Getting Bored during quarantine is good for your Productivity

Research-backed steps to use your boredom to get productive.

When this quarantine started, I realised I had nothing to do. So I followed the only schedule I had ever known for moments like these - the weekend schedule. I woke up at weekend hours around 9 am, checked my phone, freshened up, checked my phone again, then got ready sat down opened Netflix, binge-watched shows episode after episode. And this went on for days, weeks, thankfully not months.

Sound familiar?

I know a lot of people who had difficulty creating a schedule in a time like this and I was certainly one of them.

I was painfully aware of my tech addiction.

I was painfully aware of my tech addiction but I didn't see any motivation to stop it. I mean we all know Facebook, Instagram, every single app is designed to be addictive. But honestly give me one good reason why I should quit these apps?

And if you think the answer is going to get more time…. you are so mistaken The point is to “kill time”. I don’t want so much time!

Except for one tiny detail. After watching hours of TV or movies have you ever felt like you have a hangover? Where the world seems sluggish and your brain feels like jelly? All you want to do is sleep at an odd hour and feel miserable.

Well having such high sensory input for so long, obviously kills your brain’s ability to think, perceive or act. The only thing that would help you at that moment is if a Tiger pounced on you and helped you get that rush of adrenaline. Well, personally I hated the “binge-watch hangover”.

I hated the “binge-watch hangover”.

And only to snap out of that, I decided to cut down on Netflix, Youtube and all the million apps buzzing in my head. I deleted them from my phone, telling myself it was just for a day.

I deleted all entertainment apps from my phone for one day.

Imagine that quiet?

For an entire day, there was so much silence in my head. It was overwhelming. I was dying to switch on my laptop and pretend to do something.

But I did not consume a single second of video content. I sat on the sofa staring at the ceiling, then sat on a chair in the balcony staring outside, then sat on my bed staring at my beautiful goal chart.

And it struck me. It was time to start writing again.

And I did. Except its easier said than done and we’ve all faced this to write we need topics. My best topics came when I went jogging in the morning, or to the store to get bread or when I chopped vegetables for my mom. It was so weird. My best ideas were coming from the things I hated the most. The most mundane annoying chores, which I wish could switch for maybe a movie or calling my friend or just sleep.

My best topics came when I went jogging in the morning, or to the store to get bread or when I chopped vegetables for my mom.

I recently came across a TED talk explaining this, apparently, it's a well-researched phenomenon. These mundane tasks that we don't enjoy, are the one’s that we do on autopilot. If I’m chopping veggies I don't usually think about them. Our mind just wanders when we’re doing a repetitive mundane task and apparently goes into a state called the “default mode”.

Whenever we are doing a task which is mundane or we are just “bored” we ignite a neural network in the brain called the “default mode”.

Which was really cool. Because that meant every time I thot I was wasting time my brain was actually being productive. Every time I chose to do nothing, instead of picking my phone or checking Whatsapp or watching the video. I was consciously not only saving time. But increasing my productivity. And all I had to do for that was “do nothing”.

To Increase my Productivity all I had to do was “Do Nothing”.

Doing “nothing” was the perfect way to keep ideating, boost creativity and problem solve. This was clearly a very powerful recharge and recuperate system for my brain and it was benefiting my productivity exponentially. I absolutely never ran out of topic ideas for writing. As a matter of fact, it helped me think of new and interesting ways to finish my projects, get new ideas and actually start getting closer to completing the goal sheet I had stuck on my wall.

We as a society love putting the “I am busy” tag on ourselves. We are busy on our phones, we are busy checking mail. We are so busy sitting on our calls while simultaneously making a presentation, watching a cat video and replying to a message on WhatsappWeb. And this multi-tasking we are so proud of is what is super damaging to our neural systems.

In the words of Daniel Levitin, “you’re rapidly shifting from one thing to the next, depleting neural resources as you go.”

The average American checks their mail 80 times a day and struggles to go without looking at their phone for 10 minutes. The entire Silicon Valley flourishes on our addiction.

As Facebook’s former product manages Antonio García Martínez said “if any product is free then you’re the product; your attention is the product. But what is your attention worth?”

Make your attention worth it. Save it for yourself.

By spending a few hours each day doing nothing you are building the most powerful productive version of yourself.

Take the challenge! Delete your apps for one day. And maybe like me, you might end up deleting YouTube for a month. Replace every minute of that with the mundane — make dinner from scratch, clean up the stains on the coffee table, do your dishes and watch the magic of a consistent, mundane and boring system change your internal wiring and transform your creativity, innovation and execution. Your

Make your Attention count. Because to be your most Productive self all you’ve got to do is “DO NOTHING”!