There are a lot of things to do when you’re bored. You could read a new book. Watch that TV show everyone keeps telling you is so good. Clean your room. Completely redo your room. Do the work you know you should actually be doing even as you complain about how bored you are. Those are all perfectly fine options, productive options even. But are they really telling you anything about yourself as a person?
My personal favorite thing to do when I’m bored is take personality quizzes that tell me completely false insights into my personality that will leave me immediately going “wow, I really am exactly like that.” Sounds fun, right? Even if you answer no, most of these quizzes take about three to five minutes and you obviously have nothing better to do.
The obvious disclaimer here is that most of these quizzes will be completely inaccurate, often to a hysterical degree. However, you should know your Hogwarts house and claim it with pride. It’s 2016. Come on.
1. Pottermore: House Sorting and Patronus Test
Yes, you do have to make an account to get your “official” Hogwarts house and patronus, but all you only have to provide an email, get your sorting, and then never access your account again. It’s worth the little extra hassle to know if JK considers you brave, smart, ambitious, or miscellaneous. Once you have your house, you can then get your Hogwarts equivalent of a spirit animal in the form of a patronus. Mine turned out to be a hedgehog. I don’t know what that implies about me as a person, but I’m embracing it all the same.
Sell your soul to JK here.
2. The Ennegram Test
The Ennegram is a set of nine distinct personality types. While most people have a little bit of each type in them, generally you fall closest to one, your dominant type. What I find so interesting about the Ennegram is that it accounts for whether a person is healthy, average, or unhealthy within their type, recognizing that people fluctuating depending on where they are in their lives. Even though there is a whole institute dedicated to the Ennegram, I cannot say how psychologically accurate it is. However, there’s a test and it tells you things about yourself, including what famous people share your personality type (shout out to my fellow 6’s).
You can take the test here.
3. MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type)
My all time favorite personality test, this one has a basis in psychology. C.G. Jung theorized that seemingly random behavior is actually orderly and consistent, based in how people prefer to use their perception and judgment. Having talked to some of my psych major friends about MBTI, I know some psychologists dislike it while others are ambivalent. Still, I think it’s a fun test to take and I do find my personality type fairly accurate.
There are many MBTI tests available through just a basic google search, but I find the 16personalities test to be the most comprehensive. The test will take longer than the promised five minutes, but this is the most worthwhile one to take from this list. Find it here.
4. The Alignment Test
The first time I took the alignment test, I had no idea it was based in Dungeons & Dragons. Within the game, a character’s alignment is central to their personality and helps figure out how they will react to moral and ethical choices. Though most people know how they react to moral dilemmas by now, it’s still fun to put a name to your worldview. I’m lawful good, which I’ve been told means I’m very boring.
You can find the quiz here. I know it’s from Buzzfeed, but the comments assure me they stole it basically word for word from another (better) source.
5. The Temperament Test
Similar to Ennegram and MBTI, this test places you in one of four temperaments that describe your overall attitude towards problems, others, and life in a broad way. These four temperaments originated in ancient times and were then known as the four humors. Rather than based in the mind, your humor was based on the amount of black bile, phlegm, yellow bile, and blood was in your body. That explains why the temperaments have lovely sounding names like Phlegmatic and Sanguine.
Find out your bile levels here.
BONUS: Zodiac Sign
Welcome to the easiest personality “test” out there! All you need to know is your birthday and your personality is all sorted out for you. The implication is that you and everyone born in the same month as you share a similar personality. You will definitely know at least one person born in the same month as you who is your complete opposite (my sister and I, both Taurus, are an excellent example of this). Yet, you’ll still be able to find one or two personality traits within your zodiac sign that somehow fit you. And once you know your sign, you can start getting into all those astrological memes that one friend from high school keeps sharing on Facebook.
Read up on your daily horoscopes here. A simple Google search works, too.
I know Buzzfeed also provides stimulating personality based quizzes for the bored minds of the world to peruse. I like to think most of the ones above provide some glimmers of truth and time for self-reflection. At the very least, you know your Hogwarts house now, so when someone (like me) brings it up as a conversation starter, you have a definitive, Sorting Hat verified answer. But don't think it will stop your Harry Potter-head friends from resorting you to their liking.
