10 Things to Do with Multi-Colored Pens and an Hour to Kill

There will come a time in everyone’s lives when they sit at a desk and realize that they have nothing to entertain themselves with except for some paper and pens of several colors. In this case, every scrapbook addict and 3-year-old knows what to do. However, there are those whose minds draw a blank. In this case, here is a no-imagination-required list of things that anyone can do with paper, pens, and free time.

1) Draw bubbles. Make sure that you use every color you have, and make sure that no two bubbles of the same color ever touch. Fill an entire page. For bonus points, use it as wrapping paper for the small gift you will pick up on your way home for your spouse.

2) Make a flip book out of sticky notes. Draw grass, a sun, and a person walking from one side to the other. Add in a UFO flying in the background. Perhaps some flowers can be blooming from the grass. The sun could set. If you have your own idea for a small flip book, by all means, use that instead!

3) Make a simple paper airplane. Draw on it all sorts of racing stripes, flames, and sponsor logos. Convince others to make racing planes, too. Race your planes, and start a betting pool. Give the most colorful planes the best odds.

4) Recreate your favorite movie in a storyboard with stick figures. Include any dialogue you remember. If you can’t remember a whole scene, take it from another movie. It does not have to make sense, but each person must be wearing the most colorful clothes imaginable.

5) Write the names of all of the holidays you can think of in their associated colors; orange and black for Halloween, red and blue for Memorial Day, etc. Add embellishments, such as a colorful egg for Easter, an orange and brown turkey for Thanksgiving, Fireworks for Independence Day, and holly for Christmas. Test your memory and also draw birthday cakes for each family member’s birthdays. Give them all colors. Bonus points will be awarded for later wrapping their birthday gift with paper of that color.

6) Make a map of your desk, using different colors to rank the importance of your office supplies. Use this map to later rearrange your desk for optimal use. Make a new map. Post it, along with a note telling people that they may only borrow items marked in certain colors without permission. All other colors require a signed affidavit for use. (Make also a sample affidavit. Use at least three non-professional colors on it.)

7) Design colorful notes to hide somewhere in the office. Include uplifting sayings like, “At least the break room has free coffee!” and “Smile. It makes people wonder what you’re up to.” Add flowers, hearts and stars. Gentlemen, if you feel that might compromise your masculinity, colored boxes, lines, dots, and sports gear like baseballs and golf clubs could also be appropriate.

8) Color in all of the O’s and zeros on received memos or handouts. Continue to also fill in the loops of b’s, d’s, p’s, q’s, e’s, a’s, and R’s. Use each color only once per word, unless for some reason you are given the term ‘Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia’, which contains 19 loops.

9) Doodle. Many people do not know how to doodle, especially with different colors. The trick is to scribble until you have an interesting pattern, then repeat it. Simple lines, loops, rings, swirls, squiggles, zig-zags, crosshatching, boxes and triangles produce the best doodles. For authenticity, keep to the margins of your paper, unless you have two sections to separate in your notes.

10) Invent a code alphabet. Use arrows, geometric shapes, stick figures, and colors to represent different letters of the alphabet. For example, a blue diamond could be a B, but a green diamond could be R. Use different colors for capitals, too, and invent a new symbol to put as a space. Use your alphabet to write notes to colleagues and classmates. Let them puzzle it out (it will also entertain them!)