If you’re thinking about taking a break from alcohol, and are wondering what to do instead of going to the pub or drinking a few bottles of wine at home, then here are 20 (better) things to do instead of drinking alcohol.
Here’s a sneak preview.
- Focus on your health
- Do something meaningful
- Learn new skills
- Take stock of your life
- Think about alcohol (and your relationship with it)
- Read, write or draw
- Take on a Challenge
- Use Meetup
- Create deeper relationships
- Take time out
- Organise a games night
- Get mindful
- Get cultural
- Start modelling (not that sort)
- Do it yourself
- Try different drinks
- Get organised
- Fall in love with food
- Change your daily routine
- Start walking
Additionally, if you’re looking for some ideas for what to do at night instead of drinking, then scroll to the bottom of this post for some great ideas!
Before I get into the list, it’s going to be really important for you to look at how you can change your habits around alcohol, and what you should do before taking a break from the booze. So we’ll start with those first.
Before you start – recognise your habits
If you’re taking an alcohol-free challenge or simply want to quit your drinking habit then you might be wondering what you’re going to do with your time that doesn’t include drinking alcohol.
What’s really going to help you get through that challenge first and foremost is to recognise your old habits and replace them with other activities that are going to be just as rewarding whilst breaking your usual routines.
Drinking at home
For example, if you use alcohol to relax at home in the evening, then you need to think about changing that routine.
For example, your evening routine might be something like this:
Was the dishes, pour a glass of wine, sit in the chair by the window, turn on the TV and drink the glass of wine (or three).
You could break that habit by taking the following steps:
- Make sure there’s no alcohol in the house (Obvious, I know)
- After washing the dishes turn on the kettle
- Sit at the dining table while your tea brews
- Turn on some music, write/read/draw and drink tea
Drinking in the pub
If you usually go to the pub a few times a week try to replace that habit with another social activity.
Depending on the time of year you could organise an evening walk, run, a bike ride with your mates, go to an art/language class or organise a games night at home with friends or family.
Planning is everything
Whatever you do though, just try to be consistent with your new routine and plan your calendar in advance so you always have something to do.
You’re trying to break old habits, and if you find yourself at a loose end, then it’s more likely that you’ll resort back to your old, familiar drinking pattern if you don’t know what to do with yourself.
If you do have a beer though. Don’t sweat it. So what, you’re human. Just start again the next day.
Tell your friends
There’s really no reason to hide your challenge from your friends, colleagues, social media community or family.
In fact, you should be shouting it from the rooftops and telling everyone what you’re doing.
Be open and proud about it – you never know, you might get a few people to join you which would be a major boost, and I’ll bet that at least one of your mates will bet you that you can’t do it.
Time to prove them wrong and make a few quid too!
So, without further delay… here’s that list of things to do instead of drinking.
20 Things to do instead of drinking
1. Focus on your health
You’re not drinking (which means you’re about to lose weight and feel better anyway) so why not go one further and get fit too?
There are loads of options these days with all kinds of gyms and clubs for all manner of activities. You just have to find one local to you.
Park runs are getting more and more popular as are other running groups like runtogether.co.uk.
Anything that gets you out of the house and sweating makes for a great alternative to drinking. Walking, swimming, cycling, running, martial arts, climbing, and HIIT classes are all great ways to raise your heart rate and make you feel good (when you’ve got your breath back, of course).
Related: Why I’m getting fit in my forties
2. Do something meaningful
Each time you drink, you’re having a bit of ‘me time’.
But I suspect that you might have had plenty of that recently, so why not give something back and do something a bit more meaningful?
After all… the secret to living is giving.
Volunteer your free time at a local charity or a homeless/animal shelter. Giving back to your community and seeing the effect it has on others can be life-changing.
3. Learn new skills
Have you always wanted to learn a new language, the guitar or how to tango? Then now’s a good time to start.
With more money in your pocket and time on your hands, why not sign up for a course that will get you out of the house for an evening or two every week?
A group activity will stop you from feeling isolated and making a new circle of friends will help to reaffirm your ‘new lifestyle’, and according to new research, learning a new language can literally make you a better person!
4. Take stock of your life
Take this opportunity to take stock of where you are in life.
Get yourself a notebook and pen and make some notes about where you are in life. Write down what you like and dislike about the way things are.
If you’ve never thought about designing your life vision, then this might be a good place to start.
A life vision is a blueprint of what you want to achieve in life, who you want to be, how you want to live, what you want to do with your time and who you want to spend that time with.
It can be a powerful tool to have and can help focus your mind on what’s important in life and work out a plan of how to get there.
5. Think about alcohol
Start thinking and writing about your relationship with alcohol. What do you like about it? Is it the taste, the way it relaxes you or the social aspects?
Then make a list of the positives of being alcohol-free, like losing weight or having better relationships with your kids, and then a list of all the negatives such as hangovers, wasting money, feeling tired – whatever they might be.
Making these associations will help you to further cement your reasons why you’re taking a break from alcohol and will help you to keep going with your challenge.
6. Read, write or draw
It’s the simple things in life that make us the happiest, and what could be simpler than just sitting down and reading, writing or drawing?
This personal, spiritual and intellectual act of being solitary yet focussed on a task can be really rewarding, especially if you haven’t done it for a while.
Journalling daily can be a powerful habit to help you set your goals, improve your focus and get shit done, while reading really is one of the best forms of personal development and entertainment there is.
Drawing and painting can help to reduce stress and anxiety whilst activating the creative side of your brain.
For a more social experience, join a drawing, creative writing or reading group.
There are some nice tips on how and why to journal at medium.com.
7. Take on a Challenge
The AF Experience is my 28-Day Challenge designed to help busy middle-aged men do just that. Take a break from the booze for just long enough to help you put some daylight between you and your drinking habits.
With daily content, an online community, and more, the challenge is a great way to help you take a break from alcohol without worrying about what your friends think – yep, we’ve got you covered there too.
8. Use Meetup
If you’re in the habit of drinking at home or in the same pub all the time, then you could be missing out on some amazing meetups close to where you live.
Meetups are usually free and can be organised by anyone about any subject.
Join a Meetup near you, learn something new and make some new friends while you’re at it. You never know where it may take you.
9. Create deeper relationships
18% of men in the UK don’t have any close friends.
Yet it’s a fact that having close and deep relationships with our friends and loved ones is the number one thing that improves our levels of happiness, health, satisfaction and longevity in life.
Don’t believe me? Then check out this Ted talk which backs up the theory with a 75-year study.
Spending time with a friend or loved one without alcohol and just going for a walk or a bike ride could help to forge a much deeper connection.
While sitting in bars and getting drunk can be an easy way to make friends and talk, the alcohol can blur the lines, make conversations drift off, be more trivial and in many cases be forgotten the next day.
Why not use your alcohol-free time to try and get to know someone a little deeper?
Games like Vertellis are a fun way to get the conversation going.
10. Take time out
During the Vietnam War, as many as 35% of the US Army had tried heroin and 20% were found to be addicted, yet only 5% only remained addicted once they returned home.
The reason? It was their environment that kept them addicted. Once they returned from war, there was no trigger and without the same colleagues around them, they felt no desire to keep using the drug.
There’s a really strong argument for your habits being connected to your environment – read more about it here so if you’re about to embark on a period of alcohol abstinence but are worried about how you’ll cope, then why not take off for a few days to a new environment where none of your regular triggers are present.
Use the money you would usually spend on booze and do something new and exciting, or just go and relax somewhere for a few days.
A quick tip: Don’t go to Ibiza.
11. Organise a games night
It’s important not to feel like you’re missing out on your social life when you’re taking a break from alcohol, so keep yourself in the loop by organising a games night for you and a few mates or family at home.
Make sure it’s at your house though so that you can make the rules, and rule number one needs to be no alcohol.
You could organise a weekly (dry) game of poker, a PlayStation tournament, a chess match or a board game.
As long as you have enough stimulation to stay occupied as well as some nice drinks (try juices, kombucha, teas or coconut water to start) then you might find that you and your mates have a proper good laugh, without the alcohol.
12. Get mindful
Use your extra time to try something different like yoga or meditation or simply take some time out for yourself.
As practices, yoga and meditation are great for rebalancing your mind and body and are well known for improving overall health and well-being.
If you don’t fancy going to a class there are loads of ‘follow-along’ yoga classes on YouTube such as Yoga with Adriene which comes highly recommended.
For a really easy and gentle introduction to meditation, Headspace is an awesome app to try.
13. Get Cultural
Go to the cinema, the theatre, an art gallery or your local museum. No matter where you live these days there will be some sort of cultural activity to visit instead of drinking. Especially as you can drive to get there!
14. Start modelling
There are hours of fun to be had designing and building model railways, villages, cars, aeroplanes or even battlefields and modelling isn’t just for geeks either.
Rod Stewart, Neil Young and Johnny Cash are just a few celebrities who love(d) to tinker with their toys, as do me and my son!
15. Do it yourself
If you’ve got the space and the urge, why not try building something at home instead of going to Ikea?
Upcycling and creating designer furniture or building a treehouse are all things you could spend some quality time designing and building.
You might even make a bit of cash too, selling your finished products.
16. Try different drinks
To get a completely new perspective, try going out into unusual places and trying new drinks to replace beer.
There are loads of trendy new juice bars, and coffee shops popping up all over the place these days.
Kombucha, exotic teas and alcohol-free beers are all becoming much more widely available and popular.
17. Get organised
Our lives are fast-paced, manic and messy at the best of times.
Decluttering and organising your home/garage during your abstinence from alcohol can be time very well spent.
I’m very much a fan of minimalism and living a life of simplicity without clutter or unnecessary stuff.
My wife has other ideas, but we manage to make a decent compromise, most of the time.
I love this inspirational Netflix documentary on the subject, which really focussed my own ideas on the subject.
Once you’ve cleared all the clutter, you could try redecorating your home to celebrate the new alcohol-free you.
18. Fall in love with food
If you’re off the booze, why not focus on feeding yourself, friends and family with good, healthy and nutritious food?
Learning to cook good food isn’t always easy, but if you take on the challenge to master just a few new recipes, it could make all the difference to how you eat as a family and will be a lot of fun too.
Cooking can be a really wholesome, fun and creative way to spend quality family time together and learn some practical skills in the kitchen too.
19. Change your daily routine
If your routine for the last 20 years has been, to stay up until midnight and get up at 7am, then why not try your new alcohol-free lifestyle to change that?
After all, you ain’t gonna be out drinking all night, so why not go to bed at ten and get up early?
Rising early and enjoying a positive morning routine can help to maximise productivity, activate your best health and streamline your well-being in a time of overwhelming complexity.
And finally…
20. Start walking
While we’re on the subject of complexity, if everything above, and everything in general just seems ludicrous or overly complicated, then why not simply use the time you would usually spend at the bar just to go for a walk?
A little fresh air and the enjoyment of being in the moment on your alcohol-free challenge might just be all you need.
What to do instead of drinking at night
After being at work all day, then organising the dinner and getting the kids to bed, most of us just want to flop onto the sofa, grab a beer and turn the TV on.
If you’re looking for some ideas that are a little bit more inspiring and will leave you feeling refreshed in the morning rather than hungover, then here are a few bonus ideas specifically based on things to do instead of drinking at night:
1. Focus on self-care
Once the kids are in bed, focus on giving yourself a bit of self-care.
Meditation, journaling, yoga, organising your stuff, planning holidays, working on your life vision or just spending a few hours having a long bath, soaking your feet and having a shave are great alternatives to drinking.
You might want to try changing your routine completely and go to bed early and focus on getting up early and try a positive morning routine.
Related: 17 Essential actions middle-aged men should take
Related: Redesign your boring life
2. Play card and board games
Learn to play a few card games or get some board games out. Games are a great way to give your brain some exercise and it can be a really nice activity to play with your partner. You might find that you talk more and feel more connected.
Just be sure to have a habit of having healthy snacks and non-alcoholic drinks at the table while you play.
3. Workout
Most gyms and classes are open late into the evening these days and there are even 24-hour gyms, so there’s no excuse.
If you’re not into going to the gym then simply going for a run or a bike ride would be a great alternative if it’s safe to do so. Look to join a running or other sports club to find a new circle of friends.
If you’re not a morning person, working out in the evening could be your answer to just sitting at home drinking.
Related: 20 benefits of joining a gym
4. Learn & create
Reading, taking online courses, learning a language, writing a blog, or a journal or starting a side project are all great alternatives to hitting the pub and drinking at night.
Be careful not to become a recluse though as having a strong social circle is really important to have.
5. Organise social events
If most of your social activities revolve around meeting friends in a bar or a pub then organise some other activities outside of that environment.
Getting a few mates around to play a few rounds of cards (alcohol-free) or going for a bike ride together might be appreciated by more people than you think. If they’re not into it, find some new friends that are.