Whenever I'm bored, I do jigsaw puzzles. It sounds like something for grandmothers, and my friends tease me about it, but it really works for me. I'm a twenty-four-year-old customer service agent in Cebu, in the Philippines.
I usually get bored on my days off, especially in the rainy season, when there's a typhoon warning and everyone has to stay indoors. My job involves talking to customers for eight hours, mostly on night shifts, so on my free days I sometimes have energy but nothing to do with it. That restless, flat feeling usually hits in the afternoon.
I keep a few puzzles on a shelf, usually a thousand pieces, with pictures of landscapes or busy city scenes. I clear the dining table, put on some music, and start by finding all the edge pieces, then sort the rest by colour into little piles. I can easily spend three or four hours on it without noticing the time, and a big puzzle usually takes me two or three afternoons. My younger brother Carlo sometimes joins me, although he mainly steals the satisfying pieces at the end.
I think it helps for a few reasons. Firstly, it keeps my hands busy without a screen. If I'm bored and pick up my phone, I end up scrolling for hours and feeling worse. Secondly, it's absorbing in a calm way. You have to focus on shapes and tiny details, so your mind stops wandering. And finally, there's a clear sense of progress. At work, a difficult call doesn't really have an ending, but with a puzzle, every piece you place is a small achievement, and finishing it is surprisingly satisfying.