I like being bored
How getting bored boosts my creativity and productivity
🏷️ Categories: Creativity, Habits
Ask anyone you like if they like to be bored, they'll all say no.
It sounds negative.
We live in the age of overstimulation, hyper-connected technology and the permanent quest for entertainment. There is no reason to be bored, there is always something to pay attention to: never in history has there been so much content to consume.
The idea that boredom is synonymous with wasting time has taken root.
In fact, it is when you are bored that you unleash all your creativity and relax your mind so that you can return to full concentration.
In defense of boredom
To be 100% focused you have to be 100% clear your mind.
Get on the bus and see how many people are on their cell phones. We've become accustomed to filling our dead time with distractions so we don't get bored, but when are you most creative? It's always the same answers: "when I walk", "when I go to sleep", "when I take a shower", etc.
Exactly, times of wandering when nothing demands your attention.
Andrews et al. (2015) confirmed in their study that people check their phones an average of 85 times a day. That is, if you sleep 8, that leaves 16 hours of the day "active", which means you look at it a little more than 5 times an hour.
What person needs to look at their phone 85 times a day?
Absolutely no one, it is wasted rest time.
I go further.
Baird et al., in 2012 and Smallwood and Schooler in 2015, saw that when our mind wanders and we do not pay fixed attention, neural networks that help the generation of new ideas and creative solutions are activated. Moreover, Mann and Cadman in 2014 saw that those who performed low attention tasks then had more creative solutions than those who had not had that time of low attention.
Yesterday I was sweeping the house and thinking about my stuff, when I finished sweeping I had to go to the computer and write down the bunch of ideas that came out for Mental Garden.
It's uncontrollable arborescent thinking.
Another example: J.K. Rowling has mentioned in several interviews how her idea for Harry Potter was born while waiting for a train (CNN, 2020).
See, a moment when she had nothing to do and let her mind wander.
I advocate boredom as a tool for creativity and rest.
I have a dog and when I take him out for a walk I never take my phone with me, yet I see so many people out with the dog and looking at their phones. What is more important in their lives right now than enjoying the walk? They waste vital time to clear their minds and start generating ideas.
Many of the ideas that you read my letters came from these walks.
The serious problem of never getting bored
The permanent overstimulation I mentioned at the beginning comes at a price.
A major study by Twenge et al. (2019) measured that adolescents who spend more time on screens had lower ability to concentrate and lower levels of personal satisfaction. Conversely, Bench and Lench in 2013 and Gasper and Middlewood in 2014 saw that people with more dead time in their day-to-day lives tended to evaluate their goals more and planned their future lives more than those who lived frenetic lives.
If you live at that level of stimulation, you can't even read for 5 minutes at a time without getting distracted.
It seems like a no-brainer, but it has big implications.
Any goal you set for yourself in life will be long term and without the ability to concentrate it is very difficult to move forward. The key to everything is to combine full concentration and low-stimulation rest, going from one extreme to the other. It is no good to stay halfway filling all the dead time with entertainment.
Give legs to your ideas
This study made me feel very identified.
Researchers from Stanford University: Oppezzo and Schwartz in 2014, saw that walking can increase creativity by up to 60%. This is because the act of walking frees the mind from routine and allows ideas to flow. Again, look for low stimulation, get bored to then trigger creativity.
We always come to the same thing, time is the most valuable resource we have.
Whether you want to or not, you always spend it. You can't produce it or store it for later, your only option is to spend it in the smartest way.
I don't believe in productivity as a way to work more and more like a hamster running on a wheel, but it is our way to live better, it is the way to gain time to spend it with family, friends and on things that make you happy. Only if I have been productive will I have free hours to enjoy walking in the countryside.
Now go for a walk alone with your thoughts, take a notebook and be bored.
Do yourself that favor.
✍️ Your turn: Do you usually avoid boredom? Did you know it was so necessary?
💭 Quote of the day: "Humans make life so interesting.... Do you know that in a universe so full of wonders, they've managed to invent boredom? There must be a reason." Terry Pratchett in Hogfather.
See you next time! It's time to go for a walk with my thoughts 👋
References 📚
Andrews, S., Ellis, D. A., Shaw, H., & Piwek, L. (2015). Beyond Self-Report: Tools to Compare Estimated and Real-World Smartphone Use. PloS One, 10(10), e0139004. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0139004
Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J. W. Y., Franklin, M. S., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Inspired by Distraction. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1117-1122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612446024
Bench, S. W., & Lench, H. C. (2013). On the Function of Boredom. Behavioral Sciences, 3(3), 459-472. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs3030459
CNN. (2020, 22 mayo). J.K. Rowling revela el verdadero origen de Harry Potter y otros secretos de la saga - CNN. https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2020/05/22/j-k-rowling-revela-el-verdadero-origen-de-harry-potter-y-otros-secretos-de-la-saga/
Gasper, K., & Middlewood, B. L. (2014). Approaching novel thoughts: Understanding why elation and boredom promote associative thought more than distress and relaxation. Journal Of Experimental Social Psychology, 52, 50-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.12.007
Mann, S., & Cadman, R. (2014). Does being bored make us more creative? Creativity Research Journal, 26(2), 165-173. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2014.901073
Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal Of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, And Cognition, 40(4), 1142-1152. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036577
Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2015). The Science of Mind Wandering: Empirically Navigating the Stream of Consciousness. Annual Review Of Psychology, 66(1), 487-518. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015331
Twenge, J. M., Martin, G. N., & Spitzberg, B. H. (2019). Trends in U.S. Adolescents’ media use, 1976–2016: The rise of digital media, the decline of TV, and the (near) demise of print. Psychology Of Popular Media Culture, 8(4), 329-345. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000203
Totally agree, we need more time to be bored. My mum used to say that 'boredom is the absence of ideas' but I now think differently and like you that time to bored allows our mind to connect the dots and look at problems differently. I deleted a certain social media app last week before going on holiday and it was the best thing I did. I've since realised just how much time I was spending on my phone. Now putting in place ways like walking and doing things with friends to 'rest' and be bored. Thanks for the reminder and the links to the studies that prove it!
I've always believed that boredom and unproductive time is important and not wasted. You've just provided documented proof. Thank you, Alvaro. It's true. Doing housework, for example, is the most boring, mind-numbing activity in the world, yet while doing simple chores, even those I hate with a passion, produce scenarios that amuse me. Some of them might be useful. Maybe an epiphany will fall upon me as I vacuum and dust. Or I may rehearse something I want to say to someone or formulate an opinion that's plagued me since reading a news article. Down time is valuable time.