The Boredom
Most good ideas come when you’re doing nothing at all. When you allow your imagination to run wild. Why does society deem doing nothing as a bad thing? Why do we always have to be productive, 100% of the time? Why is burnout the goal?
Is there any wonder productivity is dropping worldwide in the job markets? We never stop. We drag ourselves to work jobs that don’t fulfil us. After work, these jobs come home with us through emails and work chats. Or we sit and scroll through TikTok, or binge Netflix shows for hours before we sleep and repeat the whole process again.
When we’re constantly busy, our productivity drops until burnout or our body or brain no longer wants to function at the level needed to sufficiently do tasks. It took me a long time to get used to this. I crammed my days full of tasks thinking I was making more progress. But it only ensured the material I released was of lower quality. I now limit my calendar to one task on Saturdays and Sundays, and I spend the rest of the day relaxing, meeting friends, and doing things I enjoy in my downtime. My weekdays now only have one main task, whereas I used to try complete multiple tasks that all took many hours. It was unrealistic and draining. But we learn from experience.
We’re addicted to being busy. We believe we have greater self-worth if we’re always completing tasks. That people will look at how hard we work and be impressed. And this provides us with a dopamine hit! But always being busy is actually detrimental to us. Boredom is a good thing.
Why is boredom a good thing?
Boredom allows us to often come up with our most creative thoughts. Our minds can wander down endless roads, with multiple roads snaking off each individual road. Our minds become that of an Ancient Greek Hydra. Cut off one road, and many appear in its place.
As a consequence, we can innovate. Most innovation is solving problems that already exist, or inefficiencies that can be reduced. Let yourself be curious.
It helps you to understand yourself and other people. Most of us when we feel a particular emotion, just act on it. If we seek to understand the causes of why we feel how we feel, we can make better decisions about when and how we act on our emotions. It's not that people act solely on emotions or solely on logic, but it allows us a greater level of emotional intelligence with ourselves and others.
Finally, a simple life is a good one. I sat in a park for over an hour a few weekends ago doing absolutely nothing and it was the most peaceful I’ve felt in a while. Let boredom help you appreciate the little things in life.
Why do we distance ourselves from boredom?
We can feel guilty doing nothing. Especially if we have a to-do list that’s a mile long. But therein lies the problem. We overestimate what we can achieve in a day. Our to-do list will still be there tomorrow. Cut yourself some slack and have some time to do nothing.
When we face boredom, we face ourselves. This can be scary. We have to deal with our thoughts, our insecurities, and deep questions about ourselves and the world around us. Having power over one’s thoughts is a true superpower. This involves not controlling our thoughts, that’s impossible. But recognising that we aren’t our thoughts. With practice and time, as we become better at doing nothing (it’s a skill I promise), our thoughts are positively affected because of it.
How can we relax and appreciate boredom?
· Meditation, or just silence. When most people hear meditation, they think of legs crossed, eyes closed, humming to themselves. I meditate, but my incredibly short legs and rather long back mean I can’t comfortably cross my legs. Does this mean I pack my things up and decide I can’t meditate? Of course not. Meditation can be whatever you want it to be. Whatever makes you feel most at peace. It could be with your eyes open or closed. It could be stood up, legs crossed, or laid down. Whatever allows you to reach the state of calmness that allows you to focus and redirect thoughts. Meditation also enables us to face ourselves and our thoughts. With practice, meditation allows us to become better equipped to tackle our thoughts.
· Always block out the same free time in your week. This has helped me. I used to cram things into every day and feel tired and drained at the end of the day. Almost like I had a level of brain fog. Once I started blocking out weekends to rest and recuperate I noticed I felt less tired. I also realised I started doing better work throughout the week. Cramming reduces productivity and quality of work. Have time in your schedule for downtime.
· Spend time with loved ones. Time really flies when we’re with people we love. We can’t be all work and no play. Life is busy, but make sure you don’t distance yourself from those you love by being too busy.
· The other side of this coin is to set boundaries with others, especially through social media and technology. In the hyperconnected world, everyone expects others to be there at the drop of a hat. We send a text and expect a reply within a minute. This is unrealistic and the increased social demands on our lives caused by technology are not a good thing. We become too reliant on them for distraction. Plus if we aren’t always communicating with our friends and family, when we do see them it only makes the experience that much richer.
· Build in private. If nobody knows what we do with our time, how can we gain too much self-worth from the opinions of others? We have to reflect internally on our own self-worth. We can do this through self-acceptance and self-esteem. Both of these aspects can be better understood by understanding ourselves, a consequence of allowing ourselves to become bored. Self-worth can come from external sources, but it should mostly come from within.
· Set realistic expectations for yourself and ensure others understand these too. We are not robots. If you have too much on, decrease your expectations of yourself. If others try to give you too much to do, communicate to them that you are overburdened with tasks.