Ask HN: Low Effort but Useful Activities

daemonologist · 2025-04-26T16:19:29 1745684369

This isn't quite what you're looking for, but you could label data. It's low effort (usually) and creates something useful, although it doesn't necessarily benefit you personally.

jbjbjbjb · 2025-04-26T21:56:50 1745704610

Meditation, learning keyboard shortcuts, learn an application, planning and organising like GTD, read a book

turtleyacht · 2025-04-26T17:37:30 1745689050

Copy paragraphs from textbooks. Time-consuming but forces one to slow down and think.

Memorization mnemonics. Shuffling through index cards to associate numbers to words. See Mind Performance Hacks (2006) from O'Reilly.

Make notebooks with cheap filler paper, high-capacity stapler, and duct tape. Use G2 pens or archival quality ink.

Make your own index cards: fold in half and then into thirds; cut those into rectangles. (Still on the lookout for good storage.)

Shade paper with crayon. Carpet is smoother than desks. Envelopes are a good way to iterate color combinations. Pick colors at random.

Convert mailed coupons into CSS. You get salable graphic designs and color palette for free.

Break down milk cartons for free cardstock.

Prime cardboard with paint for a cheap canvas.

meristohm · 2025-04-26T16:50:13 1745686213

Processing plant fibers for string/rope/etc. Nettle, yucca (so I've heard), hemp, ... it's a long list but regional.

Humming to find the resonant frequencies of the space you're in.

Observational drawing- paper, pencil, draw what you see (or if not sighted, maybe there's a similar activity?)

Listening to what's happening around you. Originally thinking birdsong, but the lowest barrier is just where you are.

sejje · 2025-04-26T15:13:49 1745680429

I fly drones in simulators.

The skills apply directly to real-world drones.

sloaken · 2025-04-26T21:09:16 1745701756

Is flying drones a real world possible job?

sejje · 2025-04-26T21:56:56 1745704616

Yes. The jobs I've heard about:

* Military

* Police

* Search and rescue

* Agriculture

* Videographer (real estate being common)

* Surveying

I just fly for fun.

linusg789 · 2025-04-26T15:52:38 1745682758

read books

pavel_lishin · 2025-04-26T14:21:52 1745677312

Exercise.

meristohm · 2025-04-26T16:46:10 1745685970

Walking or bicycling (or whatever mobility mode one can do), on the low-effort end, without sound in ears or eyes on screen; this lets the mind wander and eventually, interesting ideas and syntheses bubble up.

helloworlddd · 2025-04-26T14:29:46 1745677786

That's a good one. I was thinking more along the lines of something low effort that I could do at a desk or on a couch that will still lead me to improving a skill of some sort.