Let’s face it. Plane rides are boring. As much as I love catching a flight, I love landing even more. But, believe it or not, our aerial commutes don’t have to drag on or be totally unproductive. Here are 12 unique productive things to do on a plane ride — even when there’s no free wifi.
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1. Read An Inspiring Book
First, and probably most obvious, you can read an inspiring book.
We all have a bookshelf somewhere in our house that’s full of books we’ve been meaning to read but haven’t. Before your next trip, grab one of your top to-reads and binge throughout your flight.
Although you can definitely read a fictional book and still call it productive, I personally love non-fiction entrepreneurship or self-help books.
Some inspiring books to read during plane rides include:
- Atomic Habits by James Clear.
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.
- Spiritual Leadership by Henry and Richard Blackaby.
- The Bible.
- Pretty much any book about psychology.
2. Listen To A Downloaded Educational Podcast
Similarly, listening to a podcast, particularly an educational podcast, is an extremely productive thing to do.
Not only are you keeping your thinking mind busy during your flight, but you’re also contributing to your education.
Again, I personally love listening to podcasts about business, entrepreneurship, social media and blogging, which makes sense given my career. But, the range of available podcasts topics is basically endless.
Some brilliant business/blog podcasts include:
- The Influencer Podcast with Julie Solomon.
- The Ed Mylett Show with Ed Mylett.
- Thrive Blogger Podcast with Bree Pair.
- Her Life By Design with Christina Galbato.
- The Blogger Brunch Podcast with Rhonda Jenkins.
Another podcast I love is:
- The Church Politics Podcast with the AND Campaign (independent Christian politics).
Just be sure to have your podcasts downloaded before your flight so that you can tune in without WiFi.
3. Organize Your Calendar On Paper
If you’re looking for productive things to do on a plane ride, chances are you’re a busy human who loves a full calendar.
During your flight, take the time to organize your calendar on paper, whether in a notepad or physical planner.
List out your monthly and weekly goals, tasks, meetings and appointments so that you can focus your in-office time on accomplishing said goals, tasks, meetings and appointments without wasting time on your calendar.
4. Write Your Week’s To-Do List (Things To Do On A Plane Ride)
Likewise, after organizing your calendar by months and weeks, you can break your to-do list down into individual days.
Write out everything you plan to do in the upcoming week, and time-block your tasks for maximum efficiency.
Again, you can totally write out your week’s to-do list in a regular notepad, but a physical planner (or digital planner) will keep you way more organized.
5. Catch Up On Sleep
Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, sleeping is productive.
Of course, oversleeping by choice can lead to a dangerous habit of unproductivity. However, without a healthy amount of sleep, you’re brain and body cannot function properly. Without sleep, you cannot be productive.
So, whether you’re recovering from a vacation or prepping for a hectic business trip, sleep may be the most productive thing you can do on your plane ride.
6. Seated Yoga (Things To Do On A Plane Ride)
If you’re caught up on sleep and instead want to engage in a little physical exercise on your plane ride, try seated yoga.
Although you may be crammed in the middle seat, there are still some compact yoga poses that you can do in a plane to stretch out your body.
If you want a complete seated yoga flow, here are 17 car yoga poses that you can definitely do in a plane seat, too.
7. Journal
In addition, if you want something to do on a plane ride that is relaxing yet still productive, try journaling.
I know journaling isn’t for everyone, but journaling actually has fantastic health benefits. So, it may be worth trying even if you’re a skeptic.
You could journal about your deep plane ride thoughts, recent vacation, work, family, friendships and basically anything else that comes to mind when you put pen to paper.
8. Clean Out Your Camera Roll (Things To Do On A Plane Ride)
If yoga and journaling aren’t quite your cup of tea, here’s another productive thing to do on a plane ride. Clean out your camera roll.
We all have hundreds of photo duplicates, random screenshots and irrelevant memes that are overtaking our precious phone storage space.
Because you probably don’t have WiFi anyway, a plane ride is the perfect opportunity to scroll through every photo and delete the unnecessary storage-suckers. Plus, you’ll open up plenty of storage for your next travel photos.
9. Clean Out Your Old Podcasts And Music
After cleaning out your camera roll, go through your old podcasts and music that you probably won’t ever listen to again.
Podcasts especially take up an unnecessary amount of phone storage because, unless you have the remarkable habit of undownloading every podcast episode, each episode remains downloaded onto your phone.
Again, this will free up space for new music, podcasts and photos.
10. Start A Passion Project (Things To Do On A Plane Ride)
Many of us have a passion project that we’ve dreamt of starting, but we never seem to have the time to do so.
Perhaps, you’ve always wanted to draw, start a blog or open a small business. Write down 10 small steps you could take on your flight to just get started. Respectively, you could sketch with pencil and paper, write a blog post, or dream up your target business demographic.
11. Edit Your Vacation Photos
Editing travel photos is probably my favorite productive thing to do on plane rides.
Not only is photo editing available to do without WiFi, but by the end of the flight, you’ll have a plethora of amazing travel photos to share on social media once you land.
For the best photo editing results, I highly recommend using Adobe Lightroom. It’s a paid software, but this software is the industry standard editing software for a reason.
There is a free app version to get you accustomed to the user interface. Also, there is a learning curve if you’re not an experienced photographer, but there is definitely a payoff to learning.
12. Edit Your Vacation Videos (Things To Do On A Plane Ride)
Surprise! You can edit your vacation videos without WiFi too.
Use a free app like iMovie (or a paid professional video editing software if you prefer) to edit your travel videos into something as elaborate as a high-quality travel vlog or something as simple as a home video to cherish in future years.
What Can I Do On My Phone In Airplane Mode?
In airplane mode, you can read a downloaded book, listen to downloaded music or podcasts, clean out your camera roll, clean out your downloaded music and podcasts, write your weekly to-do list, journal in your notes app, edit photos and videos, and more on your phone.
As you can see, you can do the vast majority of these productive things to do on a plane ride while in airplane mode.
Which of these activities will you try on your next flight? Let me know by leaving a reply below or by sending me a message on Instagram.
More Flight Hacks
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Here are some more ideas. You could always try counting the number of seats in your row onboard the aircraft in order to start off with. Or you can play I spy with yourself or your seat mate to liven up things too. Alternatively you can talk to other folks. If you hate watching movies (I don’t blame you) try reading a book instead. You can buy some nice ones at the airport bookshop prior to boarding.
Sing quietly to yourself as well. Gaze out the window in addition to see if you can find any birds. Buy some cheap magazines or colouring books in advance to bring aboard the plane in question. Finish day dreaming as the aircraft leaves the airport. Have a mini picnic in the cabin on the flight with some wine of your choice. Good luck. Exercise. Sleep. Play games. It is up to you.