Very unique and unpopular opinion, I know, but I hate watching ads during a show. Fuck the advertisers; I refuse to pay attention.
Rather than doom scroll, I’d love to hear what you think I should do when ads are on.
To make things challenging:
*often I’m pinned to the couch by my senior dog who I’m loathe to move unnecessarily, so getting up and doing squats is often out
*loud activities are probably out, see above
*be specific, ‘I play games on my phone’ - but what can you play casually, for 30s at a time (for example) and then happily go back to watching your show?
*use adblockers bla bla, not always possible and not in the spirit of my request.
That being said, all suggestions are great - I’m sure we’ll all get something from it. Stick it to the man!
You could ponder the meaning of life, the universe and everything
Learn a language. Ad breaks are long enough for one or two lessons in Duolingo and probably other apps as well.
Oh gosh I’ve tried Duolingo so many times over the years and never gotten far. I’m impressed with people who keep it up.
Exercises like Duolingo are only half the battle. You need to have some immersion in the language you’re learning. Watch tv and listen to podcasts in the target language, you won’t understand (at first) but your brain will start recognising the sounds and structures.
Reached my 1700 day streak today
Send help
The owl has my family
For me, the key was finding a regular time during the day whe I do the lessons. That’s why I recommended you do it during the ad breaks.
An ex-coworker of mine recommended Mango Languages, which is supposed to be much better and also if you have a library card, you can usually get a subscription for free through them! The lessons are probably a little longer than 30 seconds, but not too much longer. I’d say a minute tops.
Lift hand weights. Boardgame apps on your phone. Cat lady or any of the clever games spring to mind.
Can you tell me more about the games you like? I have lots but I’m pretty bored with most of them.
Do body squats every ad break.
If you watch it with an Arr there will never be advertisements but my guess is just play something good like slay the spire that you can quit and come back without losing a lot of progress
Personally if its something i cant block ads on i simply dont watch. Something that can be kinda hard to block ads on for example is twitch.tv which i used to never use until i realized i could use an alternate player and not get ads. And for tv and movies i pirate everything.
Meditation/mindfulness/breathing exercises
Lol Exuberation
Do the dishes. Make it a challenge, you touched the lava floor if you dont finish in time so take on only what you know you can squeeze in just in time
make a grocery shopping list (or any to-do list)
Stretch your legs by raising them straight (still sitting down) and rotate your feet
Stretch your arms up and move your neck, rotate your shoulders
Think what went well today
Mute the ads
Already muted compadre
Better then muting - pause and then fast forward.
Watch YT shorts during the ad break. Use a laptop + Firefox + uBlock origin to block the YT ads. If you prefer to use a tablet or a phone, it’s also possible to block the ads.
The shorts are bad, but still better than TV ads, but the good thing is, they can be interrupted as soon as the ad break ends. Watching longer videos is also an option, but there will be uncomfortable interruptions.
Now that you have an alternative video source competing with old school media, you can start to think about which one you actually enjoy more. Maybe you’ll find yourself watching more YT than whatever fake reality BS is on TV.
Offline Chess, Minesweeper, Sudoku etc. on your phone?
Using an RSS reader and catching up on news?Ukulele
Have you ever played on boardgamearena? It’s a website where you can join a bunch of board games with people around the world. When it’s your turn, you have a certain number of hours or days to make your move (kinda like old timey chess by mail) and then go back to your life. You can be in many games at a time.
Oh that’s cool, I’ll check it out - thanks!
Sail the high seas and never see an ad again. Make your time your own.
Seriously. Ditch your streaming providers; ditch cable. Just get Stremio + Torrentio + Real-Debrid. And SmartTubeNext. All the video content you could ever need on your TV can be streamed instantly through these two apps. Every movie; every TV show; all of YouTube. All ad-free. Buy an antenna for local channels/sports and you’re set for life.
