I find myself checking out pretty often and just making myself feel bad about the state of the world, or killing half an hour on stupid games that I could 100% live without. This is probably pretty common, and I’m wondering what other people have found as a way to do more productive things with their phones in the downtime.
I mean… there’s porn
And stock quotes!
With Inoreader I plugged in a bunch of RSS feeds of gaming news and stuff related to my hobbies. I like it because there is no comment section to engage with unless I really go out of my way, which I have no desire to. I get all of that out of my system here on Kbin.
What I find interesting is I was able to get one feed from a sub that doesn’t really exist in many forms on the Internet that I know of. I figured with the API fiasco that it wouldn’t work, but it does. It just spits out a text version of new posts for me essentially. Very useful for keeping up on VGM vinyl news.
I mostly listen to music, read ebooks, take notes in class and work on termux, actually most of my time on my phone is spent on termux connecting to my servers, Essentially my phone is a pda with remote access
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I know that it’s more convenient to use a laptop, but i’m always on the move and lugging around a laptop isn’t really practical for what i do, plus my current laptop chews trough it’s battery in less than an hour, i’d need to be always connected to an outlet to not have the fear of it dying on me; so i just carry a foldable keyboard in my pocket, it’s not the best thing in the world but at least it’s better than nothing.
-Get a lot of spam calls and texts
-Read e-books
-Keep email notifications up to remind me to check them on desktop
-Watch Youtube to fall asleep
-Listen to my work in progress songs between working on them, take notes on what to do next
Read e-books
There have been times when I have wanted to do that, especially when I forgot my physical book when I’m outside the home and I have some spare time…
Regardless, I don’t know why I never feel comfortable with it, perhaps I’m a bit spoiled with my iPad and my Kindle, I have the same feeling for mangas and for comics.
It’s exactly for that convenience and random downtime that I keep a few on my phone! Waiting in line has never been so enjoyable.
Perhaps, as a backup option might be a good call.
A foss game Lexica - the word sources are quite diverse so it’s very easy to learn new words.
I like making music, while phones aren’t ideal there’s definitely possibilities. Flip, G-Stomper, Koala Sampler and Kaossilator are my main go-to’s.
And I use my phone notes quite a bit, be it for lyrics or just organizing my thoughts, things I want to get done, ways to do them, lists of things. I do a lot of this handwritten but it’s handy having them written digitally too.
I use it to identify plants. It helps to offset the inflation food prices.
I take a lot of pictures. Mostly of my pets. Yes, I do actually look back at old photos and I love it.
Productive is not what I’d call what I do but anyway: I don’t follow things that make me miserable or even just “people”. My feeds are full of all kinds of fun stuff, like my fandoms or science or art. So I don’t ever “doom scroll”, really, but read about what other people thought about that newest episode or some new thought they had about an ancient episode or general fan squealing about a ship or the newest weird findings about spinosaurus or ‘look at these new photos Perseverance has taken’ or ‘look at this detail in this awesome painting’ or ‘this is how to improve this aspect in your drawings’.
Yes I am on tumblr. Yes I am on tumblr too much.
Pull it out. Look at the time. Remember I didn’t want to doomscroll. Put it back. Repeat.
Learning languages with Duolingo, journaling, cooking apps, crosswords, browsing the Ikea app (but that could be considered doomscrolling - the doom of my bank account)
I’ve been playing chess and chess puzzles.
I use maps for navigation (mostly OsmAnd) and improve OpenStreetMap with my self-made website (https://mapcomplete.org)
Maps.
Look up word etymology. Also kanji and language studies. You don’t need a language program like memorize, you can just study words.
Listen to ABC Listen podcasts and live. Listen to my music. Listen to audiobooks.
Camera. Photos and occasional video. I have been photographing some of my garden, same plants each day to show growth.
Stay in touch with friends and family on Telegram, or just with a phonecall.
I know people who use their phone for money but I don’t do that. It does contain my drivers licence though. I prefer the licence itself, that said, I don’t want to hand over my unlocked phone.
Way too much music and occasionally working on some personal writing projects that don’t end up anywhere because I have started so many that I lose interest in an idea/story.
Mostly duolingo and lichess.org.
