All 167
All 167 things to do when bored, by kind
Each of these things to do when bored is on the wheel and printed here once, with the tags the wheel shows after a spin. Press a group's button to put all of it on the wheel, or use the filters to mix groups.
Games and play20
Board, card, party and backyard games, most of them free.
- Build a blanket fort
- Play charades
- Do a jigsaw puzzle
- Play a card game
- Play hide and seek
- Have a karaoke night
- Set up a domino run
- Have a board game tournament
- Build with blocks or bricks
- Host a trivia night
- Play 20 questions
- Hold a costume fashion show
- Play a video game together
- Play chess or checkers
- Make up a treasure hunt with clues
- Do a puzzle book page
- Have a staring contest
- Make popcorn and play a quiz
- Have a water balloon fight
- Blow bubbles
Draw, write and perform14
Draw, write, film or put on a show with what you have.
- Write a short story in 20 minutes
- Draw a self-portrait
- Write a poem
- Make a comic strip
- Put on a magic show
- Put on a sock puppet show
- Make a stop-motion video
- Learn to draw a cartoon animal
- Write a silly song
- Sketch the view from a window
- Record a pretend podcast
- Paint with watercolors
- Go on a photo walk
- Draw with sidewalk chalk
Crafts and building12
Make something you can hold: paper, cardboard, string or sticks.
- Fold paper airplanes and race them
- Fold an origami crane
- Make a time capsule
- Build a cardboard robot
- Invent a new board game
- Make friendship bracelets
- Make slime
- Make a vision board
- Make a scrapbook page
- Make a leaf collage
- Build a fairy house from sticks
- Paint rocks for the garden
Food and kitchen16
Bake, cook or eat somewhere new. Most need a few ingredients.
- Cook with whatever is in the fridge
- Bake cookies from scratch
- Have an indoor picnic
- Make homemade pizza
- Try a new recipe
- Have a tea party
- Bake a loaf of bread
- Bake and decorate a cake
- Make lemonade from scratch
- Try a food you have never eaten
- Cook a dinner from another country
- Decorate cupcakes
- Have a picnic lunch outside
- Have a picnic in the park
- Have a backyard barbecue
- Get ice cream somewhere new
Active and sporty23
Move indoors or out, from a dance party to a climbing gym.
- Have a living room dance party
- Follow a yoga video
- Do a home workout
- Build an indoor obstacle course
- Learn a dance from a video
- Ride bikes
- Play frisbee
- Play tag
- Play soccer in the park
- Shoot hoops at a public court
- Go for a run
- Go to a playground
- Play hopscotch
- Walk a dog
- Play catch
- Go to a public swimming pool
- Go ice skating
- Go roller skating
- Go to a trampoline park
- Rent a kayak or canoe
- Try an indoor climbing gym
- Go horseback riding
- Try a drop-in dance class
Nature and fresh air18
Fresh air ideas, plus a few growing projects for a windowsill.
- Grow a plant from a cutting
- Start an herb garden on a windowsill
- Make a bird feeder
- Go for a walk around the neighborhood
- Go on a nature scavenger hunt
- Go stargazing
- Watch the sunset
- Hike a local trail
- Go birdwatching
- Camp out in the backyard
- Build a snowman if it has snowed
- Look for shapes in the clouds
- Go geocaching
- Fly a kite
- Go puddle jumping in boots
- Plant flowers or vegetables
- Walk around a botanical garden
- Pick fruit at a farm
Learn something new14
Pick up a small skill in an afternoon, or book a class.
- Learn a card trick
- Learn 10 words in a new language
- Draw your family tree
- Learn to juggle
- Take a free online class
- Watch a documentary and talk about it
- Learn the sign language alphabet
- Practice a speech or a toast
- Do a kitchen science experiment
- Learn to knit
- Learn to solve a puzzle cube
- Take a pottery class
- Take a cooking class
- Take a painting class
Calm and cozy12
Quiet, low-energy ideas for a lazy day or a tired evening.
- Read a book from your shelf
- Start a journal
- Have a movie marathon
- Sort old photos into an album
- Plan a dream trip
- Have a pajama day
- List 10 things you are grateful for
- Read aloud to each other
- Write a letter to your future self
- Have a spa night at home
- Make a mug of hot cocoa and read
- Sit in a park and people-watch
Useful and kind16
Jobs that feel good when done, and small kind things for others.
- Rearrange your bedroom
- Declutter one drawer
- Organize your books by color
- Make a playlist for a friend
- Video call a relative
- Clear out your closet to donate
- Fix something that is broken
- Teach someone a skill you know
- Plan a surprise for someone
- Race to tidy one room
- Prep meals for the week
- Write a letter to a friend
- Write thank-you notes
- Pick up litter in a park
- Wash the car together
- Weed the garden
Outings and places22
Places to go, from the library to a planetarium show.
- Visit the library
- Browse a thrift store
- Pick one book at a bookstore
- Try a new coffee shop
- Explore a part of town you have not seen
- Go to a museum on a free-entry day
- Visit a farmers market
- Go bowling
- See a movie at the theater
- Play mini golf
- Visit the zoo
- Visit an aquarium
- Try an escape room
- Visit a museum
- Watch a local sports game
- Go to a concert
- Play at an arcade
- Go to a comedy show
- See a play at a local theater
- Take a day trip to a nearby town
- Go to a water park
- See a planetarium show
Tags read: where · cost · who · age. "All ages" means kids, teens and adults can do it together. The 12 activities on the wheel when the page opens come from this list too.
Filters
Tell the activity wheel what kind of bored you are
The activity wheel has 4 filters: where, cost, who and age. Where, Who and Age take one choice each. Cost takes any mix of free, low cost and paid, and every change refills the wheel.
| Filter | Choices | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Anywhere, Indoors, Outdoors | 118 activities work indoors and 59 work outdoors. 10 of them, such as reading, count as both. |
| Cost | Free, Low cost, Paid | Free uses what most homes have or a public place with no fee. Low cost is a small spend, such as ingredients. Paid means a ticket, class or rental. |
| Who | Any size, Solo, Pair, Group | How many people the activity suits. Many fit more than one size. |
| Age | Any age, Kids, Teens, Adults, All ages together | "All ages together" shows only activities that suit kids, teens and adults at once. |
- Indoors118
- Outdoors59
- Free100
- Low cost40
- Paid27
- Works solo112
- Works for a group106
- Suits kids128
Prices vary by place, so treat the cost tags as a rough guide. 100 activities on the list cost nothing.
One tap
Rainy day, kids and other quick filters
Each quick filter is a saved set of filters, so Rainy day and Kids press the right chips for you. Press an active quick filter again to clear it.
| Quick filter | Sets | Matches | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rainy day | indoors, free or low cost | 100 | Build a blanket fort, Make a stop-motion video, Record a pretend podcast |
| Kids | for kids | 128 | Build a blanket fort, Plan a surprise for someone, Go to a playground |
| Free and outside | outdoors, free | 37 | Read a book from your shelf, Hike a local trail, Pick up litter in a park |
| On my own | free or low cost, solo | 101 | Build a blanket fort, Build an indoor obstacle course, Try a new coffee shop |
| Whole family | for a group, all ages together | 58 | Have a living room dance party, Try a food you have never eaten, Get ice cream somewhere new |
| Paid outing | paid | 27 | Go bowling, Take a pottery class, Go horseback riding |
Kids activities that use the oven or go outdoors assume an adult is nearby. The Kids filter shows 128 activities.
Staying in
Things to do when bored at home
For things to do at home, set Where to Indoors and leave only Free switched on under Cost. That leaves 70 activities that use only what you have, and 49 of them work for one person.
Good starting points are a 20-minute short story, a domino run, an origami crane or a living room dance party. Switch Low cost back on if you have a few ingredients, and baking joins the list.
Choose 20 on the wheel for more variety, and press Remove in the popup after each activity you finish. Bored at home with a partner instead? The date night ideas page has an At home list with a meal for each plan.
Things to do when you're bored at home and alone
- Make something small. An origami crane, a comic strip or a silly song takes under an hour.
- Learn one trick. A card trick, 10 words of a new language or the sign language alphabet.
- Fix one thing. Declutter one drawer or fix something that is broken. It counts as a win.
- Get cozy on purpose. Hot cocoa and a book, a pajama day or a journal page.
- Reach out. Video call a relative or write a letter to a friend.
Groups
What to do when bored with friends or family
Set Who to Group and the wheel keeps 106 things to do when bored with friends or family. Add Free and Low cost only, and 83 of them cost little or nothing.
School holidays
Choose Kids under Age, switch off Low cost and Paid, then let each child take a turn spinning.
Rainy weekends
Rainy day keeps every idea indoors and free or low cost, from charades to homemade pizza.
Friends with no plan
Set Who to Group, and leave Paid on if everyone agrees to chip in for an outing such as bowling.
Family days
Whole family shows group activities that suit every age together, such as a bike ride or stargazing.
Evenings alone have a quick filter too: On my own shows solo ideas that cost little or nothing. If the group is hungry as well as bored, the food wheel picks a meal from lists for dinner, takeout and desserts.
By age
Activities for kids, teens and all ages
The Kids filter shows 128 things to do when bored for kids, and the Teens filter shows 137. Adults get 123, and 84 suit kids, teens and adults at once.
- 128For kidsMaking and moving: a cardboard robot, a sock puppet show, hopscotch
- 137For teensA stop-motion video, an escape room, a thrift store hunt
- 123For adultsIncluding meal prep, fixing things and a comedy show
- 84All ages togetherA board game tournament, a bike ride or stargazing
For siblings of different ages, choose "All ages together" under Age. For a quiet art activity, the drawing prompt wheel spins a subject, a style and a twist at easy, medium or hard.
Quick start
How to use the activity wheel
The activity wheel turns a long list of things to do when bored into one pick. Every filter change refills it with activities that fit.
Set the filters
Press a quick filter such as Rainy day or Kids, or set Where, Cost, Who and Age yourself.
Choose the wheel size
Put 10, 20 or All matching activities on the wheel. New mix swaps in a different random selection.
Spin
Press Spin, tap the wheel or press Space. The popup shows the activity and its tags.
Remove what you did
Press Remove in the popup to drop an idea you have already done, then spin again.
Add your own activities
Open Edit entries & settings and type your own ideas in the Entries box, one per line, such as a favorite park or the pool down the road. A filter change replaces the whole wheel, and Undo in the message brings your list back. Press Save to keep a custom list, and use weights in "Weights, colors & images" to make a favorite twice or 3 times as likely.
Still bored?
What to do when bored and nothing sounds fun
When nothing sounds fun, shrink the choice: put 10 activities on the wheel, spin once and do the result for 10 minutes. A long list of things to do when bored makes choosing harder, and a spin skips that step. If it still feels wrong after 10 minutes, Remove it and spin again.
With 10 activities on the wheel, each one has a 10% chance per spin. With All 167 on the wheel, each has 0.6%, and a slice gets too thin to read on a phone. New mix keeps the wheel small while the full list stays in play: each activity has a 6% chance of making a 10-slot mix.
The pick comes from your browser's crypto.getRandomValues before the wheel moves, so the animation only shows a result that is already decided. The page on how wheel picks stay random explains the method.
Ways to beat "I'm bored"
- Change rooms or go outside. Set Where to Outdoors and spin for a walk, a kite or a game of catch.
- Pick a group, not an activity. Spin all of Calm and cozy on a tired day, or Active and sporty on a restless one.
- Agree that the spin is final. One re-spin each, then the wheel decides.
- Need something narrower? The decision wheel has short ready-made lists, such as weekend plans or which game to play.
FAQ
Activity wheel FAQ
How many activities are on the activity wheel?
The list has 167 activities in 10 groups. The filters choose which ones can go on the wheel, and you choose 10, 20 or all of them.
What are good things to do when bored at home?
Try a jigsaw puzzle, a living room dance party, an origami crane or baking cookies from scratch. Set Where to Indoors and the wheel picks from 118 indoor ideas.
What are free things to do when bored?
100 of the 167 things to do when bored on this page cost nothing, from stargazing to charades. Switch off Low cost and Paid under Cost to spin only those.
Can I spin just one group, such as games?
Yes. Press a group's Spin all button in the list on this page. Its activities fill the wheel, and any filter brings back the full list.
Are the activities suitable for kids?
Yes, with the Kids filter on. It shows 128 activities written with children in mind. Anything with an oven or a trip outside needs an adult nearby.
What counts as low cost?
Low cost means a small spend, such as ingredients, craft supplies or a snack. Prices differ from place to place.
Will a filter change delete my own ideas?
Yes, it replaces the wheel. Press Undo in the message to get your list back, or save it first with Save.
How is this different from the decision wheel?
The activity wheel filters a long tagged list, while the decision wheel loads short fixed lists. Use this page when you have no ideas yet.
Is the activity wheel free?
Yes. Every filter and feature is free, with no account or download.
Last updated · Written and tested by Melissa T. Brown