Sometimes you are stuck while waiting. You can't go anywhere or risk not making the connection, so you need to entertain yourself on site. Online games are a good alternative. The variety is staggering, and there are a great many free options available. Puzzle games, shooters, role-playing games and many others. Simply use your preferred search engine to look for whatever types of games you like to play. I was surprised to learn there are even paper dolls available for play online. I submit that there is almost certainly something out there for everyone.



Naturally, reading is always a good option. A good book can be enjoyed more than once, and even the most devoted bookworm will have classics they've not yet gotten around to reading. Books can teach, illuminate, distract, entertain, inspire, enlighten, compare and contrast. You can discover things that go together you'd never have thought of, like the way New Orleans links Zombies and Pirates.

Another option for in-place boredom defenses is the radio. There is a variety of music and news available. You can simply veg out while listening to whatever music is out there, listen to the news and commentary channels for enlightenment or to find out what the other side is thinking, and you can find a show on some subject you care about like cooking, investing, car care or almost anything else.

There are puzzles available. For those who can't keep a jigsaw puzzle handy, or a puzzle toy, there are books of logic puzzles, crossword puzzles and various similar tasks. There are classic puzzles from the past and contemporary puzzles steeped in pop culture.

One that is surprisingly addictive is writing. This can be fiction, or speeches you may or may not ever give or even technical writing about something you either understand or wish to understand. You can write letters to old friends that you intend to send or that you can't. Another option is to write a letter to an historical figure, attempting to explain something and everything he or she would need to know to understand the topic. This is a fine way to discover whether you really understand something on which you have an opinion.

A similar idea is to do a contingency plan. This can be something like planning a vacation you intend to take later, or a plan to implement in an emergency, like what would I do if my car tire blew twenty miles away from anyone else? This is a fine habit to develop, as these plans seem to make the issues you are worrying about less likely to happen, and when something does occur, it isn't unusual to have a plan ready that can be adapted.

Many people don't like the drudgery of cleaning. Yet it is needed, and life can be pretty miserable if it isn't done. When bored, you can use this as an opportunity to go clean something you've been putting off. This also applies to home improvements and maintenance.

In this modern day and age, there are vast resources available at the touch of a button. You can look up something you've been curious about. Such as the world's biggest ant bed or the tallest mountain in Antarctica. Much like children can enjoy browsing through an encyclopedia, the internet has free books, encyclopedias, magazines, comics and obsessive nerds who have no life, but who want to make their knowledge of their obsession available to anyone who reads it. We should take advantage of this wealth.

One of my friends knits, and insists that this is the perfect thing to do while bored, as it is both entertaining and productive. It requires dexterity and concentration, as it is annoying to find you've made a mistake that requires undoing a sleeve to repair, and yet, when you've completed a task, you have a physical result that you or someone else can use.

Another option is to simply give up and take a nap. Some of us simply don't get enough sleep, and should take the opportunity when it is available. Sleep rarely does any harm, though you shouldn't sleep so much that you knock your regular sleep schedule out of whack.

Finally, if you are having issues with lack of enough things to do, get out. Go somewhere and there are other alternatives available. Make a picnic, take a hike, go to the mall, or visit the beach. There are essentially unlimited possibilities out there, requiring only that you go in search of them.