How to create a life? Bored to death....

[TopHatFox]

I've been on spring break for the past week, and I haven't done much besides sleep, eat, exercise, read, do homework, work at the library, watch movies, socialize briefly, talk to my partner, and a casual sexual encounter.

These activities are all well and good, but I AM BORED. Most of my day is spent in my apartment or staring at the library help desk computer. I can't even push myself to read any more books or blogs. Nope! I've lost count of the times I've opened Gmail, Facebook, ERE, Gmail, Facebook, ERE, Gmail, Facebook, ERE, Gmail, Facebook, ERE, Gmail, Facebook, ERE. At the risk of sounding dramatic, my life has become lying in my bed trying to sleep vacation away.

-----------------------------

There has to be a better way to spend long term free time. I can schedule a few days of free time well, but once the days stretch to weeks or months, I tend to watch movies or read predominantly, and it's realllllly vicarious and monotonous after a while. I don't think I've ever been taught how to organize my own long-term, free-time activities. I remember as a kid I would play video games like Skyrim and Fallout for the majority of my summer vacations.

What gives? Someone shake some sense into me before I start wishing school would start up again, or for 9-5 work to schedule my life for me. -_-

[unno2002]

Only been retired 2 ½ years or so. Wife & daughter working. I get up to ensure they get out the door, and stuff is ready when they get home. I read, tend the garden, do volunteer work at the library… I’d prefer the wife retire also, so we can move, but oh well, for now we’re stuck in a rental near her work.

Regarding video games, the home tv version of PONG was released in 1975, by then I’d been working in the factory for a few years….

[Gilberto de Piento]

It's probably too late for this break but spring break and other breaks in college are a great time to travel. If you're not the Daytona Beach/Cancun type (I'm not) there are probably university organizations that are going to destinations that are not all about partying. It can be very inexpensive if you split the gas among all the participants and borrowing a university van for the trip. A good example I have is biking in Utah with the outdoors club.

What do you like to do? What does your partner like to do?

[bradley]

What you're describing is as a result of, like you said, not having to have to schedule your time before. What are you interested in doing? Do that. Here's a list of free things to do in retirement: http://earlyretirementextreme.com/wiki/ ... you_retire

[fips]

I agree that having a schedule helps a lot in not wasting idle time.

I somehow wasted my time for the last weekends and I felt tired and empty on Sunday evenings. Last Friday, I tried to come up with a few goals that I wanted to achieve over the weekend. Not too many to be hustled but enough to feel that I have accomplished something. As a result, I got more done and Saturday and Sunday felt more fulfilling. Reminds me that I missed writing down a few lines for this weekend ...

Have you found an activity or interest that you feel passionate about?
The original post is one and a half years old.
And on top of that: How did you go about "creating your life" (maybe it could be called "getting back your life"?)?

[Dragline]

Short-term? Go outside -- you've got cabin fever. Walk or ride a bike to someplace you've never been. Maybe not even planning exactly where you are going. Or it if fits your personality, go volunteer for a day or participate in some mass event like a walk, run, polar plunge or whatever goes on in the spring in your area.

Long term? Start keeping a journal. A few sentences per day is usually enough to start. As goals, desires, whims and wants come to you (which often happens in the wee hours of the morning or in the shower and then is soon forgotten), write them down. Then when you are bored, go back and read them and start doing something about them. You'll never run out of things to do.

[tzxn3]

I attribute my "boredom" to addiction to novelty, and general anxiety inhibiting my ability to "work" (in a general sense, not as an employee). "Boredom" describes the effects of a broad range of conditions and circumstances, though.

I may be wrong, but I feel the solution generally starts with being open to becoming the sort of person who isn't easily bored, and then consciously correcting your patterns of thought in that direction.

[JasonR]

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[dalralmi]

I'd say for me it's having a weekly thing to look forward to that makes things less boring. A weekly pot luck dinner, or board game night or something similar is a fun thing to plan.

For me each day is schedule to at least have something to look forward to. Cleaning one day, board game group another, grocery shopping another, etc.

I also tend to scan my local news for local free events to attend just for the fun of it. I've watched many little league ball games solely cause I LOVE baseball and love the energy of the kids. Same thing with festivals and such. My city also does free museums one weekend a month which is nice for traveling exhibits.

[Arbo]

It's probably too late for this break but spring break and other breaks in college are a great time to travel. If you're not the Daytona Beach/Cancun type (I'm not) there are probably university organizations that are going to destinations that are not all about partying. It can be very inexpensive if you split the gas among all the participants and borrowing a university van for the trip. A good example I have is biking in Utah with the outdoors club.

What do you like to do? What does your partner like to do?

I kind of think travel is inconsistent with ERE, as Jacob hints. I don't even know if OP is really retired as he's living in a rental with his wife -- for all we know his finances are in shambles(actually, from reading his other posts, I do not think he's early retired yet)

Travel is just SO expensive, I'm seriously shocked how someone who's on the low expense lifestyle can ever hope to afford it

[sky]

You need to search for things that you are interested in, then explore those interests until you discover what you are passionate about.

[fips]

Or in the words of Steve Jobs:

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. [...] Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

[Gilberto de Piento]

I kind of think travel is inconsistent with ERE, as Jacob hints.

Travel is just SO expensive, I'm seriously shocked how someone who's on the low expense lifestyle can ever hope to afford it

I disagree that travel is inconsistent with ERE. Quick short term travel is expensive. Flying and staying in a hotel are the main costs. If you don't have to be back to work in a week a lot of cheap travel options become available.

Slow long term travel is inexpensive. If you avoid flying and avoid staying in a hotel you can avoid most of the travel costs. Backpacking, bicycle touring, and living in a van or RV are ways to travel on a budget. Staying with friends or couch surfing or camping avoids the cost of a hotel. WWOOFing can avoid the cost of housing and food (in exchange for work). Lots of people travel while spending very little money but you can't do it the "normal" way.

Also look into travel hacking. There are a lot of ways of getting free flights and housing. Unfortunately most of them require using your credit card a lot so if you don't make many purchases they won't work.

[vexed87]

The issue here is that your time is usually occupied with study, and when the study is out you have a lot more free time than usual.

Unless you make specific plans/a schedule you can't expect to be occupied and fulfilled for long. I have so much going on at home its impossible to be bored in the evenings, but I expect if I quit my job now, I too would get bored very quickly. You likely haven't given yourself anything to do besides "kill" time, hence boredom.

So fix it! Start a woodworking project, buy a junker bike and fix it up and sell on for profit, learn a new skills, volunteer for a good cause, get to know your community better, most of us don't have time for this stuff when we are so busy through the days, which is why you are bored now with all this extra free time. It might have been prudent to save some cash for a short travel experience ERE style, it might cost you $50-300, but at least you would have tried something new.

[Did]

Vagabonding is a low cost form of travel. Slow travel is another form.

Reminds me of a quote from the 70s (Ed Buryn):

“Money, of course, is still needed to survive, but time is what you need to live. So, save what little money you possess to meet basic survival requirements, but spend your time lavishly in order to create the life values that make the fire worth the candle. Dig?”

It was quoted in Rolf Potts Vagabonding book.

[OldPro]

At what age do kids grow up and stop saying to Mom, 'there's nothing to do?'

[inoubliable]

Get outside. Best advice I have.
My kids will sometimes say that they're bored and I remind them of all we have outside to do. Birding, playing with the outside toys, taking a walk, going for a hike, having a picnic. There are things we do that cost a bit of money, too. Drive-in theater, national parks.

Hobbies, too. Sometimes you've gotta pay to play, kwim? Art classes, or maybe join a club that does DIY projects?

Volunteering can be rewarding, too.

[George the original one]

Zalo - spring break is over now, right? So what did you do?

[TopHatFox]

I explored Amherst on foot, both the built & natural places--this was actually lots of fun. I also visited local museums, like the Emily Dickinson museum, Mead Art Museum, and Beneski Geology Museum--this was interesting and informative. I also attended some local sustainability events at a local Co-op, where I met some lovely, unconventional people.