The Power of Being Bored: Enhance Your Creativity and Productivity

Do you ever get bored? Good!!!

Not only is it good if you’re bored, it’s exceptional.

How often do we ever get bored? Rarely. Why? Because we go to our smartphones to instantly avoid boredom.

Is this a good thing? No, it is not.

Consider avoiding boredom as a missed opportunity.

Here’s your choice: Reading about celebrities, and politics and watching cat videos, or playing a game versus giving your mind a chance to create, think, realize and enhance your life.

Yeah. Tough choice.

It’s good to be bored.

Possibly you have had opportunities to be bored vacationing this summer. Fantastic.

But now, heading into the school and heavy work season, it’s critical for your success, health, progress and mental/emotional abilities to find ways, times and places to be bored.

By the way, this is different from mediation. You’re allowing your brain to wander, consider, daydream, etc. by being active albeit in a relaxed and open-minded way.

Optimizing your brain & mental abilities

So many of us are seeking ways to optimize our brain power. There is a myriad of techniques, exercises, nutrition and supplements to do so.

All of them can require a lot of effort and cost, sometimes with minimal results.

Then there’s being bored. No cost. Easy. Effortless.

OK. Granted. If you’re like me, I hate to be bored. I feel like it’s a waste of time and then there’s the FOMO factor.

But I have changed all that by understanding how occasional boredom can be a highly successful habit.

·?????Enhances creativity and innovative ideas

·?????Improves problem-solving and decision-making

·?????Boosts productivity and focus

·?????Improves patience and reduces stress

·?????Enables reflection and self-discovery

·?????Leads to mindfulness practices.

Consider the times you got that great idea. That brilliant insight. That perfect solution.

What were you doing?

Sometimes, it was because of a discussion with someone or mapping it out on a whiteboard. Whatever.

But other times, maybe many times, maybe even most of the time it happened when you were bored or at the very least when your mind was in a simple calm state such as in the shower, when walking, driving or falling asleep.

This past weekend I spent seven hours driving to and from a friend’s cabin. Boring!

Then again, you should see the 27 notes I dictated on my iPhone while figuring out and finding solutions and ideas on five different topics for various needs and challenges.

Boredom leads to the brain being in the default (resting) state.

As psychiatrist,?Ashok Seshadri?of the?Mayo Clinic says,?“When people are in this state, many important things are happening in the brain.

“It's consolidating memories and reflecting on lessons learned.

“The brain plays through scenarios and applies what was learned and how it could be used in the future.

“People spend time thinking about themselves and others. They reminisce about the past and daydream about the future.”

“During this time, the brain is involved in creative thinking and finding interesting solutions.”

And what does this cost? Only the price of willingness.

Boredom as a gateway

My wife insisted our kids be allowed to be bored while growing up.

No TV or devices. No parental suggestions. Just be bored.

She was right (Yes, I am showing her this article, so she knows I said she was right).

By allowing them to be bored they became inventive.

They would come up with the coolest ideas, uses of disused toys, imaginative role-playing or sometimes just pulling a book off the shelf and looking at it (they are voracious readers now).

Not being bored drove them to expand their imagination. It strengthened them to depend on themselves for entertainment, invention and ideas.

All grown up now, they have thanked her for it.

Time well spent

Granted, too much boredom can be a bad thing so it’s about balance. It’s about occasionally existing without external, planned or demanded stimuli.

The?average person spends?3 hours and 15 minutes a day on a smartphone and 1 in 5 spend 4.5 hours.

For the?average teenager, it’s 7 hours and 22 minutes a day (often just looking at mindless crap or comparing themselves to others which is the death of joy).

Now c’mon!

Yes, there are reasons to use the phone and some entertainment is fine and dandy.

But 43% of a person’s day?!?!?!?

What a waste. In fact, how boring is that when you think about it?

What a wasted opportunity to take some of that time and optimize one’s brain and life rather than vicariously living someone else’s or getting upset about politics.

One more thing

I’ll add to this the opportunity for you to “figure it out”.

You know what I’m referring to. “I gotta figure this out” or “I need to think about it”.

Do you ever?really?do that? Do you ever take the time to turn everything and everyone off and really think about it? Really focus on figuring it out?

Modified boredom

Hindu priest, entrepreneur, writer, speaker and former monk?Dandapani?coaches entrepreneurs to take 15 minutes at the end of each day to reflect.

Turn off the electronics, close the door and think about what you need to think about or figure out.

Reflect on the day. A problem you’re facing or a solution you’re seeking. A gut check. A moment to daydream an outcome. Whatever.?

It’s similar to being bored in that you are giving yourself and your brain an opportunity to get into a default state and your imagination into a flow state.

Boredom is a success factor and probably the easiest and cheapest self-improvement you can undertake.

So, get off your butt and start being bored.

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