On Being Bored

I am a person who is almost never bored. I have an active mind and plenty of projects and plans to keep myself occupied. I’m also a voracious reader, so there’s always something new being planted in my brain.

Nope – never bored.

But now I’m thinking that might not be a good thing.

Nicola Heath, writing for In the Black, a site for CPAs, writes that boredom is not only not bad, but perhaps even desirable. She cites Dr Agustin Chevez, adjunct research fellow at Swinburne University’s Centre for Design Innovation, as saying, “If well managed, boredom can be a beautiful thinking tool that allows us to see the world differently.”

Boredom is the feeling experienced when the human brain’s search for neural stimulation goes unmet. You can be bored in the midst of chaotic stimulation, if it’s not the stimulation your brain connects with and craves in the moment. According to webmd.com (who knew doctors cared about boredom?), “boredom is based on attention. Someone who feels bored may not feel stimulated. You may feel unfulfilled and not able to feel a connection to your surroundings. Boredom can appear in two ways: lethargy (feeling tired) or agitation (feeling irritated). “ 

I definitely fall into the second category. On the rare occasions I am bored (watching a program that I’m just not connecting with, for example), I feel restless and irritable. I have to get up and move around, or risk throwing something at the TV or my long-suffering husband.

Heath writes that boredom at work can be a good thing, pushing us toward change and more meaningful work. “It stimulates curiosity – it leads us to change careers and jobs”, she writes. “Paradoxically, it is quite a stimulating emotion to have.”

Productive people seldom admit to being bored (see paragraph one above.) Being bored feels like a moral failure – surely there’s something important or useful I could be doing right now. But if we can hit the sweet spot of being bored, having just the right amount – or lack – of stimulation, we can free up space in our brains to become more creative.

Albert Einstein famously chose to work as a clerk in the patent office precisely because it was so boring. The mundane tasks he worked on during the day to earn a living took up very little of his mental bandwidth. His brain was free to think about the theories he was developing for his graduate thesis. He could do a good job at the patent office with one half of his brain tied behind his back, so to speak, so the other half could be brilliant during what he considered his real work.

This is why many creative people choose to work in fields that don’t sap any of their creative juice. Actors wait tables. Writers work construction. Musicians work as bike messengers. Rarely do you see a fine artist who works as a designer in her day job. She won’t want to spend any of her creative energy on commercial ventures that take away from her true artistic vision.

Several decades ago, when I was making just over minimum wage in a mundane clerical position, I was bored out of my mind. I told myself I needed a hobby to keep me busy at work. My boredom led me to volunteer during evenings and weekends. I began doing work that interested me and gave me something to think about during the stretches of mind-numbing hours at my desk. Being bored started my foray into gig work, which changed the course of my career and eventually led me to a series of interesting and challenging jobs.

Being bored, come to think of it, was the best thing that could have happened to me.

The next time you’re bored, rather than seeking out stimulation – or reaching for your phone – try sitting with the feeling for a while. Let your mind wander; see where your thoughts lead you.

Something interesting might just happen.