Long flights can be dreadful. Especially when Wi-Fi is down or the in-flight movies are less than appealing. You can always read a book, listen to music, or sleep, but for long flights, those three things can get old fast. Below are 10 productive things (well, except for number nine) you can do on a flight.
1. Organize your phone.
Free up some memory by getting rid of apps you never use and embarrassing photos of yourself you accidently snapped with your front facing camera. You can also organize your apps based on categories like travel apps, fitness apps, music apps, etc.
2. Create music playlists.
Using Spotify, 8Tracks or your own tunes, create playlists based on your interests or activities: Travel playlists, workout playlists, party playlists, road trip playlists–the options are limitless.
Offline tip: If you have Spotify Premium, you can make up to 3,333 songs available offline.
3. Listen to Podcasts.
Podcasts are a great, free source of entertainment. The best part about podcasts is that you can download them and listen to them offline. The hit series Serial helped to popularize podcasts and due to its success, many more podcasts have emerged.
4. Plan out your trip.
On your way to explore a new place? Plan out the details of your trip like where to eat, where to grab a drink, and map out the sites you want to see. You can even use TripCase to help you plan out your travel itinerary.
5. Create an exercise or diet plan.
A successful exercise or diet plan requires planning. First, Take a moment to write out your goals. For workouts, plan out which exercises you’ll do on what days. Include sets, reps, and duration. For your diet, make a list of foods you like and dislike. Decide which of those foods you’ll eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (don’t forget snacks).
6. Learn to draw.
Pack a small sketchbook and pencil in your carry on and try out your drawing skills (or use a stylus and tablet). Save a few photos to your phone that you can use as a reference or find an app or ebook that will walk you through the steps.
7. Learn to code.
Coding is a great skill to learn and there are hundreds of programming languages you can explore. There are thousands of free references like W3Schools or Code Academy. For many languages, like HTML and CSS, all you need is a simple text editor like Notepad (but check out Notepad++ or Sublime for a better learning experience).
Offline tip: For offline learning, bring a book or save your favorite lessons from the web as a PDF.
8. Edit your photos.
Chances are, you have tons of photos on your phone–some may need more attention than others. Keep it simple with basic edits like brightness and contrast or play around with cool filters and special effects. Check out these photo editing apps for iPhone or these apps for Android.
9. Color in a coloring book.
Adult coloring books are all the rage right now. Aside from being a fun activity to kill time, there are claims that coloring has therapeutic benefits such as relieving stress or anxiety. If you prefer not to carry on a bunch of crayons or colored pencils, you can even download coloring books on your tablet.
10. Learn a new language.
This is a perfect option if you are traveling internationally. There are tons of websites and apps, like DuoLingo or Loecsen, that can help you conquer even the toughest languages. And in some instances, learning a new language or two can really help your career.
