Unfucking your email. Find all the newsletters from worthless sites and block / unsubscribe. Sightly productive, and brainlessly easy.

Tell TSA your username. They'll find something for you to do for 20 hours.

Not trying to be a contrarian (it just happens!) but boredom will not kill you. In fact, I challenge you to sit and be bored for a good few minutes. It's good for you. I'm terrible at it myself, but that's what being a dopamine crack addict will do, I guess.

If you're out of ideas for things to do, try mindfulness meditation (Waking Up is an app with a bunch of free lessons to get you started) - very little woowoo, just pay cursory attention to something, then when your mind inevitably wanders off, just "notice" and be, well, mindful. It's like an antidote for boredom, in a weird way, and studies have shown that for whatever reason, it's good for you.

Myself, I read books for any "random short term downtime".

If the lounge has a shower, do some exercise get that energy out of your system. Then take a shower.

You got 7 hours to kill, do some laps around the airport. Get the energy out. And when you're ready to rest, play some games on your phone (like a emulator)

And when you get on the flight just veg out

Read a book?

Like, how desperate are you for stimulation that you're making this sound like an emergency?

I'd recommend reading Wikipedia

More content than you could possibly read, short reads typically, you learn stuff, and you can make games out of it

A game I like to play is to come up with 2 completely unrelated things, start on thing 1, and see if you can get to thing 2 on Wikipedia in 6 tabs or less, using Wikipedia links only

Good lord I WISH I could get 20 straight hours where no one bothered me. That's a fucking dream right there.

Invent a language, then teach it to a stranger against their will.

1. Go to the tech store in the airport. Buy a cheap chromebook. Open an account on Opalstack. Build a webpage from scratch. Learn a backend language like php or python. Learn git. Maybe set up your own Lemmy instance.

2. Install Keyboard Designer from the android play store and take a stab at customizing your own keyboard.

3. Leave the airport and go to a museum or swimming pool or poolhall. Be back in time to go through security.

Whenever I get stuck in an airport I like to use the opportunity to move around, since you're not going to have that luxury on your flight.

Airport scavenger hunt:

Easy (1 point)

– Someone trying to explain to a TSA agent why there’s a larger-than-3.4-ounces bottle of shampoo/conditioner/moisturizer in his or her carry-on bag.

– Someone throwing away a bottle of water or newly bought cup of coffee at the TSA checkpoint (get an extra two points if the person is chugging the water or coffee in order not to waste it, or three points if it’s alcohol).

– One person using all the outlets at a charging station for his or her multiple devices.

– The traveler pretending not to know English in order to board the flight before his or her zone is called.

– Someone with a carry-on bag on the chair next to him or her in the waiting area to discourage anyone else from sitting there.

– The vacationer in shorts departing a warm-weather destination for a cold-weather one.

– Someone in a later zone blocking the gate entrance so passengers in earlier zones can’t board.

– The well-dressed business traveler with just a briefcase who is on a cell phone every minute before takeoff.

– The couple standing on both sides of the moving walkway, preventing anyone else from passing them.

Medium (2 points)

– A woman trying on eye shadow, nail polish or perfume at a duty-free shop.

– A gate attendant pretending he or she doesn’t see the person waiting at the desk to ask a question.

– Someone near the check-in desk repacking a suitcase and redistributing items because the bag is too heavy.

– A rowdy school/church group that you hope isn’t on your flight.

– An argument at the ticket counter (add an extra two points if the gate agent is actually remaining friendly and trying to help).

– A small child with a character-themed suitcase/backpack.

Hard (3 points)

– A kid standing on the baggage claim conveyer belt (get an extra point if the kid has actually gone for a ride on it).

– A person fumbling with multiple coins and currencies while trying to pay at a shop or restaurant.

– The backpackers who have clearly been traveling for months and may or may not have dreads (an extra point for dreads).

– The person who arrives late to the airport and begins asking everyone if he or she can cut the line in order to make it to the gate in time.

– The honeymooners (or soon-to-be-married couple) wearing bride and groom apparel.

– Sports team members wearing matching uniforms.

– Someone changing in a bathroom stall (an extra point if he or she uses the sink for face washing or tooth brushing).

I am not very helpful, but don't kill these hours, befriend them!

Dude, hustle up to the bar and drink 13 beers like the rest of us, and fall asleep on the plane during boarding, after you've reminded the gate attendant that you're mentally handicapped.

https://movie-web.app/

A free and open source online web app for streaming content. They’re committed to no ads, pop ups, or other weird malicious stuff you’d see on other streaming sites. Binge a series or two!

Wait— this was posted 24 hours ago. Oh well.

Slay the Spire is a great game that works well on mobile and has no microtransactions. I’ve played it for 400 hours (on PC) and I’m still not tired of it.

Maybe it there's a bookstore close by you can get a book? I've been really enjoying I am robot by Isaac Asimov. It's sci-fi. It basically tells stories from a future where robots are more capable than humans will ever be. And to stop the robots from rioting there are 3 rules.

1. Robots can never hurt people, or let them get hurt by doing nothing. (I'm translating from my first language if there's any mistakes I'm sorry)
2. Unless it interferes with the first rule robots will always obey humans.
3. Unless it interferes with first and the second rule robots will always protect themselves.

Play Shattered Pixel Dungeon, it's free and open source.

Man I would love 20hrs to kill by myself. With 7 hours at the airport is leaving the airport an option? Like others have said. Read a book. Get your steps up. Try and do 10,000 steps walking the entire airport. Buy a notepad and draw the people our sights around you

Download unciv. It's a civilization 5 clone with stripped down graphics but gameplay remains the same. You can kill an eternity with civilization games.

Streetcomplete to contribute to osm?

Play Civilization

I've been hooked on Sudoku on my phone recently. LibreSudoku is a good Android app.

Where is LOTR when you need it?

There is a Webcomic called Romantically Apocalyptic. It is a visual novel that has been going on for years. The creator just keeps adding. 300 pages.of highly detailed visuals in an eccentric story.

If you end up vibing with the story that'll definitely kill a lot of time.

Name is misleading, as I haven't seen much in the way of romance lol.

If you haven't already you can usually ger compensation for delayed flight. Check out the compensation page for the airline your using.

Try Vampire Survivors! It's a free mobile game that has no right being as fun as it is. You run around trying to kill monsters and level up your weapons without dying, but you can focus on dodging because all the weapons auto-attack. I'm not sure I'm explaining it super well, but it's worth trying!

books.

Read the first three chapters of name of the wind, then try to stop.

Learn a memory technique. Start with Major system and go on from there. If you keep going, on the next long flight you'll be happily creating new memory palaces or revisiting the old ones. All in your mind, no electronic devices needed.

They're not only fun but useful as well.

Snag some brochures and try your hand at origami. In the lounge, you can make paper airplanes, and in the air, you can make little figures/objects. I can easily spend an hour folding a paper airplane, taking my time to ensure the folds are even and crisp, and that there is no built up stress that warps the wings.

3 hours have passed since you posted this and I read it. Time flies!

Take it as a meditation challenge, just be alone and quiet with nothing but your thoughts.

Start writing your memoirs. Or begin writing a semi-erotic fantasy novel. If you're lucky, the two may be the same thing.

Go outside and sit with the smokers.

Smokers talk. Everyone's equal in the smoke pit. You can meet some really interesting people that way.

A few hours of secondhand smoke won't kill you. Otherwise humanity would have gone extinct in the 70s.

Final fantasy 1-9 are on the App Store. Maybe a game that wasn’t originally in a mobile gimmick format could kill some time for you. 3, 5, 6, 7, and 9 are all very good (you don’t need to play them in any particular order. These are all more classic turn based JRPGs. There is also final fantasy tactics which is more of a grid based combat system similar to fire emblem or chess. All the stories are good and engaging