How Being Bored Results in Amazing Creativity😲!

Everyone runs from boredom. But a few people know the true benefits

I found a study where participants were placed in a room for 15 minutes with just a button that would shock them when it would be pressed. At the end of the study, 60% of men and 25% of women pressed the button.

The study suggests that people prefer pain over being bored.

Why is that? Why do we hate being bored so much? Is there anything that we might miss by running from boredom?

But first I am curious about what is boredom?

It seems that it is not about not having what to do. It is more about what is available for doing is not appealing to us. It is when we feel lethargic, cannot concentrate, we are restless. It is when we feel underwhelmed.

Ok. This does not sound that hard. So, why do we run from boredom?

The brain does not like to stay inactive and do nothing. It is also scared of being with itself 😅. So it gives us all those feelings to force us in seeking a distraction, an activity, anything that would entertain us. Even something “shocking⚡️”️.

What also helps with alleviating boredom is the plethora of “special” apps that can, in an instant, “save” us and take our mind to the magical “Entertainment land” 🌇. The land where everyone is happy, except you, and your mind is happily swimming in “feel good” chemical juices like dopamine and oxytocin.

Ok. But why is that a bad thing?

First of all, as I said, our brain loves chemical juices. It wants them, and it has learned that it can receive them very, very easily. The effort needed for a dose of happiness is negligible.

So we stop doing stuff that offers the reward after a longer period of time, or after a bigger effort. “Why do this project, if YouTube is awesomely easy, and it feels the same?” is what our brain thinks.

It also stops us from thinking long term. And even when we do, it is extremely hard to ignore the fast dose and go for the hard one to get.

All big problems have long-term solutions. Because we get bored, we don’t tackle them.

Really? That sucks, man! I am sorry!

It is OK!! It is IMPORTANT to know that this is not our fault. Facebook, Google, Netflix have hundreds of engineers specially trained to attract you to the phone and keep you there. The CEO of Netflix said at some point:

Our biggest competitors are Facebook, Youtube and sleep💤.

On that note, I heard a person saying that

The only people that refer to their customers as users are drug dealers and technologists.

That makes me a little ashamed because that is how I refer the clients to my apps, too😞.

Yeah! Yeah! Everyone talks about that. So what? Is there any other bad thing that happens?

As a matter of fact, yes! Because of all the distractions and the urge of our brain to get some of that nice “feel-good” juices, we switch context a lot.

Over a decade ago people switched contexts, on average, once every 3 minutes. Now we switch context once every 45 seconds.

Switching context is very costly on our bodies. Every time we switch attention to something else, the brain has to engage a neurochemical switch. This switch uses up chemicals and nutrients.

When we are multitasking, we are not doing multiple things at once. Our brain doesn’t work like that. Instead, we switch context and consume nutrients depleting them as we go.

Doing this we finish our day exhausted. Because of the exhaustion and the usage of the “special” apps late at night, we sleep badly. Because of that we are tired and stressed. And studies have discovered that we tend to switch context more often when we are tired.

So this is a nasty vicious cycle.

That does suck! But then, what happens when we do get bored?

When we get bored our brain goes into the default mode. During default mode, the brain creates new and different connections. It is when you start thinking a little beyond the conscious, a little in the subconscious.

In the default mode is where you connect ideas, you solve some of your most nagging problems.

In the default mode, we do something called autobiographical planning. This is when we look back to our lives, we take note of the big moments, we create a personal narrative, and then we set goals and we figure out what steps we need to take to achieve them.

Big words there 🤓! How is that helping me?

First of all, it helps with creativity!

In a study, people were given random boring tasks, like reading the phonebook, my favorite. After, they were asked to find uses for a plastic cup. Those who did the boring task generated significantly more solutions compared with the less bored control group.

Giving your brain a time out will offer you a different way of looking at the world. It will increase your creativity and imagination and will show you new possibilities.

Creativity is scarce and it is increasingly important. Creativity is what separates us from machines. Creativity is one of the few things that cannot be programmed into a computer. No wonder CEOs in an IBM survey concluded that

Creativity is the number one leadership competence

So be bored! Give your brain the opportunity to come up with ideas.😎

It might make you more altruistic!

Another study found out that boredom could make you more altruistic. Being bored makes you look at your place in the world and forces you to ask yourself bigger questions, like

How can I make this world a better place?

What am I doing with my life?

These questions might trigger you into thinking about others and what you can do about them. Studies have shown that more bored participants are more likely to donate to charity or to donate blood.

It helps you with setting goals!

The autobiographical planning state that we talked about previously helps you look into the future. See where you are and where you want to go. Being bored makes you ponder the bigger picture, see what you want, what is meaningful for you, and makes you set goals for yourself in that direction.

Boredom is the body's way of telling you that what you are doing is not good enough. And the response to boredom is the body’s way of helping you find what is more interesting and meaningful for you to do.

Listen to your boredom. Listen to your body.

You got me! I am starting to like boredom! What should I do?

=== Easy to convince people when you talk to yourself, right? 🤓===

=== Yeah! True that! ===

I cannot stop but feel a connection between boredom and meditation. When I was researching meditation I heard about the same benefits. I believe that meditating bores you, especially in the beginning. So you feel the same benefits.

So, what should you do?

I would suggest meditation, first! Give your brain a 5–10 minute daily break! Let if breathe the life around you. Close your eye and let your brain “see”!

Of course, there is the “remove apps” idea as well. But I know how hard that is. On that note, I recommend being aware of your time on the phone, and maybe, giving yourself pauses. Not long ones, but a few of them.

Experiment! Go to the toilet without your phone. See how you feel. Drink a coffee at a coffee shop while just looking around you. Put your phone down one hour, or 30 minutes before sleeping.

Start easy and feel yourself. Be aware of what is happening to your body.

If you want to go deeper, you could try to do a boring task every day 😎. I saw a youtube video of someone doing a different boring task that would last an hour. He read the dictionary, the phonebook, counted the seconds in an hour, and stuff like that. Unfortunately, I did not find the video 😞.

More resources:

The boredom leads people to shock themselves study: https://wjh-www.harvard.edu/~dtg/WILSON%20ET%20AL%202014.pdf

The “feel-good” juices produced by the brain with Facebook: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/vitality/201205/facebook-and-your-brain

Another five benefits of being bored https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/202004/5-benefits-boredom

A Ted talk about boredom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c73Q8oQmwzo

If you want to apply my advice and want to start meditating. This is how you can do it:

Another way to listen to yourself is to write your feelings in a journal. I got this idea from Kris Bedenian from her article Simplicity in This Modern World

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