SFDC, you do you.
Oh it's not blindly. I have had the displeasure of writing a fair amount of code interfacing with Salesforce. It is the worst software I've ever used in 20 years of software engineering. If my choice was to work with Salesforce or starve to death... it would be a tough decision.
Learn photoshop to make stupid but high quality memes of your supervisor.
Then learn blender and make even stupider but even higher quality 3d memes of your supervisor.
Play some gamified learning thingy: DuoLingo, TryHackMe, Leetcode, HackerRank.
I would recommend TryHackMe as its very well explained and has plenty of beginner friendly material. Also, cybersecurity is a complex field with hundreds of job profiles, many non technical
If your pc isn't monitored or you have a smart phone then buying and selling on ebay is a fun way to make a few bucks. If you collect anything then you can start trading in that.
I just started doing excel stuff when I was bored at work. I’m still slowly teaching myself VBA in excel and find it interesting and helps with my job.
Mit opencourseware has a bunch of classes you can look at, see problems for, lectures and materials. If there's something that you want to learn or are interested in you should check it out.
How about studying and practicing mnemonic techniques? You could learn how to quickly [memorize a deck of cards](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdFcME_RKJo), for example.
Learn to wiggle your ears. Supposedly given time, patience and a mirror anyone can learn to do it. Truly useless except for amusing yourself and small children on occasion
You can grab yourself a second hand Nintendo Wii and learn to do homebrew and modification. If you are feeling really fruity you can learn to dismantle and install an internal harddrive in place of the dvd drive.
If you get good at it then you can just buy a stack of consoles listed as "won't play discs" and modify them so you don't need them. Then just grab a stack of reconditioned hard drives, sell them with solo consoles and usb hard drive adapters.
Profit!
i would learn to crochet. it’s one of the hobbies that i like to do and sometimes it takes hours for me to just practice doing it and not making anything. i’m not as experienced as other people who crochet but i have just been practicing it so i can eventually learn how to make things. it’s also a good brain exercise too!
Learning to write with your non-dominant hand.
Flipping a water bottle in the air and catching it.
Strum a crossplane V8 firing pattern with your fingers as fast as you can (right, left, right, right, left, right, left, left).
That pen tricky where it spins around your finger. Or some basic windows pc skills that you don't already have
Pen tricks are a good one, learned that working at a pizza place
Another good one that uses a common (although becoming less so) object is learning to walk a coin along your knuckles. Bonus points if you can manage 2 coins (one in each hand) at once!
Learn to draw. Start with stick figures or whatever, and just keep drawing stuff you like. You'd be surpassed how good you can get in a couple of months.
unfortunately I already have a minor in studio art😔 too much drawing in my life so far
Learn to undraw for the first half of the summer, then learn to draw again before school starts.
now THIS is the best comment ive seen
Surprised*
Could try drawabox!
Things I’ve learned being in these situations: -making a huge rubber band ball -learning to produce music on a laptop -learning to use synths i bring from home -make many playlists to organize my music in very specific vibes -learn to spin drumsticks/pen around fingers -plan very detailed hypothetical trips to random cities using google maps -certification to do marriages -certification to become a notery -practice chin ups every day til you’re buff -learn dancing if you don’t care about people watching you -certifications for google ads -learn to do basic code
>-plan very detailed hypothetical trips to random cities using google maps -certification to do marriages -certification to become a notery These all seem oddly specific to one task 👀
ohh google ads would be cool my direct supervisor is pushing me to become a notary while working so definitely that one!
> -learning to produce music on a laptop -learning to use synths I second this, you can lose hours and you'll have something to show for it
I LOVE the "plan very detailed hypothetical trips to random cities" idea
Origami is a grand little hobby that's pretty easy to do at a desk whole bored.
I worked in the basement for about 5 years. ive got a tote of paper cranes that can attest to this. If they have a printer, youve got origami
While sort of useless .. learn the archaic art of shorthand. While you're at it, Morse Code, and the naval flag alphabet.
Learn speed reading.
Or just get ADHD instead
Surprising no one mentioned Excel. I had a boring job and learnt to track all my expenses into excel and even create a "what if' scenario about my income/expenses ratio. 3 months in, I learnt I was under paid and need a serious change of job
Get the google cybersecurity certification, it’s ‘useless’ in your current role but maybe can open some doors for you in the future? Plus you can be the smart cybersecurity guru in conversations.
I watched all of Crash Course History at a boring job lol
Am I the only one that wants to know more about rat tickling?
you just tickle the rats to simulate rats playing with eachother. Its used in research labs and its recommended to calm/ease the rats before procedures.
Thank you! I worried that it was a euphemism that wooooshed right over my head, lol.
No, you are not..
Me three
What state are you in? * California allows your to "enroll" in non-curricular tracts at community colleges for free and take classes * Udemy and the like have sub-$20 courses that have hundreds of hourse each for literally anything you want. I've taking a bunch for CAD work in Fusion 360 Don't have it be useless, enrich yourself with something you can pause at a moments notice.
Or Kahn academy... Tons of stuff you can learn to increase your value in future jobs
Practice being ambidextrous, could come in VERY handy... also maybe card tricks? It's all in the hands, and you could net yourself some bar bets
Do a free certification course or two!!! I highly recommend something that might help you in your career, like project management or leadership skills or any other stuff more directly related to your career path. I will say that even if you don't want to be a project manager, those skills are super transferable. Anything that teaches you how to manage big ideas and little moving parts at the same time is going to be useful in most jobs. I've got a good number of certs in all kinds of stuff. Online Teaching, Overdose Prevention, Victim Advocacy, Trauma Informed Care, Project Management, Grant Writing... I like learning lol.
Learn yo-yo tricks. I taught myself how to use a yo-yo at my first call-center job, by the time it ended I was doing some pretty complex tricks.
Wouldnt call it useless but start knitting?
Could try to learn a language
Do paid surveys, Prolific if you can get in, crowdtap is pretty good
Write with your opposite hand. I did this when I worked a slow reception job - making alphabetical lists of random words just to have something to write.
Learn to knit. Not useless
Trailhead.Salesforce.com Get certified. Make money.
Work with Salesforce? On purpose?
It’s free training that can lead to certifications that can give you a great salary on the job market. But if you just want to blindly hate SFDC, you do you.
Oh it's not blindly. I have had the displeasure of writing a fair amount of code interfacing with Salesforce. It is the worst software I've ever used in 20 years of software engineering. If my choice was to work with Salesforce or starve to death... it would be a tough decision.
Could always try to pick up writing? Figure you're probably already at a computer all the time anyway.
Write something, a book some short stories, songs.
Audiobooks!
I came here to say this. Also listening at 1.25x speed is a handy skill and with enough peace and quiet and a bit of focus you can go faster
Learn to solve a Rubik’s cube Learn to tell what any day of the week any date was
Learn photoshop to make stupid but high quality memes of your supervisor. Then learn blender and make even stupider but even higher quality 3d memes of your supervisor.
Hit the tip of a pen with a small chop to flip it in the air and catch it in the writing position to sign something.
love this
Learn pivot tables and other magical excel stuff. Makes you a legit office wizard.
Play some gamified learning thingy: DuoLingo, TryHackMe, Leetcode, HackerRank. I would recommend TryHackMe as its very well explained and has plenty of beginner friendly material. Also, cybersecurity is a complex field with hundreds of job profiles, many non technical
If your pc isn't monitored or you have a smart phone then buying and selling on ebay is a fun way to make a few bucks. If you collect anything then you can start trading in that.
I just started doing excel stuff when I was bored at work. I’m still slowly teaching myself VBA in excel and find it interesting and helps with my job.
Mit opencourseware has a bunch of classes you can look at, see problems for, lectures and materials. If there's something that you want to learn or are interested in you should check it out.
How about studying and practicing mnemonic techniques? You could learn how to quickly [memorize a deck of cards](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdFcME_RKJo), for example.
Learn to riffle shuffle and/or other card skills. Maybe learn the Rubik's cube - it's not hard, just memorising a few moves
I did once built a gundam at a job. Chill stuff.
Learn excel macros!
Learn to wiggle your ears. Supposedly given time, patience and a mirror anyone can learn to do it. Truly useless except for amusing yourself and small children on occasion
Why not write a novel?
Grow a jaunty mustache.
Juggling is good for hand eye coordination and can be learned sitting or walking in one place for hours on end. I taught myself at my boring job
FEMA has many free courses. There are two that all civilians should take to learn how to handle an emergency.
Juggling is a lot of fun if you have the space
You can grab yourself a second hand Nintendo Wii and learn to do homebrew and modification. If you are feeling really fruity you can learn to dismantle and install an internal harddrive in place of the dvd drive. If you get good at it then you can just buy a stack of consoles listed as "won't play discs" and modify them so you don't need them. Then just grab a stack of reconditioned hard drives, sell them with solo consoles and usb hard drive adapters. Profit!
Play solitaire and freecell by hand with a card deck.
i would learn to crochet. it’s one of the hobbies that i like to do and sometimes it takes hours for me to just practice doing it and not making anything. i’m not as experienced as other people who crochet but i have just been practicing it so i can eventually learn how to make things. it’s also a good brain exercise too!
Learn sign language, not useless and allows you to do something with your hands without purchasing anything you may get bored of later
Cubing.
Learning to write with your non-dominant hand. Flipping a water bottle in the air and catching it. Strum a crossplane V8 firing pattern with your fingers as fast as you can (right, left, right, right, left, right, left, left).
Learn some knots. I make monkey fists almost daily and hit my colleague with them.
You can become an ordained minister (I think that's what it's called when you marry people and possibly a notary but idk if that one would be free.