I know what you mean about being too tired to start a game, we had that problem at the beginning of the hobby too! We’ve since learned that even though most filler games can sound a bit boring on paper, they can be quite fun and the good ones end up getting played pretty often.

Our favourites:

• Kites: A real-time game about flipping little sand timers while playing cards. It somehow manages to be tense and relaxing at the same time, and it’s always kind of funny when someone accidentally knocks a bunch of them over.
• The Mind: The game is so simple the rules can be fully explained in a minute. You try to play numbered cards in ascending order without knowing what’s in other people’s hands. The faces people make to cheat the no communication rule can be hilarious. Especially good to bring on trips, can even be played on trains or planes. Also good to play with someone new due to the simple rules.
• MicroMacro Crime City: Hard to explain this one without an example, so look it up if it sounds interesting to you. It’s about solving crimes by looking at a 2D+time dimension map… It gives the intense satisfaction of detective stories while not putting much of a mental load on you. Does require very good lighting, otherwise can be straining on the eyes.
• Tranquility / The Ascent: Two games in the same series, mechanics are different but they have similar vibes of, well, tranquility. These games are beautiful, gameplay feels a bit like solitaire but with a bit less thinking/memorization, and they both have well-designed two player modes.
• Sky Team: Dice-placing game about landing a plane. The theme was not appealing to me, so it took recommendations from many sources for us to finally try it out. It’s in that sweet spot where the game feels engaging and tense, after a win you feel accomplished. I’m not sure how they managed that with putting dice on a small cardboard panel. Another plus is that it has an expansion where you get to call penguins to ask them to get out of your way.

I should mention these are all co-op games, because I hate losing, and I don’t like others losing. We do own a few competitive games, but they are pretty much all luck-based / super pretty / funny, so that we don’t care who wins.