Things to do instead of scrolling (that you can do from your bed)

The best things to do instead of scrolling are small swaps you can do from exactly where you’re sitting: put a Kindle on the pillow where your phone was, play one word puzzle, start an album with the phone across the room, or text one person. None of them needs a walk, a class or a free Saturday, and each takes under five minutes to start. This page lists 20, grouped by the moment you’re in (the first minute you pick up your phone, in bed, on the toilet, at the table, home alone) and ranked by how little effort they take.

Here’s our argument. Most advice for “what to do instead of scrolling” is a list of projects, and a project is the wrong size for 11 p.m. in bed. So we built a ladder. You start on the bottom rung, which is almost no effort, and the top rung is one small thing with a real person.

To check that claim, we counted. We read 89 tips from the two long lists that rank for “things to do instead of scrolling” and judged each one for effort. 52 of the 89 (58%) were big leaps: leave the house, buy something, find another person, or keep going for weeks. Squats, swimming, baking, gelato, climbing trees, a yoga class, volunteering, hosting a brunch. How we counted is below.

The short answer: the ladder at a glance

The moment	Easy swap	Effort
First minute you pick up your phone	Say what you came to do, then do only that	10 seconds
First minute you pick up your phone	Log out of the one app you use most	1 minute, once
In bed	A Kindle or paperback where the phone used to sit	Lowest. Open it, read a page
In bed	Phone charging across the room, an album or audiobook on speaker	2 minutes, once
On the toilet	A book or e-reader in the bathroom, a word puzzle on paper	Low
At the table or the TV	Phone in another room, or face down and out of reach	30 seconds
Home alone and bored	A single-player game with no online features, a jigsaw, a coloring book	Low to medium
Home alone and bored	Three lines on paper: what’s on your mind	2 minutes
Any time	Text one person one specific plan	2 minutes, and the top rung

What we counted, and why it matters

Search “things to do instead of scrolling” and you get long lists. The top result when we checked on October 17, 2026 was “101 Things You Can Do Instead of Scrolling.” We read the lists and the essays that rank for this keyword and for “how to stop doomscrolling,” “quit social media” and “how to get off social media.”

Eight pages, 127 tips. By our own rubric, 64 were easy and 63 were big leaps. Split by format, the picture is clearer:

Page type	Tips	Easy	Big leap
The two long lists (101 things; 44 things)	89	37	52 (58%)
Six essays and guides	38	27	11

The essays are the realistic ones. But they aren’t lists, and most say “swap to another app” without telling you which one or when. Meanwhile, searching the text of all eight pages, “Kindle” or “e-reader” appeared on none of them. None addressed what to do in bed, on the toilet or at the dinner table. None was written for parents of a bored teenager.

Why “go for a walk” is a big step

“Go for a walk” is the reflex answer, and it’s good advice for someone who’s already in a decent place. It’s also a stack of steps: find shoes, decide where, leave the house, get weather-appropriate, and want to. That’s five decisions at the exact moment you’ve got the least energy for one.

You can see it in the threads where people ask. In r/getdisciplined someone writes “I quit social media and I’m SO BORED,” and the top reply in the snippet is “Try audio books and go for a walk.” In r/Advice, the top reply to someone bored after deleting everything but Reddit is “Go for a walk. Even if it’s only around the block.” Another poster in r/productivity says they ended up “substituting the dopamine with Netflix and other stuff.” These are anecdotes, not data, but they’re the pattern: the advice is a project, the person is tired, and they land on the nearest screen.

A walk is a fine rung. It just isn’t the first one.

The couch-level ladder

The rule for every swap here: you can start it from where you are, in under five minutes, without wanting to. If it fails that test, it’s not on the ladder.

The first minute you pick up your phone

You don’t need to stop picking it up. You need one beat between the pick-up and the app.

1. Say out loud what you picked it up for. “Weather.” Check the weather. Put it down. If you can’t say what it’s for, that’s the answer.
2. Count to 30 before you open the app. Decide after the 30 seconds whether you still want it.
3. Log out of the one app you use most. Typing a password adds a small inconvenience, which is the point. Use the browser version only if you must, and log out every time.

In bed

In bed you’re at your lowest energy, so a leap is least likely. Make the swap physical.

4. Put a Kindle or a paperback where the phone used to sit. Not “start reading more.” Just change what your hand finds. One reader in r/kindle wrote: “That’s actually the reason I bought a Kindle during the sale a couple weeks ago too.” You don’t need to finish a chapter. Read one page.
5. Charge the phone across the room. You’ll still have an alarm. You just won’t be an arm’s length from the feed. One r/productivity poster said the best technique was “not having my phone in my pocket when I’m home / in my office.”
6. Play an album or an audiobook on a speaker. With a speaker or wireless earbuds, the phone can stay far away. One r/nosurf commenter suggested “wireless earbuds, or a Bluetooth speaker” so the music keeps playing without the phone in reach.

On the toilet

None of the eight pages we read mentions this one. The swap is whatever lives in the room.

7. Keep an e-reader, a paperback or a magazine in the bathroom. It takes 20 seconds to put it there and no effort to pick it up.
8. Leave a puzzle book or a crossword on the shelf. A pen and a few squares is a complete activity for four minutes.
9. Leave the phone outside. The simplest version, and it works as well as the first two.

At the table or in front of the TV

Here the phone isn’t a replacement for anything. It’s a second screen.

10. Put the phone in another room for the meal. If it’s 30 seconds away, you won’t fetch it.
11. Or put it face down, out of reach. Not on the table. On the counter.
12. Let the TV be the only screen. If you notice yourself watching TV with a phone in your hand, put the phone in a different room for one episode.
13. Give yourself permission. One r/nosurf poster wrote: “Started watching TV again. Not the best substitute, I know, but it’s a start.” We agree with the second half of the sentence. Watching a show is a swap, and it’s a lower rung than nothing.

Home alone and bored

This is the one where lists tend to say “bake something.” You can, if you want to. Here’s what you can do if you can’t.

14. Play one word or number puzzle a day. Wordle, a crossword, sudoku, Connections. They’re short, they end, and a puzzle has a finish line a feed doesn’t.
15. Play a game that has no feed. A single-player game on a console or a tablet with the online features turned off. A reader in r/nosurf said of reading and video games: “there is so much less frustration and I feel like I’m wasting my time a lot less.”
16. Do a jigsaw puzzle, or color. Leave it out on a table with the lights on so it’s already started when you walk past.
17. Write three lines on paper. What’s on your mind, what you need to do tomorrow, or a letter to yourself. One r/getdisciplined poster’s advice was “Simply coloring, Journaling or writing a letter to yourself.”
18. Put on an album and hear it start to finish. No skipping.

The top rung: one small thing with a person

19. Text one person one specific idea. “Want to get tacos Thursday?” is easier to answer than “we should hang out sometime.” You’re not planning a weekend. You’re sending a sentence.
20. If they say yes, put it on a calendar. That’s the whole move. See the last section for a tool for it.

A screen isn’t the problem, the feed is

Some of the swaps above are screens: a Kindle, a console, a puzzle app. That’s deliberate.

The idea that all screens are the same is popular and contested. In r/nosurf one commenter wrote “im starting to think screens themselves are a problem.” Fair enough, and for some people a full break from every screen is the right call. But if you’re scrolling in bed at midnight, the question you need answered is “what should my hand pick up instead,” and a screen that stops is a different thing from a feed that doesn’t.

A book on a Kindle has an end. So does a level in a single-player game, and a puzzle has a solution. A feed has none of those. It’s built to hand you one more.

The Guardian’s May 22, 2026 piece on quitting doomscrolling without quitting your phone makes a similar distinction about games: “The distinction doesn’t actually lie in the playing, but in how you relate to what you’re doing.” The same piece warns that “some games employ the same engagement mechanics as social media platforms”, so a game with notifications, daily streaks and online chat isn’t a swap. Turn those off or pick one that doesn’t have them.

Our test: after ten minutes, do you stop on your own? If yes, it’s a swap. If the app is working to keep you, it isn’t.

Do you have to quit social media?

No. This is how to get off social media without making it a project: you don’t need a deletion day or a goal. Take the ladder one rung at a time. Move the swap to the places where you scroll most (bed first, for most people) and leave the rest alone for a week. Some people never delete anything. Quitting social media completely is a bigger step, and it’s one you can take later, from the ground the ladder gives you.

If it’s your kid who’s bored

If you’re a parent, the same logic applies: a bored teenager isn’t going to go outside because you said so, and the swap has to be something they can do from the couch.

We found no study of what works, and teens didn’t show up in the forum threads we read describing swaps for themselves. Almost every parent thread ends in rules. So treat the rest of this section as ideas to try, not findings. The console idea comes from our own experience, not research.

• A single-player game with the online features off. A console with no internet or social features is still a screen, and that’s fine. It has an end, and nobody’s commenting on it.
• A book, graphic novel or manga on an e-reader or from the library. Leave one where the phone used to be.
• The phone charges in the kitchen overnight, for everyone. The top reply on one r/Parenting thread about a daughter’s phone use was “If your daughter keeps her phone with her at night that’s a great place to start making changes.” If you charge yours there too, it’s a house rule, not a punishment.
• A phone-free meal that includes you.
• Let them ask. One parent in r/Parenting wrote that their teenage daughter had asked for help with her phone. Handing over a console game or a book is a concrete answer, and it isn’t a lecture.

None of this needs a conversation about screen time. Leave the swap where the phone was.

Where Camp fits

We make Camp, and this section is the only place it appears. Camp is an iPhone app for groups (friends, family, a team) to turn things they find online into plans to meet up, with a shared calendar, a chat for each plan and invites. It’s coming soon to the App Store, and there’s a waitlist.

It’s relevant to the top rung, not the bottom ones. Once the feed isn’t eating the evening, the reason to be off it is to spend time with someone, and the hard part of that is turning “we should” into a day. If your plan is getting everyone to agree on a date, Camp’s free Find a date works in a phone browser today. Camp is not a screen-time tool, and it won’t stop you scrolling. Camp is where IRL happens: a place to make the plan once you’ve put the phone down.

FAQ

How do I stop scrolling so much? Start with the moment, not the willpower. Pick the one place you scroll most (for most people, bed), and change what’s within reach there: a Kindle or paperback on the pillow, the phone charging across the room. A tiny inconvenience at the right moment beats a big resolution you won’t keep.

What can I do instead of scrolling on my phone? Something that starts in under five minutes, without wanting to: read one page, play one word puzzle, put on an album, write three lines on paper, or text one person a specific plan. This page lists 20, by moment.

How do I stop doomscrolling at night? Move the phone out of reach of the bed and put a book or e-reader where it was. Use a speaker or earbuds if you want audio. If you can’t sleep, a pen and paper for three lines is lower effort than anything else on the ladder.

What apps can I use to stop scrolling? The best replacement is an app that ends, such as a word puzzle, a crossword or an e-reader. Blockers and timers exist, and we didn’t test any. If a game has notifications, streaks or online chat, it works like the feed.

How do I quit social media without being bored? Expect boredom first: the threads we quote above describe it. Swap in low-effort things (a puzzle, an album, TV with the phone in another room) rather than waiting for a hobby to appear.

Is it okay to use a screen instead of scrolling? Yes, if it has an end. A Kindle, a single-player console game and a crossword app are screens that stop. A feed is a screen that doesn’t. Some people do better with no screens at all, and that’s a legitimate choice, but it’s a bigger step than the one this page asks of you.

How we counted

Question: how many of the tips in the pages that rank for these searches could you do from bed or the couch, in under five minutes, with little motivation?

Run: October 17, 2026. Eight pages fetched as plain HTML. Spend: none for the count (reading only).

• Pages: the two long lists that rank for “things to do instead of scrolling” (notesbythalia.com #1; jessieparker.co #9) and six essays or guides that rank for “how to get off social media,” “quit social media,” “how to stop doomscrolling” and similar.
• Easy: doable from a couch or bed in under 5 minutes, low motivation, no money, no other person. Big leap: needs leaving the house, buying something, another person or social courage, a project, or sustained motivation.
• Counts: 127 tips, 64 easy and 63 big leaps. In the two lists, 52 of 89 (58%). We read 63 of the 101 tips on notesbythalia.com (the evening section wasn’t read) and the 26 numbered items we could read of 44 on jessieparker.co.
• Limits: one person classified the tips. Borderline ones, such as “read a few pages,” were counted as easy when a lazy version exists. Counting borderline tips as easy means we may have undercounted the big leaps. Eight pages are a sample, not the web.

Sources

Our count (October 17, 2026), from these pages:

• 101 Things You Can Do Instead of Scrolling, Notes by Thalia
• 44 Things to Do Instead of Social Media, Jessie Parker
• Why I Quit Social Media, Whole You Nutrition
• Quitting Social Media, PlushCare
• What Finally Got Me to Delete Social Media, Apartment Therapy
• How to Quit Social Media, Popular Science
• How to quit doomscrolling without quitting your phone, The Guardian, May 22, 2026
• How to Quit Social Media for Good, By Jack Waters

Forum threads, as anecdotes (quoted from Google’s search snippets on October 17, 2026): the Reddit links in the text above.