How to Be Less Bored (for Teen Girls)

Last Updated: December 22, 2022 References

Getting bored is just your cue that something needs to change. Whether you're bored right now, bored all the time, or worried about being bored in the future, there are things you can do now to harness your energy and make something beautiful with it.

Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Getting Not-Bored at Home

1
Find new music. Read a new music website, search for playlists by a musician you like, or listen to a website that makes suggestions. Scroll through your social media and tell yourself you have to listen to the first song any friend has posted. Listen to that, and if you don't like it do it again.
- Look up your favorite music artists and find out who they call an influence. You might be surprised by the sounds your favorites grew up hearing.
- Alternatively, look through your music to find something you haven't listened to in forever. Take a trip down sonic memory lane.
2
Improve your reading skills. Read a novel, a comic, or poetry. Look through bookshelves if there are any in your house. Read magazine articles online about a topic that intrigues you.^{[1]
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Expert Source

Nicolette Tura, MA
Authentic Living Expert
Expert Interview. 28 January 2020.} If you don't have any books in the house, visit your local library. If you can't find the books you want, sometimes you can order them through interlibrary loan: ask your librarian, or look on your library's website.
- Read up. If you're a good reader and are bored with YA, read books written for adults. If you don't understand everything, don't worry. There is value in reading difficult literature, and it can often be more interesting to read something you don't understand than something you find easy.
- Visit the library and browse through your favorite sections. Choose books with enthralling picture and titles, and read the blurb to find out more.
- Read some old YA authors. Before YA was popular, authors like Diana Wynne Jones, Tove Jansson, Roald Dahl, and Noel Streatfeild wrote novels for children that are appropriate for teen and adult readers.
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3
Meditate. If you can't think of anything to do, try thinking of nothing at all. Do a concentration meditation in which you focus on one thing, such as a candle flame, a flower, or a repetitive motion. Focus for several minutes. When your mind wanders, remind yourself to focus on what you are doing.^{[2]
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- Do a mindfulness meditation in which you focus on your senses. Pay attention to your breathing, how each part of your body feels, and what you can hear, see, smell, and taste.^{[3]
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4
Revisit your childhood. Go back to anything that made you happy as a kid. Build a pillow sheet fort, dig up a long-forgotten stuffed animal, or try to remember and write down an imagination game that used to fascinate you. Find an old drawing and attempt to recreate it—it's harder than it sounds.
- Find an old photo album and learn what your parents thought was fashionable when they were your age.
- Pose for your baby pictures again-try to get the lighting, the outfit, the pose and the facial expression just right.
5
Call someone you haven't spoken to in a while. You can call your grandfather or an old friend who moved out of state. Catch up on this person's life by asking lots of questions. Ask what he or she has been thinking about lately, worrying about lately, and enjoying lately.^{[4]
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Expert Source

Nicolette Tura, MA
Authentic Living Expert
Expert Interview. 28 January 2020.}
6
Watch something unusual. If you normally watch comedies, look up a documentary. If you normally watch shows, watch a lengthy feature film. Don't just go for whatever gets suggested: look up lists of the best art house films of all time, the greatest films ever made, the most beautiful animated films, the documentaries that changed the world. Watch a comedy from the 1930s and wrap your head around the ways humor has changed.
- If you need another guideline, pick your film according to a rule. For instance, use the Bechdel test. You can only watch a film if it has (1) at least two named female characters who (2) have at least one conversation together (3) about anything other than men.^{[5]
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7
Create a schedule. This sounds boring, but think about it: boredom feels like you're in an endless desert of time. A schedule helps you shape the time you have. Think about what you need to do today (homework, chores), what you want to do today, and then write yourself up a schedule of those things. Include the basic stuff, like "lunch."
8
Be bored. Boredom is unpleasant, but it can also be useful. If you were busy or entertained all the time, you wouldn't have time to form any life-changing thoughts. When you're bored, you unconsciously take stock of your life and set new goals. If you weren't bored, you wouldn't change, so take it to the next level: think about the things that have made you bored, and figure out what needs to change.^{[6]
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Trustworthy Source
PubMed Central
Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
Go to source}
- For instance, if you are always alone after school, now could be the time to join an after-school organization.^{[7]
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  Expert Source
  
  Nicolette Tura, MA
  Authentic Living Expert
  Expert Interview. 28 January 2020.}
- If you are bored because you don't have many friends, making friends could be your new goal.
- If you are bored because you have lost interest in the things you like, or you can't focus on anything, you might be depressed. If you are anxious and bored, you might have ADHD.^{[8]
  X
  Research source} Talk to an adult or a doctor about your boredom.

Method 2

Method 2 of 4:

Getting Not-Bored Out In The World

1
Go on a wander. Instead of going on a walk, go on a wander. Instead of walking somewhere you go all the time, walk on streets you don't know well. Take public transportation to a park, lake, or other natural space you haven't visited. Take your cell phone, take a friend with you if you want, and let your family know that you are wandering.
- Take a map and draw a wiggly path on it without looking. Challenge yourself to walk along the path you drew as closely as you can. Make sure it loops you back home!
2
Visit strange shops. Is there a downtown or shopping center where you live? Go to stores you have never entered. Challenge yourself to find something you like in each place. You don't have to buy anything, but try to get a sense of what you would buy if you were someone who shopped there. Each store is selling an image, so explore the ways those images can fit you or not.
- For instance, you could visit an vintage store and explore dated fashion and obsolete technology. Imagine what it was like to wear a corset, wear a hat every day, or "dial" a phone.
3
Pack a picnic. Ask a friend to go on a picnic with you, and pack a bag or a basket of treats, a picnic blanket, and maybe a good book or two. You can pack the whole picnic yourself, or ask your friend to bring one or two things (a beverage, a fruit) while you bring the rest.
- Visit a farmer's market or a grocery store together and pick out 3-6 things together. You might get fresh bread, apples, cheese, chocolate, carrots, and hummus, for example.
- Take your picnic somewhere green and quiet, or somewhere with a good view.
- Go on a hike if you can. Eat the picnic at the top of the mountain or end of the trail. Make sure to pack water!

Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Making

1
Start a zine. By yourself or with a friend, design a casual journal you can put out once a month or every two weeks. You can write content, invite contributions from others, and even share editing responsibilities with a friend: for instance, she or he could be in charge of art and poetry, while you could supply opinion pieces and book reviews.
- Possible content for a zine include: reviews of shows, books, movies, and albums, outside submissions of poetry, photographs, and drawings, lists, trivia, humor, political commentary, and fashion tips.
- Stay true to the punk spirit of the "zine" and make them yourself. All you need is a photocopier and a stapler.
- Pass out your zine to members of your community. Leave them in lobbies, common rooms, and sneak them into magazine racks at stores.
- Zines are fun because they are super representative of the place they are made. Ask for contributions from the people you see weekly: the proctors at your school, your favorite barista, the kids you babysit, your grandmother.
2
Design a website. Teach yourself to build a website from scratch, or use a blogging template. Your website can showcase your work, your tastes, or be an online journal. You can also start a webzine instead of a "zine," and solicit contributions from strangers in the world.
3
Cook something new. Look up some basic recipes you have never tried. How basic can they be? Try to find 3-5 ingredient recipes. For example, you can make a flatbread with just water and flour and salt. You can make truffles out of tahini, cocoa powder, and dates. You can make an omelet with just eggs, butter, and salt.
- Cook without a recipe. Use inexpensive ingredients and experiment. Try to recreate something you have eaten in a restaurant, or invent a twist on a dish you enjoy.
- Clean up as you go. Cooking is more fun when there aren't a bunch of dishes at the end.
4
Make art. Do you like to draw, to write, to dance, to sing? Get some space and materials and make something. Get yourself started by spacing out with the medium you use: move around to music, doodle shapes, freewrite. If your mind is blank, give yourself a prompt. For instance, if you are writing, start yourself off with a line from a song you like.
- Make something you can use, like a notebook or a scarf.
- Make art for someone. Make a card, write a beautiful letter, or paint a picture for someone you love. If you know someone who is going through a hard time, make something for them.
- Make a movie. Make a long film of something interesting. You can appear in it, or it can focus on other people, animals, things you observe. Try to film a portrait of a place: all the most strikingly beautiful, plain, ugly, active, and quiet places in your neighborhood, for instance.
- Write fanfiction. Take the characters from a book or show you enjoy, and write them some adventures. Take a neglected character and give her a starring role.
5
Start a band. Get your musical friends with tastes similar to yours and start a band. If you know how to play instruments, so much the better. You don't need much to make a sound: you can improvise drums, you can sing together, and someone somewhere probably knows how to play guitar.

Method 4

Method 4 of 4:

Being Useful

1
Plant something. If you have space for a garden at your house, see what grows well in your local climate and plant it. If you don't have space for a garden, see if you have space for planters, pots, or a window box. You can grow herbs and flowers in very little space. If you live somewhere dry, succulents can be beautiful and need very little care.
- A garden is a commitment, so start small if you're not ready to be in charge of an army of zucchini. Grow one plant in a pot, and if that goes well, you can start tilling earth.
2
Volunteer. Volunteer to help out in a place that interests you. Places like elementary schools, schools for people with special needs, hospitals, and retirement communities often need volunteers. You can also volunteer for temporary organizations, such as political campaigns or fundraising events.
- Ask someone in your life if they need help. Just do it right now. Ask a parent, a grandparent, or a neighbor.
3
Get a job. Earning money and learning new skills can be entertaining as well as useful. Visit businesses you can get to by bike or by bus and ask if they are hiring. Look online at job boards. Ask your family members for tips: they may know someone who can help you find a job that isn't advertised.
- Go into business for yourself. Sell things you craft online, sell cookies at school, or call neighbors and family friends and offer to babysit, sit for cats, look after plants, walk dogs, mow lawns, or wash cars.
4
Perform a random act of kindness. Do something unexpected that you know will be appreciated. Drop flowers or candy at your best friend's house, or wash your family's car. Offer to play a game you know a little sibling loves, even though you find it boring. You're already bored, so you might as well be bored in a sweet way.

Expert Q&A

Question

What do you do when your stuck at home all day?

Nicolette Tura, MA
Authentic Living Expert
Nicolette Tura is an Authentic Living Expert who operated her own wellness business for more than ten years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nicolette is a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher with a Psychology & Mindfulness Major, a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) certified Corrective Exercise Specialist, and is an expert in authentic living. She holds a BA in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and got her master's degree in Sociology from SJSU. She constantly draws from her own wounds and challenges; with her training in the healing arts and sociology, she offers potent content, powerful meditations, and game-changing seminars on inspiring elevation on a personal and corporate level.

Nicolette Tura, MA

Authentic Living Expert

Expert Answer

Try practicing gratitude! Focus on what you can do instead of what you can't. Instead of thinking about how you can't go rock climbing, focus on going for a hike instead.
Question

I want to start writing fan fiction. What is a nice, safe website to publish it on?

Writingismypassion

Community Answer

Wattpad is a good one. Fanfiction.net is another nice one. If you want to make it a video, put it on YouTube. There are tons of other websites to choose from. You could even write fan fiction on your own blog or tumblr site. If you don't like any of those options, just search for "fan fiction websites" and you'll find plenty more.
Question

If I have a friend over and I don't want to play with something, what we do?

Community Answer

Watch a movie, watch your favorite YouTuber, paint your nails, try hairstyles for school, and do each other's makeup.