bored in the sims, what do I do?

@randomizedsimmer  It's hard for me to say because I don't know how you usually play. I think it's just really easy to get into a rut where you do the same old favorite thing you do in the Sims until you get tired of it. Do something "out of character" from what you usually do, so something you haven't tried, or try to recreate something you love from outside the Sims.

• If you usually play sweet wholesome families, try either the Black Widow challenge or a dysfunctional family where the teens run away and have to support themselves (and maybe a younger sibling?)
• If you usually play YAs crushing their careers, try Rags to Riches or a (sweet and wholesome? deeply dysfunctional?) family.
• Try a different family structure. Like, a young adult and their teen sibling, or Grandparents and grandchildren (teen and child), etc. I have a save with a young adult and an elder, her aunt, and I really enjoy their relationship. (And yes, I went into CAS and said, "Create Phoebe's mother... okay, create the mother's sister... okay, delete the mother, we're working on the aunt...") If you only play heterosexual couples, try a gay couple or a single parent (oops baby? widow/widower? unflirty and adopted a child?)
• If you usually spend all your time making all your Sims and children perfect perfect perfect, download Bienchen's whim overhaul and maybe MissyHissy's personality mod and try to play whims-based as much as possible.
• If you usually play one household, make them get married and have kids, play their kids and make them get married and have kids, play with their kids when they die... try to set up a rotation where you play multiple households for a week at a time and have them all interact with each other and play out a story that way.
• If you never leave your home lot, pick an aspiration like Master of Mischief or Serial Romantic and go out partying a lot.
• Play on a different lifespan than you usually do.  If you usually play normal, try long or short.
• Is there a career or an aspiration that you've never touched? give it a try. Always in Business or Culinary? Be an astronaut or a criminal!
• Do something intentionally wacky, like... form a household of a witch, a vampire, and a mermaid all with the kleptomaniac trait and have them all steal for a living. Put them in a haunted house and maybe make one or all of them paranormal investigators as well (who steal from the customers). (Note: Witches learn the medium skill faster and can Scruberoo away slime creatures, but Vampires don't get tired doing ceremonies...)
• Try playing with someone else's "gameplay rules." For example, this or this.
• Try some collecting and see if you like it?
• If you have a TV show or movie you love, try playing it in the Sims. You might even find the Sims on the gallery for this! I've played Leverage and What We Do in the Shadows this way.  😉
• I had a blast playing a "nomad" who didn't own a house, just a tent, and tried to have her live "on vacation."  I had a rule that she wasn't allowed to build a permanent structure on her home lot. I had outdoor retreat and jungle adventure which made that a lot easier, but since vacations are now base game you could try it. She worked as a freelancer to pay for it, because freelancers can work on vacation.
• Download someone else's save file. People have revised base game saves with new houses and townies and updated lore...

And of course, there are classic challenges that you might have already done, including the Legacy Challenge, the Hundred Baby challenge, the Seven Toddlers challenge, Black Widow... One of my favorite saves ever is my Super Sim challenge, which you've already said you don't want to do but I second @Idiosyncratic53 that I loved it.

Not sure what interests you have.  If I need a break from game play, I like to find pictures of neat RL houses and try and build them to the best of my [limited] ability. 

I occasionally do some of the in-game scenarios and I've done limited versions of some community challenges (ex. 100 baby challenge). Most of them are too detailed for my personal play style and I know I would get bored and do a lot of cheating if I tried to follow all of the rules and requirements, but they at least give me something I can use as a guideline.

The last time I needed some motivation, I made my own stupid little challenge based on my personal interests with just enough rules that I knew I could manage to keep on track without doing a bunch of cheating, so I thought I'd share my notes just to give an idea.

Busker/Thief Challenge:

Begin like classic R2R: Move Sim into empty lot, remove all money.

May cheat 3 skills to start*:

1. Singing
2. Mischief
3. Instrument (Guitar or violin).

Total of 15 levels split anyway you like (ex: 4 mischief, 5 guitar, 6 singing)

*skip this step for a harder challenge.

Lot may be lived on no longer than 3 days, then you have to move to another empty lot.

You can only make money busking and/or stealing (hacking counts, but programming skill may not be cheated ahead of time). No jobs, gardening, fishing, foraging, marrying Santa, etc.

In order to remain on a property permanently, you must be able to build a small house on the lot. You can accumulate items and build the house later or build a house ahead of time to give yourself a monetary goal.

House value must be at least $10K and have a minimum of:

• Bathroom (toilet, sink, tub/shower)
• Kitchen (fridge, stove, at least 2 counters, sink)
• Bedroom (bed, side table with lamp, dresser/closet)
• Living room (sofa, chair/loveseat, bookshelf)
• 1 TV
• 1 computer
• 3 Trashcans (2 indoor/1 outdoor)
• Decorations - at least 1 per room (toilet paper holder, mirror, artwork, rugs, etc.)
• Lights, wallpaper, carpeting for each room and exterior.

Once in the house, you can begin making money via gardening, fishing, etc.

Must have at least $50K in the bank before getting a job.

Must have at least $100K in the bank before getting married/moving in with an S/O.

I have done this legit, and with potions of youth and magic i have a sim lvl 10 (+36) raises in the politician career. He earns over 11k a day. His wife is in the criminal career and is an oracle lvl 10(+11) 

@KappoKappen  My Super Sim changes jobs whenever she hits level 10, but her mother has always been in the Gardener career, Botanist branch. We abuse Potion of Rejuvenation, so... LOL!

Some of the strange ideas I could recommend and that have not been suggested yet would be;

- Become a doomsday prepper or apocalypse survivor, set your own society up in a bunker and try to survive as long as possible with as little above ground activity as humanly possible

- Start an MLM scheme, arrange social events with cake and sell neighbourhood Karens overpriced potions

- Make Vladdy everyone's daddy; play with Vlad or another vampire and take over the world by woohooing everyone until the whole world is related to you

- Become a villain; decorate your own evil lair, break up marriages, trap toilets, do voodoo, set sims on fire...

- OR become a neighbourhood hero aunt/uncle, decorate the nosy aunt/uncle lair of your dreams, help sims find love, clean Sulani, move from house to house like a Supernanny fixing family relations or re-decorating homes

- Start an off the grid hippie commune on a desolate island

- OR start a vampire commune masquerading as a hippie commune on a desolate island and lure in tasty hippies

- Activate ALL lot challenges and try completing your sims' aspirations and getting them on top of their careers