Summer is a great time to do fun things and maybe earn a little extra money. But you can only go to the beach so many times (or daydream about it, if you don't live near a beach), and even the most rigorous part time job gives you time off. While you could use that time to be productive--clean your house, volunteer at an animal shelter, get ahead on the research paper you have to write in the fall--sometimes all you want to do is, well, nothing. In order to facilitate your most noble procrastination efforts, here are eight ways to waste time this summer.
1. Teach your mom how to use Pinterest.
Gently explain to her that she doesn't need to save every pin to her hard drive, because that's what her boards are for. For maximum time spent, draw her a detailed diagram.
2. Spend hours analyzing the accuracy of BuzzFeed quiz results.
Are you reallyBaby Spice? How did they so horribly underestimate how much of a Lord of the Rings fan you are? And how are all of those zodiac sign quizzes so accurate?
3. Imagine who would show up to your funeral.
A bit morbid, perhaps, but endlessly interesting. Would your bae be there, even though they live four states away? Would they say something nice, or be too overcome by sorrow to speak? Would people pretend to know you better than they actually did? Seriously, you can kill a lot of time thinking about these things (no pun intended).
4. Watch every OK Go music video.
If you haven't seen their ridiculously cool Rube Goldberg machine video, or the one with optical illusions, or the one with dogs, or the one they shot in zero gravity, or the rest of their videos, it's a great way to waste time. Plus, a lot of them use interesting physics or time lapse photography, so you feel vaguely intelligent watching them.
5. Update your Facebook page.
The older you get, the more you cringe about all those embarrassing status updates, and there's no time like the present to make sure your online image is as unrealistically ideal as possible.
6. Scroll through five years' worth of a newfound Instagram account.
Some personal favorites include calligrapher @kingblottothethird, the unceasingly adorable Cats of Instagram account, and the impossibly beautiful model Brock O'Hurn.
7. Write a novella about your pet's epic escapade that one time they ran away.
Why did Spot the dachshund leave? Was he meeting a pretty lady dog? When Nefertiti the hairless house cat didn't come home for four days, was she fighting crime in the neighborhood across town? Anything is possible.
8. Design a rock garden.
Is there anything as zen as a rock garden? You know, with gracefully raked pebbles and some sophisticated topiary. I feel more calm just thinking about it. And of course you don't actually have to build it, so there's basically no effort required.
Just remember, as the saying goes: "Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted."
