There are many studies showing why being more bored is good for you and not only does it help you to be more productive at times, but it also might be the Key to Unlocking Your Creativity and Purpose… So let’s talk about it and try to understand why that is and how can we use that.
Understanding Boredom
To start off, we need to talk about what boredom is first… To put it simply, being bored means you have nothing to do. Being tired for there isn’t much to that is engaging or feeling tired and unhappy is the core definition of being bored. Feeling bored usually means that what you’re experiencing isn’t much of interest to you or you have any interest in your current activities or surroundings. It can be that you are engaged in are not mentally engaging or fulfilling. It may also be a sign that you are seeking novelty, excitement, or challenges in your life.
The Shocking Reality of Boredom
Participants were placed in a room for between 6 and 15 minutes. They were given nothing except a button that they knew would shock them if they pressed it. They were asked to entertain themselves with their thoughts, but they could self-administer the shock if they so chose. So what happened? Well, 25% of women and 67% of men shocked themselves. This is despite the fact that they had previously told the experimenters that they would pay money to avoid the shock. Apparently, they’d rather experience physical pain than just be bored; to have nothing to keep them occupied but their thoughts. But they are not alone. Around 95% of American adults report participating in some leisure activities over the past 24 hours. But only 17% say they spent any time at all just relaxing and thinking because that apparently is boring, and being bored is unpleasant.
What is Boredom?
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not when you have absolutely nothing to do. It’s just when none of the options you have available to you appeal to you. Boredom is characterized by a lack of concentration, restlessness, but also feeling lethargic. It’s really a state of being underwhelmed. And there are now more ways than ever to avoid boredom. With Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, not to mention my chronic news I have waiting in line, sitting in a coffee shop, stopped at a traffic light. Many people reach for their phones to stave off boredom, and nowhere is sacred.
Embracing Boredom
So do you ever just let yourself be bored? No, I generally don’t. But are we losing anything by avoiding boredom? Well, scientific research says yes, and what we’re losing is important. When you’re bored, your mind wanders. That’s only natural. The state of boredom is one where your attention is not focused on anything in particular. Researchers have shown this mind wandering is useful for creativity. They gave study participants a random boring task. The most boring one: reading the phone book. Then, they asked participants to be creative; generate as many ideas as they could for what you could do with a plastic cup. Those in the most boring read the phone book condition generated the most creative solutions compared to less bored controls. A major reason many researchers suspect that we experience boredom is because it gives you an indicator of your current state. I mean, if you find yourself feeling bored, you know something about that situation isn’t working for you.
The Paradox of Boredom
To better understand this, let me ask you this. When you’re in class and you’re a bit bored, do you ever just pull out your phone and have a look at stuff? Yeah. All the time. So the paradox of boredom is that it makes you feel tired, sluggish, and just disinterested. But it may actually spur you to action. It may get you to make changes that would be positive for your life.
The Value of Boredom
In the absence of boredom, one would remain trapped in unfulfilling situations and miss out on many emotionally, cognitively, and socially rewarding experiences. Boredom is both a warning that we’re not doing what we want to be doing, and a push that motivates us to switch goals and projects. Studies have also shown that boredom may make you more altruistic. Perhaps the acute sense of aimlessness you experience when you’re bored gets out of control, and makes you question what you’re doing with your life as a whole. But the silver lining is that it may trigger you to think about others and what you can do to help them.
Conclusion
Studies designed to induce boredom have shown that more bored participants are more likely to donate to charity or to give blood. Can I ask what led you to donate blood today? I had free time in my hands. You know, just, waiting for 2 hours, an hour and a half or so. So apparently, the opportunity to do meaningful, even if unpleasant activities have more value if you’re bored than if you’re not. Similarly, this aimless state seems to cultivate thoughts about what you want to do with your life. To think of your life as a story and consider where you want it to go in the future. This is called autobiographical planning. When given tasks that only use a fraction of mental capacity, study participants frequently thought of the future and their plans for it. In this way, being bored is essential for goal-setting. If your brain is always consumed with other stimuli, you’ll rarely ponder the bigger picture and set long-term goals for yourself and consider how to achieve them. Does a phone get rid of your boredom? Yeah, actually, thinking about it, it does. So every time you’re waiting for something, you have a decision to make which seems like a tiny one. Pull out your phone for a few seconds or minutes, or just be bored; experience only your thoughts. It seems like an insignificant decision. And if you don’t give it much thought the obvious action is to see what’s new on your app of choice. And in making that decision you are alleviating a moment of boredom. But you are also likely making yourself less creative, less altruistic, less likely to assess your current state and less likely to set goals for your future. In short, you are the real-world example of someone shocking themselves to avoid the unpleasantness of boredom. Except in your case, the pain goes much deeper to the very nature of who you are, and who you will become. So think carefully before pressing that button. So, being bored is apparently something our brains need to do.
