Side quest meaning: what it is in real life, plus 100 ideas

What does side quest mean in slang?

In slang, a side quest is an optional detour from your main goals: something you do because it is new, fun or a little bold. That is the whole side quest meaning. Your main quest is school, work, training or whatever you are building. A side quest is the random thing you do on the way, like trying the food truck you always walk past.

Wiktionary lists the internet-slang sense as a real-world task done "in addition to or instead of a main action or task". People say it in a lighthearted way: "Went to buy milk, ended up on a side quest."

Where does the term come from?

The term comes from video games. In a game, a side quest is an optional mission that does not change the main story but often gives extra rewards, experience or a better story.

Know Your Meme traces gaming memes about side quests back to around 2011 and says the phrase took off as everyday slang in the 2020s. Now it is used for real life: a spontaneous trip, a weird hobby, a detour that turns into a whole evening.

What are side quests in real life?

Real-life side quests are small, optional challenges you take on for the experience. They are cheap, they fit into a few hours, and they leave you with a story.

A good real-life side quest has four traits:

1. Optional. Nobody is making you do it. That is the point.
2. New. You have not done it before, or not in a long time.
3. Small. It fits into an evening or a weekend afternoon.
4. Slightly uncomfortable. Not dangerous. Just enough that you have to decide to do it.

Text version

Where	What	Detail
New, a bit bold how it feels, One evening time needed	Side quest	Eat somewhere new, try a beginner class, call an old friend.
New, a bit bold how it feels, Days or real money time needed	Plan it as a goal	A big trip or a race. Put it on the calendar or make it a main quest.
Familiar how it feels, One evening time needed	Routine	Your usual gym, café or game night. Good, just not a quest.
Familiar how it feels, Days or real money time needed	Time sink	Hours on what you always do. Cut it to free a side quest slot.

Why side quests are worth your time

Side quests break up weeks that blur together, and there is some research behind the idea that variety and small social risks feel good.

• Variety is linked to better mood. A 2020 study in Nature Neuroscience tracked people's locations by phone and found that days with more variety in where they went were linked to more positive feelings. It shows a link, not proof that roaming causes happiness, but it fits what most people notice.
• Talking to strangers goes better than you think. In experiments with train and bus commuters, people who started a chat with a stranger reported a more pleasant ride than those who sat alone, even though most predicted the opposite.
• Looking for awe helps. In a small study of older adults, weekly 15-minute "awe walks" (walks where people looked for things that amazed them) were linked to more joy and less day-to-day distress than ordinary walks.

There is a simpler reason too. Doing one slightly bold thing on purpose reminds you that you can do hard things on purpose. That carries over to the main quest.

The side quest rules

Every idea below follows five rules. Use them to judge your own ideas too.

1. Safe. No stunts, heights without gear, or anything that needs a hospital trip to finish.
2. Legal. No trespassing, no rooftops, no "borrowing" things.
3. Cheap. Free or close to it.
4. Respectful. Strangers are not props. If someone does not want to be part of your side quest, stop and move on. No filming people without asking.
5. Sober. None of these need alcohol, and they are better without it.

At night, go with a friend or tell someone where you are, and stick to public, well-lit places.

100 real-life side quest ideas

Pick one this week. Do not overthink it. If you want one picked for you, the side quest generator rolls a random quest with a time and XP score.

Solo side quests

1. Eat at a place you have walked past for months but never tried. Order something you can't pronounce.
2. Take a completely different route home and find one thing you never noticed.
3. Get a library card and borrow one book from a section you never visit.
4. Learn to cook one dish from scratch, then make it a second time without the video.
5. Ride a bus line to the last stop and back in daylight.
6. Spend an hour in a museum or gallery. Many have free days.
7. Write a letter to yourself one year from now. Seal it and set a reminder.
8. Learn to say hello, thank you and sorry in three new languages.
9. Fix one broken thing you have been ignoring: a loose button, a bike chain, a squeaky hinge.
10. Solve a Rubik's cube with a beginner method.
11. Go to a matinee movie alone.
12. Sketch the view from your window for 15 minutes, even if it is bad.
13. Empty your junk drawer and keep only what you would buy again.
14. Read a print newspaper cover to cover in a cafe.
15. Learn one card trick until you can do it without looking at your hands.
16. Make a playlist of songs from the year you were born and listen on a walk.
17. Spend a whole afternoon with your phone in a drawer. Write down what you did instead.

Side quests to do with friends (with the boys)

18. Cook a three-course dinner on a $10-a-head budget.
19. Hold a mini Olympics in the park: sprint, standing long jump, frisbee throw, plank hold.
20. Play a pickup game of a sport none of you have ever played.
21. Blind taste test five brands of the same snack and rank them.
22. Go to a free local event from your town's listings and stay at least an hour.
23. Everyone buys one item from a different food stall. Score them out of ten.
24. Hike to a viewpoint and take one group photo at the top.
25. Build the tallest card tower you can in 30 minutes.
26. Everyone learns to juggle three balls. First to 20 catches wins.
27. Do a park or beach cleanup together for an hour.
28. Have a no-phones board game night. Loser washes up.
29. Try a beginner bouldering session at a climbing gym, with instruction.
30. Take a train or bus one town over and explore for the afternoon.
31. Cook-off: everyone makes the same dish and someone neutral judges.
32. Film a one-minute documentary about your neighborhood.
33. Go to a local amateur or high-school game and back one team all the way.
34. Do a 5K together. Walk-run is allowed. Finishing together is the rule.

Side quests at night

35. Watch the sunset from the highest public spot near you.
36. Stargaze somewhere legal and dark with a friend and find three constellations.
37. Take an evening walk with no headphones. Just listen.
38. Cook breakfast for dinner.
39. Grab a late meal with a friend at a 24-hour diner.
40. Watch a movie that came out before you were born.
41. Take ten photos of lights in your neighborhood and pick the best one.
42. Spend five minutes before bed writing tomorrow's to-do list, as specifically as you can.
43. Go to an open-mic night and watch the whole thing.
44. Visit a late-opening bookstore or a museum's evening event.
45. Have a candlelit, no-screens hour: read, sketch or just talk.
46. Call a grandparent or older relative and ask about their first job.
47. Watch a meteor shower on its peak night.
48. Cook a dish from a country you have never been to.
49. Go bowling or to an arcade on a cheap late-night deal.
50. Walk to see your town's lit-up landmark or holiday lights.

Outdoor side quests

51. Walk to the highest point in your area on a public trail.
52. Get up for the sunrise once. Just once.
53. Walk 10,000 steps somewhere you have never walked before.
54. Plant a herb in a pot and keep it alive for 21 days.
55. Learn to name five trees on your street.
56. Take a 15-minute awe walk: look for things that are huge, old or surprising.
57. Eat a packed lunch in a park you have never visited.
58. Bike a route you normally take by car or bus.
59. Find a geocache near you.
60. Skip a stone until you get five bounces.
61. Pick up one bag of litter on a trail you use.
62. Camp one night in a backyard or a legal campsite.
63. Fly a kite. Cheap ones work fine.
64. Do a full workout in a park using only a bench and the ground.
65. Go to a farmers' market and buy one vegetable you have never cooked.
66. Go fishing at a public spot (check your local license rules first).
67. Walk to somewhere you would normally drive to.

Free side quests

68. Go a full day without spending any money.
69. Learn to tie five useful knots.
70. Do 100 push-ups across the day, in as many sets as you need.
71. Watch one free online lecture from a university on a topic you know nothing about.
72. Learn the chess basics and play three games.
73. Memorize a short poem or famous speech and say it out loud.
74. Write down 20 things you would do with a free year.
75. Teach a younger sibling or cousin something you are good at.
76. Volunteer for one shift at a food bank.
77. Unsubscribe from 20 email lists in one sitting.
78. Learn to change a tire with someone who knows how, on a safely parked car.
79. Learn to sew a button and iron a shirt properly.
80. Sit in a park for 20 minutes and do nothing.
81. Draw a map of your neighborhood from memory, then check it.
82. Read a book in a genre you would never pick.
83. Ask an older relative to teach you a family recipe.
84. Clear your camera roll down to the photos that actually matter.

Brave side quests

85. Start a short chat with someone in a line. If they are not into it, smile and stop.
86. Ask a small shop owner how they started, when they are not busy.
87. Sign up for one beginner class: boxing, dance, improv or swimming.
88. Speak up once in a class or meeting where you usually stay quiet.
89. Share something you made, like a drawing, a song or a short video, with your friends.
90. Try a gym class you have never been to.
91. Introduce yourself to a neighbor you have never spoken to.
92. Give a friend a real compliment, face to face.
93. Ask a teacher, coach or manager for honest feedback on your work.
94. Eat a meal alone at a sit-down restaurant with your phone away.
95. Sign up for a local 5K or fun run.
96. Perform at an open mic: a song, a poem or three jokes.
97. Apologize to someone you have owed an apology for a while.
98. Call, not text, a friend you have drifted away from.
99. Say no to one thing this week that drains you and gives nothing back.
100. Pitch one idea at work, school or your club, even a small one.

How to make side quests a habit

Make side quests a planned, weekly thing, then score them so you can see them add up. Spontaneous is fun, but "I'll do something new someday" usually means never.

1. Pick a slot. Saturday afternoon or one weeknight. Put it in your calendar.
2. Pick before the slot. Choose your quest the night before so you do not waste the time deciding.
3. Score it. Easy +10 XP, steady +20 XP, hard or brave +40 XP. It sounds silly. It works because you can see the total grow.
4. Log one line. What you did and one thing you will remember. After a month you have a list of stories, not a blur.

Text version

Day	Plan	Type
Mon	Study block + training	Main quest
Tue	Work or class, then gym	Main quest
Wed	Study block + training	Main quest
Thu	Work or class, then gym	Main quest
Fri	Pick Saturday's quest	Plan or log
Sat	Bus to the last stop	Side quest
Sun	Log one line, plan week	Plan or log

If you like the scoring idea, the life RPG guide shows how to build a whole points-and-levels system around your week.

Zenith: Level Up in 21 Days uses the same idea for your main quest: a 21-day plan of short real-world challenges, each with a time and an XP value, that you mark done yourself. You can add an optional private photo to a finished challenge for +5 XP once; it stays on your phone as a personal record, not proof. It's available to pre-order on the App Store, and Apple expects Nov 20, 2026.

Side quests vs the main quest

Side quests should add to your main quest, not replace it. The slang definition literally includes doing something "instead of" the main task, and that is the trap.

A side quest is a reward and a reset. If you keep going on side quests when you should be studying, training or working, that is avoidance with a fun name. A simple test: did you do the main quest today? If yes, side quest away. If not, the side quest waits.

If your main quest is the problem, because you do not know what it is or everything feels messy, start with how to get your life together. Then come back here for the fun part.