Tired of being bored? Try this!

They intoxicate themselves with work, so they wont see how they really are. - Aldous Huxley

According to research, most people are bored at least five days a week. The number of boring days tally with the number of days in the workweek - five. This is because for most people, Mondays to Fridays are spent behind a desk at work. The data from research shows that at the minimum, at least half of all employees are bored. This number rises to more than 80% for certain professions like Law. the chart below shows just how bad the situation is, listed according to the degrees of boredom in various professions:

Why is it that so many people spend a significant proportion of their lives being bored and living for the weekend? Several reasons have been advanced for this unpleasant state. Before getting ahead of ourselves, we first define what boredom is. With this understanding, we may proceed to examine the causes and the solution. Having shown the magnitude of the boredom as an issue of immense social implications, we draw on the definition of boredom from scientific research:

Boredom defined

“Boredom is a state of relatively low arousal and dissatisfaction, which is attributed to an inadequately stimulating situation.”? - (Mikulas and Vodanovich 1993)

The above definition reveals two insights. The first is that being bored is a state. And states do change. This means that it is possible to be bored one moment, and for the reverse to be the case the next moment. The second insight is that boredom flows from dissatisfaction and low-arousal. A lack of stimuli could result in low-arousal. Doing work that is monotonous and repetitive could also make one bored. The reality is that because most people work in some sort of organizational setting where they do not decide the nature of work. According to data from Statista, 10% of the global population are over 65 years, while 26% are under 15. That leaves us with 64% of the global population at working age.?

The size of the pie

Based on recent population figures, this translates into 5.06 billion people (64% of 7.9 billion people ). Of this population of employable people, 3.29 billion are employed, according to Statista? (2021). That is 65% of all employable people. Drawing from the data in the chart above, the magnitude of the problem becomes obvious. Literally put, billions of workers deal with boredom on a daily basis. From the definition of boredom where we see that this results from low-arousal and dissatisfaction, how may we then live more fulfilling lives with days filled with high-energy, and generally high levels of satisfaction and excitement?

?The first step is to realize that you cannot rely entirely on your employer to constantly stimulate you. That is not their purpose, neither is it their responsibility. While it is true that employers should incorporate considerations of emotional and social well-being of employees into creating appropriate work for them that will be both stimulating, exciting and challenging, achieving that balance is not often easy for many companies. So the reality is that people must figure out for themselves how to not be bored.?

What to do

There are three avenues through which people could transform from constantly bored weekday workers, to fully stimulated and excited people all week long. This article will not explore these in depth due to the desire to keep the length short, but they will be explored in follow-up articles. Keep in mind however that mental, physical and social aspects present the opportunities for turning around our weekdays from boredom to excitement.

Alex James

May 07, 2022