Published on April 12th, 2019
Content on the Internet is not only designed to make you spend some money or make your close or peripheral friends jealous. It is also there to make you think, learn new skills, make money, or offer you a set of tips and tricks to make you more productive.
But what about those short opportunities when you just want to be “idle”? You know, when your brain is in overload and the only thing you want is to surf the Internet aimlessly. I mean, no one can handle to be hyper-productive all the time, and there are some studies to back that up.
In an article from 2012, New York times quoted John P. Trougakos, an assistant management professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management.
“Mental concentration is similar to a muscle. It becomes fatigued after sustained use and needs a rest period before it can recover, much as a weight lifter needs rest before a second round of repetitions at the gym.
This means that taking deliberate breaks after periods of work is actually better for your productivity.
You can spend those breaks in a variety of interesting ways. You can use that time to drink a cup of coffee (or tea), search for your favorite song, or waste some time on the internet outside of social media or reading emails.
Get ready to bookmark your favorite website to visit when you are bored (or tired).
1. College Humor
This is one of the most popular comedy websites worth visiting when you are bored. A place where you can find all sorts of funny and entertaining articles, videos and photos. They also have an extremely popular YouTube channel that has more than 13 million subscribers.
2. Mamby
Mamby will tailor the suggested content according to your cookies and likes/ dislikes. You can switch off your brain and just enjoy in photos, gifs, videos and quotes. It is a sandbox free of any political opinions, social problems or any other purely negative content.
3. The Useless Web
Internet is huge. Did you think that YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and a couple of other commercial sites make the entirety of the World Wide Web? Hell no! There are tons of other useless websites. And this site will randomly introduce you to every single one of them. You can even submit some of your best picks too!
4. A Soft Murmur
This is a website which you can use to relax. You can play around with all kinds of background effects to create a calm working or sleeping environment.
5. WaitButWhy
This is a very interesting blog about everything. Its author is a guy named Tim Urban and every week or so he writes really long, and awesome article that makes you think about you, your life, your job, country, world, dog, tipping, relationships, religion, outer space, social interaction and other important and less important stuff.
6. Supercook
This useful website is going to tell you what to cook with the ingredients you have at your disposal.
You tell it which ingredients you currently have in your home and it will make you a list of recipes you can make using just those ingredients. You don’t have to leave your home on those rainy days only to buy eggs, milk or baking powder.
7. A Good Movie To Watch
Sometimes a search for a good movie to watch becomes a problem. But don’t worry, this website can help you big time. It has a good algorithm that will make a list of suggestions based on your preferences. It also has a “random suggestion” option that will give you something that will catch your eye.
You can also earn money from views if you are a content creator.
The more you use this platform the better the system gets to know you and the better content you get in your feed.
8. OCEARCH
This is a very cool ocean life tracker. You can actually track sharks, whales, seals, and other sea creatures around the planet that all have names! It is not some “usual” way to waste time on the internet, but it is one of the coolest! You can actually zoom to any location on the planet and just check the current and previous location of those creatures.
9. The Level Up Life
Have you ever played role-playing games? It is a sort of a game in which you create your unique character and start leveling up by collecting experience points. This sort of games was created to mimic the real life. However, people somehow got used to that leveling system and in real life you don’t have that… Or do you?
This website was created for you, to put in real-life goals and achieve points on your account based on the successful completion. This is a great starting motivation if you need one.
10. Gravity Points
You feel bored and you really like gravity? Well, this is a sandbox environment made for you. Even though it looks like a video game, it isn’t. It is an environment filled with tiny particles that carelessly roam all over the map. It’s up to you to click and create a “point of interest” for those particles.
Just try it. It is very entertaining.
11. Geo Guessr
This is a game based on Google Street View. It drops you in the middle of nowhere and you need to guess where you are. The closer you pinpoint your location the more points you get. It is really fun. You can even explore the map in order to find some landmarks. It has a multiplayer too!
12. XKCD
This is a website where you can find all kinds of interesting (and a little bit nerdy) articles that are certainly more interesting than all the garbage we get from our social media feeds. One of my favorites is Earth-Moon Fire Pole in which the author explores the possibility of connecting the Earth and the Moon with a fire pole. It was an idea he got from his 5 years old son.
