Internet is almost a given nowadays, but the truth is that you can find yourself in a situation when you won’t have internet on your laptop. Worry not, though, there is still life without internet and a lot of fun things to do on a laptop without internet!
This is exactly what we’ll talk about today – all the fun and maybe not that easy to think about things you can do if you have no WiFi connection available for your laptop.
I know that many people believe that a laptop is useless without internet. And while it is true that many of the things you can normally do on one are depending on a stable internet connection, you still have a ton of option.
So let’s not waste any time and instead let’s get into today’s topic!
There are many offline things you can do on a laptop. Ideally, not having WiFi won’t come as a complete surprise for you.
If you know that you’re going on a plane, for example, or going to a place without internet, you can always prepare in advance and have at least a few things to do on your laptop, offline.
For even more inspiration, make sure to read our article about some cool things to download on your laptop.
1. Watch Movies
Did you know that you can actually download some movies and TV series from online streaming platforms such as Netflix? Until recently, that option was not allowed on laptops, but now you can.
Make sure that you download and install the Netflix app from the Microsoft Store, as this doesn’t work from your browser.
Then, just launch the app, log in, and browse the TV shows and movies that can be downloaded and watched offline. You will have a huge offering, as you can see in my screenshot below:
There might be other ways to download movies for offline viewing – you could rent them, copy them from DVDs you own and so on. This includes the option of downloading any video from Youtube (as long as you are a Premium member).
2. Listen to music
In a similar fashion to Netflix and other streaming apps, Spotify allows you to download your playlists and listen to them offline.
Also, you might have bigger or smaller collection of MP3s you can listen to. It’s always good to have them around, just in case.
3. Read something
You don’t really need an ebook reader to read a book, a magazine or anything you fancy.
As long as you have downloaded them on your computer before internet is no longer available, you can easily read them. Take your favorite book, magazine, courses or anything with you wherever you go and use that offline time to read!
4. Play a game
Not all laptops are ready to play the newest games out there, but you can easily find at least a few games (older ones maybe) that you can play on your laptop.
You can find lots of really cheap older games on sites like GoG (seen above) which can be played offline, even on older laptops and those not made specifically for gaming. (Steam also has a huge gallery of older games that require minimal resources).
Make sure that you install them beforehand, make sure that they don’t require a permanent online connection to be played (some do) and enjoy your time away from internet playing games.
You can also read our article about the best large laptops for gaming to get the most out of it.
5. Write something!
Not being distracted by all the notifications and fast pace of a laptop with internet, you can easily write something.
Get creative and write a poem or a short story… or anything you want.
It can be a letter for your loved one, a journal… anything, really. Writing is very therapeutic, actually and you will see that it will do you well, even if you are not particularly inclined towards writing.
You can check out our article about the best laptops for writers for the easiest writing experience.
6. Sort your old files
If you’ve had your laptop for a while now, most likely it has become a bit of a mess of old files, folders and chaos.
So simply browse through the folders you have created, removing files you no longer need and organizing them a little bit.
You can also do an audit of the programs that you have installed and don’t really need or use.
Uninstall these – it will also help free up some space if needed and maybe even help improve your laptop’s battery life (if the programs you don’t need were constantly running)
7. Sort your photos and videos
If files and folders and various applications are not really a problem, you will still most likely have a lot of chaos in your directory where you store photos and videos.
You don’t really need all the 34 photos you took of your favorite handbag, nor the hundreds of out of focus pictures you have taken or those 1-second videos you took when you were trying to actually take a photo.
I never ever managed to really get all my photos and videos organized, although I constantly work on that. So it’s going to be time consuming, but also rewarding.
You will not only have things better organized, but you’ll also get to re-live some sweet moments from the past.
8. Get some work done
Not all people have work that can be done on a laptop (especially without internet), but if you can, you’ll see that you will be extremely productive.
Sometimes, when I have an important article to write, I like to actually disconnect from the internet in order to keep the distractions away. This allows me to fully focus on what I have to do and do a better job than otherwise.
This works well if you have some homework to do. As long as online research is not necessary, you can easily do your homework without WiFi (and you will see that you’ll do it faster and better than otherwise).
9. Take some time off
While this isn’t really a thing you can do on a laptop if you don’t have internet, it definitely is something you should consider.
If you don’t have internet, maybe you don’t really have to do anything at your laptop. If there are people around, try to interact with them. Talk to your friends, meet a stranger. Or simply admire the world around you.
We always need a break and in today’s reality, taking a real one – completely disconnecting ourselves from the online world is almost impossible.
So use that time to just take a break. Look around. Talk with people. Enjoy!
Final words
As you can see, it’s not really the end of the world if you have to use your laptop without internet. There are still many fun things you can do, especially if you managed to prepare for the offline time.
Do you have additional suggestions for things to do on a laptop when internet is not available? Let us know by commenting below!