10 things to do with your extra hour

At 2:00 a.m. this Sunday, November 1, the clocks go back to 1:00 and the day gets 25 hours long. Most of us will spend the extra one the way we spend most hours, looking at a phone.

Here are ten better ideas. None of them need a screen, a charger or a password. (First, change your clocks: our room-by-room guide gets them all done in one pass on Saturday night.)

1. Sleep it

The simplest use of an extra hour is the one it was made for. Set an alarm clock, put your phone in another room, and sleep. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends exactly that: phone out of the bedroom, alarm clock by the bed.

2. Wind a clock

A wind-up clock gives you a small, quiet job: wind it regularly and it keeps going, with no battery to replace and no cord to plug in. The Westclox Keno runs on a key, and its bell will get you up ($19.99).

3. Make breakfast from scratch

Pancakes from flour, not a box. Coffee brewed slowly, by hand. Sunday morning finally has room for it.

4. Watch the sun come up

After the clocks change, sunrise comes an hour earlier by the clock. For the first few days, it's easy to be up for it. Take a walk and see your street before anyone else is on it.

5. Write a letter by hand

Pick someone who would be surprised to get one. Grandparents count double. A page is plenty.

6. Ask about the clock they grew up with

Call a parent or grandparent (a phone call is allowed; scrolling isn't). Ask what was on their nightstand when they were young, and who wound it. If the story is good, send it to Tick Talk. We'd love to read it.

7. Read one chapter of a paper book

One chapter, not one book. The one on the nightstand that's been waiting since summer.

8. Play a game at the table

Cards, checkers, a jigsaw puzzle, whatever is at the back of the closet. An hour is long enough for a proper game and short enough that nobody gets bored.

9. Fix the small thing

Sew the loose button, tighten the cabinet hinge, oil the door that squeaks. You've walked past it for months. It will take less than the hour.

10. Set up a phone-free bedroom

Use the last of the hour to make the change stick. Move the charger to the kitchen and put a real alarm clock by the bed. For more ideas under $35, see The $20 phone-free bedroom. Or start with the Big Ben Classic Moonbeam Retro, which wakes you with a blinking light first and the bell after, so mornings start gently ($59.99).