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8 Cool Tech Projects to Work on Instead of Watching Netflix at Home

The first thing that comes to mind when we have plenty of time on our hands is to sink on our comfortable sofas and binge-watch Netflix. But, depending on the type of work, most people have no gas left by the end of the day, and the next best thing is to snuggle up for a movie or show on the popular streaming platform.

There’s nothing wrong with watching Netflix because relaxing after a long day’s work is super underrated. However, most people don’t feel great if that’s all they do in the evenings, but what else can you do besides watching Netflix?

If you’re struggling to develop creative ideas, here are eight cool tech projects to work on in your free time instead of watching Netflix.

Install Gamer Night Lights

Most people will either spend hours watching Netflix or gaming. However, if you decide to cancel your Netflix subscription to concentrate on gaming, why not change the ambiance of your gaming room.

One of the best ways to improve a gaming room is installing LED night lights and adding classic characters images. In addition, some gamers take this opportunity to pay tribute to a classic or favorite character.

Protect Your Passwords

Password managers come in handy, and at times, they can be useful, but some are too tedious to set up and learn, i.e., Dashlane and LastPass. One thing you can do is visit some credible online sites to learn the best practices for password protection.

Make sure you understand two-factor authentication that adds an extra layer of protection to your account. This system requires an additional code sent to the mobile phone added to the account. Two-factor authentication is a must-have for email accounts or any other with sensitive data.

Organize Your Pictures

Who doesn’t like taking photos with a smartphone? You’re probably taking a selfie right now, so it’s probably a good time to go through your photos and delete the ones you don’t like.

Creating a backup is something you don’t have to worry about when using a phone, especially running on Android, because it will automatically backup your photos. However, you can still organize your photos by creating albums.

If you’re an iPhone user and don’t feel like paying that extra buck for iCloud storage, you can transfer your photos to Google Photos. All you need is an active Gmail account, and you can store all your photos on Google Photos for free. Of course, your images will lose some quality, but that’s a small price to pay.

You can backup your photos on a computer or an external flash or hard drive if need be. How about those old photos that you love? Use Google’s PhotoScan app, that’s available for Android and iOS. The app allows you to scan, edit and upload old photos to your mobile device.

Shape Up Your Email

Ever checked old emails and found an important-ish email that you missed? Unfortunately, this happens a lot more often than people think. You need to get organized, including sorting out your email, and you need to get down to the nitty-gritty.

Login to your email, mark out the important ones and archive everything else. You can even create a folder to sort personal emails and work-related ones. In the end, your inbox should only have the important emails. If you feel like going extreme, you can create folders based on deadlines or even change your Gmail into a Trello-like style.

Backup Your Documents

When using cameras, people backed up photos on their computers because mobile phones weren’t advanced to take quality photos yet. So the idea of creating a photo backup system was prevalent. However, today’s mobile devices have cloud storage by default, meaning you’ll still have your photos even if you lose your mobile phone.

This has been counterproductive because people don’t back up their documents anymore. So, if you have a Windows PC, make full use of Microsoft’s OneDrive system. You can create a folder on your PC which automatically backs up your files.

OneDrive automatically backs up all files, including the documents folder, photos, and your entire desktop as well. The free version has 5 GB of free storage, which is enough for storing text-based files.

The same applies to Mac users as iCloud Drive offers 5 GB of free storage. During your free time, set up iCloud to backup your documents folder and desktop so that you can access them on any internet-enabled device. If you have a spacious external hard drive, use Apple’s Time Machine to automatically backup your system or your most crucial files.

De-clutter Your Laptop

Finding a file or sub-directory in your cluttered laptop is hard. Finding the right subfolder to store a file can get hard if you have tons of subdirectories.

Check your subdirectories to see if some share the same purpose or have similar files and merge them. This is also the time to delete unnecessary folders because they can make your laptop run slower. In the end, you might find you only need five high-level folders under your home directory.

Revive Old Tech

Who doesn’t have an old phone, tablet, or laptop stashed in a drawer somewhere? If you have one, why not try to revive it? This can turn into a cool project with endless possibilities. For instance, you can permanently plug an old tablet on your work desk to use as a second monitor. If the OS is still supported, you can also turn an old phone into a Chromecast remote.

What’s more? You can revive an old phone or tablet, install internet security measures, use it as an internet device for your kids. removing unnecessary apps or games is also a great way of turning an old tablet into a dedicated reading device.

If you don’t have kids, why not try rooting or jailbreaking the device to use the device as a true administrator? Then, you might become a pro.

Take on a Raspberry PI Project

Bring out the tech geek in you and try a Raspberry PI project. What can’t you do with such a project? You can create old school gaming console, stream music, use it as a file server or install Linux and use it as a desktop. There are many projects for beginners you can try online to keep yourself busy.

Final Words

Netflix is one of the best streaming platforms, but there are times when you can feel you need to get back to the real world. Canceling a Netflix subscription is hard, and that’s why you need something to do to get your mind off binge-watching. So why not try one or some of our eight cool projects? You might like it!