Five Surprisingly Addictive Things to Do Instead of Doomscrolling
We’ve all been there. You sit down for a five-minute coffee break and a quick TikTok scroll, then suddenly it’s three hours later, the sun’s gone down, and you have no idea where the time went. Or maybe it’s just a classic bed-rot day, but you’re craving something a little different.
I know I definitely feel a twinge of guilt every time my weekly screen time report pops up and shows WAY too many hours on socials. While it would be nice to go cold turkey and ditch the phone completely, sometimes you need the baby steps. Something that still lets you stay on your phone, but redirects that energy into something that feels a little better for your brain than pure mush-mode scrolling.
So here are five things to do instead of the doom scroll. They’re deceptively fun and can get surprisingly deep.
1. Sudoku
This one was a slow burn for me. We all know the basics: fill in a 9x9 grid with the numbers 1–9, no repeats. But where it gets really fun is when you start adding the extra rules. Cages, lines, dots, all of it turns sudoku into this weird little logic language you slowly learn to speak.
Once you get into strategies and patterns, it becomes incredibly satisfying. If you want a great entry point, try watching Cracking the Cryptic on YouTube. Seeing their thought process is calming and genuinely helpful. Then, when you try it yourself, you can lose five minutes or two hours without even realising. I personally love opening up a randomised Sudoku for train rides where I lose mobile data. A proper brain stretch, highly recommended.
2. Cryptic crosswords
I used to think cryptic crosswords were just about knowing obscure words, and if you didn’t, tough luck. Turns out that’s not really how they work.
Cryptic clues are more like little puzzles inside puzzles. Different words in the clue tell you what to do with the rest, whether that’s anagramming something, removing letters, or even saying it out loud and using a homophone instead. The more you learn the “language” of it, the more it starts to click.
What I love most is that you don’t even need to know the final word sometimes. You can follow the steps and logic your way there anyway. If you want to try it in bite-sized chunks, Minute Cryptic is great. Daily free puzzles, and a paid option if you get properly hooked.
3. Other daily online puzzles
There are about a million of these now. It started with Wordle and exploded into everything from Connections, to The Atlantic’s Bracket City, to fandom-specific games like Pokedle and LoLdle.
Pick your poison. Find the one that scratches your particular brain itch. There’s something oddly grounding about doing the same little puzzle every day, especially when the alternative is falling into the endless feed. A lot of these also offer backlogs or endless modes, so you can keep going for as long as you'd like.
4. Reading and lit
It sounds basic, but nothing swaps one kind of scroll for another quite like a good book. Fiction, non-fiction, classics, the latest Hunger Games release, or even a 120,000-word fanfic you cannot put down (WHEN does the slow burn end).
It’s accessible, easy to switch to, and there’s something for everyone. Between libraries, ebook apps, and free online options, it’s never been easier to make reading your mobile go-to instead of defaulting to socials.
5. Phone-based life admin
As someone with a very silly little ADHD brain, I live in a constant cycle of creating systems and then letting everything pile up anyway.
But honestly, Life Admin is a great scroll replacement. Organising shopping lists and notes, deleting apps, rearranging your home screen to be cute and functional (widgets, ily), sorting through your photo albums and clearing out the junk. It’s idle enough to do on the couch, but it still feels productive. 10/10.
Now, none of this is about never scrolling again or becoming some perfectly offline, hyper-productive person. Sometimes you just want to rot a little, and that’s fine. But if you’re craving something different, something that feels a tiny bit more nourishing without needing a full lifestyle overhaul, these little swaps can make a real difference.
You don’t have to drop the phone, just give your brain a better way to stretch and feel good.
Written by Madi Laffan