Most of us complain when there is so much work to do. But what happens when you have submitted all your tasks, pending deadlines, already dealt with follow-ups, and have all the extra time in the world? Chances are you might just fidget or check your social media feed out of habit. Sometimes you might even force yourself to do something more productive like reading books, organizing your messy desk, cleaning up your email inbox, or getting your skill ready for future projects. But we're not doing that here! We're looking into more fun things you can do in your office while your work hasn't piled up again or when you're just bored. This is the perfect time to loosen up and fool around, so read on to find out our list of ideas regarding what to do when you are bored at work and want to have a little bit of fun!
Try the following prank ideas that will surely lighten up your mood!
What to keep in mind before doing anything:
Unless you are the biggest boss of the company or the office where you are working, you should know that this is still an establishment that needs to be respected. (Even if you are the boss, you should never get too comfortable in a professional environment!) You should still be mindful of your limits at all times to avoid more problems in the future. We listed down three things to keep in mind before doing any activity to fill the void of boredom while at work:
1. Make 101% sure you have no more backlogs.
Check your email, your Slack, your to-do list, your revisions, and what-have-you. Checking them once is not enough. Try checking everything twice for added measure. Three times for best measure!. We don't want you to punish yourself for wasting your time during work because you overlooked a task. Once you did this and you are now 101% sure that you have nothing left to do, you may do more "fun" things we listed down.
2. Still abide by your office’s house rules.
Remember that this is still a professional environment founded by formalities and house rules. You must familiarize yourself with these things before doing anything. If you've ever encountered the term "hostile workplace,” you know that's what you should avoid at all costs. Failing to do so may harm your colleagues, or worse, cause you to lose your job. And we know that that is the last thing you want to happen here!
3. Be appropriate with your workmates.
Even without the written house rules of formalities, you must also be intuitive enough to know what is appropriate or not. Say, for example, if you will do a trick that may hold your stressed-out officemate from finishing their presentation, would you still do it? Of course not! A "joke" meant to harm another person is just a mean gesture and a bad joke. Learn to assess what is worth doing or not properly, and you will be just fine!
Now that you know what to keep in mind, you may read on to find more than ten ideas to do when bored at work!
What to do when bored at work?
1. Broken Mouse
This is one of the easiest ways to mess with your officemate. All you need is scotch tape/ masking tape to do the trick. Once your colleague goes on a bathroom break, sneak into their desk to attach a tape (scotch tape or masking tape will do) under their mouse. Once they come back, enjoy the pleasure of watching them try to move and rub the numbed mouse onto their mouse pad in a desperate manner. Try to see how long before they find out that they are being messed with!
Want another one that doesn’t involve tape? If you have a Bluetooth mouse and it is within their computer’s reach, connect this Bluetooth mouse to their computer and control everything! Watch them gradually lose their mind.
2. Vegetable Donuts
Be a peach by bringing a box of donuts to work. As everyone anticipates the mouthwatering and sugary treat you got, surprise them by revealing many random vegetables inside. What, who can blame you for only wanting the best nutrition for your officemates!?
3. Happy (Not Your) Birthday!
This is perfect if you have a timid and shy colleague that won't be confrontational enough to say it isn't their birthday. All you need is to prepare like you really wanted to surprise your officemate with a birthday cake, balloons, or even birthday hats! You will need the help of a couple of officemates to pull this off too! Don't worry; your effort won't go to waste, especially if you made a fun round of laughter and had a good cake! It's a win-win situation for this fake celebration!
4. Bathroom Full
Ok, we will admit this is a little cruel, especially if you'll have an officemate with a sudden upset stomach. All you need to do is gather sticks or branches outside and dress them up with pants and shoes to put on toilets - making it seem like someone else is taking a dump in the bathroom cubicles. Don't forget to remove it after several hours! You don't want your officemates to develop kidney stones, do you?
Another way to mess with them using the bathroom is to post an “Out of Order” sign outside. Try it at your own risk!
5. Prank Call
Suppose you don't want to go super elaborate with all the pranks during your spare time. In that case, you might try giving your officemates (or even your boss) a prank call without getting caught! Yes, that's right, you can mess with your boss without them suspecting you. You can do so by downloading our prank call app on your phone. First of all, we value privacy and security as much as you do. Secondly, we have tons of pre-made prank scripts that you can choose from! Professional voice actors perform these, so you wouldn't even have to worry about changing your speaking voice into something else while trying to hold your laughter. If you want something more hardcore and personalized, you can do so by a prank request. The chances of messing with someone through the phone are limitless, so we highly suggest you try this!
6. There is An Impostor Among Us.
Suppose you are scheduling your meetings or discussions through Slack, Microsoft Teams, or whatever project management tool/platform you use. In that case, you can mess with your colleague by changing your name and display icon into theirs and try sending a couple of messages that sound like them. Other office workers will be just as confused as the person you are trying to imitate, and it might take a while before they realize you're messing with them!
7. Keyboard Vegetation
This prank might take a while before you can have fun with it. So if you are bored now and see yourself spending time preparing a joke for another time, this might be a good option. All you need to do is get a spare keyboard to avoid ruining your officemate's real one. You might need a few mechanical duties with this, like discovering the insides of the thing. After you have access to the internal body of the keyboard, carefully make it a soil bed and place tiny seeds of low-maintenance grass on it. After doing this, you may set this functional keyboard to your officemate that stays near the window and watch them lose their mind as they see urban life and nature joining together!
8. Unresponsive desktop
This is pretty easy to do. While your officemate is on their lunch/bathroom break, sneak into their personal computer and take a screenshot of their main display. Now you set this screenshot as their main wallpaper, and you remove all the shortcuts on their desktop. When they come back, they will think there is something wrong with their computer and you are just there to make subtle giggles on the side. Just make sure to bring the program shortcuts back after you've confessed to your crime! You wouldn't want your prank to be a cause of waste of time.
9. Foghorns
Do you want to have everyone else's attention just as soon as you enter a room? You can simply attach a foghorn in your meeting room's entrance or just your office's entrance overall! Who wouldn't find a surprised face funny? Putting a foghorn inside rooms could even be an excellent ice breaker for your incoming team meeting!
10. Nicolas Caged
One way to mess with someone without having to clean up much afterward is through google chrome extensions. You can download an extension that changes every photo on every web page into Nicolas Cage! It’s no fuss and very simple. Fun, huh?
What To Do When Just Bored?
What Is This Drink Prank
This prank idea will be easy, but your victim will totally go crazy mad at you for this. After you finish your coke, fill the bottle with water and soy sauce - it may be anything dark and will make water appear like coke. This is one of the best pranks on friends, so make sure you choose the right victim. Ready with the fake coke? Serve it now. You know what happens next *scared for you.*
Ice Bucket Challenge Prank
This would be perfect during summer time; we think no one will get mad at you for this because, hey, anyone would be willing to dip themselves in iced cold water, anytime! But, you can also do this prank aside from warm days. So, here goes. Place a bucket of cold water on a slightly open door. Make sure the door is somewhat open to balance the bucket. After setting that up, call your victim into the room by telling them that--- oops!
Where is my food!
This is a safe food prank, so you don't have to worry. Start off by taking out two boxes of cereal and swapping their bags. When someone pours cereal into their bowl, it will not be their desired cereal. This food switch prank will definitely leave them confused and make them wonder where the cereal they wanted!
Now, these are all the fun things you can do when you have excellent slower times at work! If you can’t pick just one, you feel free to make this a bucket list and check off every item each time you feel bored! Just make sure that you still possess the drive to your career or work goals, and these are sheer fun on the side that you can do when you are free. Good luck and happy pranking!
Read Next: Bored and Stuck at Home? Try these 13 Things To Keep Yourself Busy!
