Listless List
When you find yourself with a few spare moments, instead of turning to your phone, turn to your listless list and think about how best to spend your time.
There is no excuse to be bored.
We have greater access to ALL THE THINGS at this point in human existence than we've ever had before. AI has lowered the barrier to entry for learning any topic and if you can't think of something you want to learn, just ask Gemini, ChatGPT, DeepSeek, or Claude for ideas. Take a personality test to reveal your subconscious interests if you're that unsure of where to start. Make a plan. People lament their lives passing by them, but did they have a plan in the near term and long term for what they wanted to accomplish? Imagine if you approached your work without a plan... yet how many people ignore this when it comes to their life?
Start by freewriting a list of things you have done, love doing, want to do, wish you could do, should be doing (remove the should with 'get to'). Strive for 100 items in one sitting. Have fun, don't censor yourself, don't edit - just let your ideas organically flow from one to the next until you start repeating yourself and you loop through a new cycle of daydream ideation.
When you find yourself with a few spare moments, instead of turning to your phone, turn to your listless list and think about how best to spend your time. What will make you feel more fulfilled: doom scrolling in search for a pallid dopamine hit or accomplishing something that ignites your creativity or makes you feel proud? Fuck your pride, do it to DO. Want to learn a new language, spend five minutes a day DOING. Want to get better at an instrument, let yourself improvise if you're not feeling up for practice. Want to want to do something? Let your list guide you.
Want to get better at drawing? Doodle as you pencil down your thoughts. Research shows a strong correlation between learning and handwriting - probably linked through the movement of our hands and the attention it requires to put pen to paper. Visual note taking has been shown to drastically increase memory recall. Be playful with your drawings, connect ideas with non-literal interpretations of the material. Use metaphor, dig into childhood memories to associate concepts across work and life.
Split your list into chunks for how much time is invovled. Just like Netflix with carousel headers like "Binge worthy weekend" and "30 minute laughs" - group your list into general time buckets or themes or locations (home, office, school, etc.) so you can take action with the resources you have in that moment.
Be silly, be present.
Don't take yourself so seriously. Life is too short to be totally buttoned up all the time. Children play uninhibited by the constraints that adult minds place on themselves. We judge, we second guess, we inhibit. This is probably why there's a multi-billion dollar industry setup to ease our inhibitions. You can do this for free by allowing yourself to be silly and letting go of your ego. Play with your kid or pet and get totally into it - let your imagination be completely free - there are no rules to play, you can do whatever the fuck you want.
Think of the last three times you were truly happy - reasons small or big. My guess would be that you weren't staring at a screen and it probably didn't happen during your day job (and if it did — keep your dayjob). You were probably with another human or animal and it involved being present. Simple as that. Do something that allows for human connection or grounds you in that moment. Make a section of your list that you can do solo and another section that involves others. Have a work meeting that ended early? Grab your colleague and ideate on something in your human bucket.
Don't make this a list to cross off. This list has no end. These activities are infinitely repeatable. These are not things you do and then pat yourself on the back for doing. These are reminders of how to live life. Share your list with others, invite them to join you, collaborate on your lists together. Refine your list as you grow as a person - use it as something to aspire to. We will never be complete as human beings - we will never feel 100% fulfilled. But the act of doing, the act of trying, failing, making, building, experiencing, loving, learning will make us feel that we applied ourselves during our very short existence on this rock.