How many things do we avoid because they could be boring? Meetings. Religious services. Chores. Waiting in line or on hold. Exercise. You can surely add your own. Intellectually, we know that each of these activities could be valuable, but we avoid them because the discomfort of boredom looms larger. What is boredom, really, how can it be good for us and how do we make the most of it?
Why do we hate being bored so much?
Boredom is a “A deeply unpleasant state of ‘unmet arousal’.” It’s that familiar feeling that you’d rather be doing something, almost anything else, but cannot because you’re trapped in your current state of under-stimulation. It’s that feeling of frustration, lack of control, relevance, motivation, concentration or imagination. It happens often when we’re faced with a monotonous, or difficult task whose value is not immediately apparent.
Many experience negative, uncomfortable or uncontrolled thoughts when bored. If that weren’t bad enough, Boredom is “predictive of loneliness, anger, sadness, and worry.”. It’s not hard to imagine that the easy availability of shallow entertainment with technology can make boredom even more difficult to tolerate.
Can boredom be good for us?
Cal Newport in Deep Work argues that learning to tolerate boredom and resist (seeking) distraction can help us improve our skills, productivity and competitiveness by allowing us to develop our ability to concentrate on work for longer periods. We can relish boredom because it’s helping us acquire that valuable and perhaps increasingly rare skill.
Research also suggests that periods of boredom can improve our ability to be original, problem solve and make better decisions. “Seemingly inactive states of mind can be an incubation period for future bursts of creativity”. Participants in another study were given a boring writing task (copying numbers from a phonebook) afterwards found more creative uses for a pair of plastic cups than a control group, which did not get the boring task. Perhaps some boredom-induced daydreaming helped. For myself, I schedule boring tasks like email and grading for after lunch (when my motivation and ability are lowest) and find that I can be most creative in the later afternoon, as suggested by Dan Pink in When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.
Boredom is, in fact, a kind of privilege. It is a moment of when we are not under threat, fear or severe stress. It’s an opportunity to practice mindfulness, a non-judgmental and objective awareness of our thoughts, feelings and sensations.
How can we make the most of boredom?
We can reframe moments of boredom as valuable opportunities to build a skill of concentration, to practice mindfulness and acknowledge the privilege that it represents. We can plan, and then look forward to, a creative task afterwards.
We can take the edge off of boredom by remembering the mission, the big picture objective that put us in the boring situation. For example, the desire to remain healthy so I can be at my best for my family and students, as the mission motivating daily exercise. We can also zoom in our attention on the minute details of the activity (e.g. the specific techniques) or zoom out to the very big picture (e.g., how the activity fits into the socio-economic context), being critical or grateful at each level.
Can we get good at being bored?
In sum, perhaps boredom really isn’t that bad, something to be avoided at all costs. Naturally, it’s unpleasant. But it’s also necessary to the attainment of any challenging and important goal that requires concentration, repetition, or limited autonomy. It can indirectly make us more productive and creative, giving us a leg up in a competitive world. And it can help us to value our circumstances even as we seek change and novelty. So, the next time you’re waiting for an elevator or train, keep that smartphone away and instead savor the benefits of being bored for just a little while longer.