As a kid, I remember spending entire afternoons in the garden, creating potions in glass jars out of leaves and bark, just to avoid boredom. Seal the lid, give it a shake, imagine the unimaginable. This was well before any of the Harry Potter books.
I was six when I disassembled a remote control car and crossed the wires, convinced I could make it go faster. Not the most ingenious idea, I know. But I tried and failed and learnt something from the process. Fortunately I’m neither a mechanic nor an electrical engineer today.
Boredom inspired these explorations.
A curious mind sought entertainment. Because the immediate environment didn’t appear to offer it, I had to create my own.
I have no doubt this same curiosity has helped me build a career – from mapping out user journeys for complex websites through to writing strategies for new business ideas; much of this connects back with those earlier times.
Boredom was, and still is, a source of inspiration for me.
A Telling Interview With Bill Gates and Warren Buffett
In an interview with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, Buffet shares with us there are some days in his calendar where nothing is written down. The interviewer, Charlie Rose, shows us by holding up the calendar to the camera.1)
It seems contrary to everything we’ve learnt about time management. The fact is one of the richest and most successful men in the world is intentional about scheduling nothing, at least as it’s written on paper.
In the interview, it seems like Gates shares the same amazement we do. He even articulates it for us…
“Sitting and thinking may be a much higher priority….it’s not a proxy of your seriousness that you’ve filled (up) everything in your schedule.”
Bill Gates
The Gates and Buffet conversation summarizes what many of us may be feeling – that a packed schedule might be the key to time efficiency in the short term, but it might not lead to success in the long term.
It actually might not be any fun either. Go on, we can admit it. Being atomically busy can be a bit of a drag, really. What’s more, atomic busyness might also be robbing us of our flexibility, humour and ability to be strong leaders and deal with the unknown.2)
Having an open calendar is a far cry from being bored. But I ask you to consider, for a moment, that occupying our available time with meaningful pursuits is also the result of learning to cope with, pre-empt and overcome boredom. In this way it might be one of the keys to finding flow in our work and personal goals.
Is It Time To Declutter Our Schedule, As Marie Kondo Has Done Our Homes?
If there’s one thing Marie Kondo has done, it’s bring simplicity back into our home lives.
As we scramble through cupboards filled to the brim with odds and ends, where the broken strings of old tennis rackets almost take out an eye, Kondo teaches us to keep and treasure items which “spark joy”, or alternatively give a ceremonious “thanks” for items which do not, and discard them.
So simple! The one question of “does it spark joy” to restore balance and zen to our every day home lives.
While Kondo has helped us clear our physical spaces, we’ve some way to go with our mental ones.
We might ask ourselves, if our calendar was an object, packed with 15 minute intervals, would it spark joy when we picked it up? Buffet knows the answer. It seems he’s also acted on this knowledge.
So, is it time to “Kondo” our calendar? If Kondo can re-frame clutter to cleanliness with a simple “thanks”, can we do the same with our schedule?
Boredom Is Not A Dirty Word
The first thing we’d need to do is acknowledge that “boredom” is not a dirty word. For the last decade, maybe two, we’ve run scared every time we hear it. Just the thought of the word can make us clutch for some form of entertainment.
Our chronic avoidance of boredom has even affected research. In an analysis of articles published on subjects affecting human emotion – happiness, sadness, anxiety or anger – there were roughly 128 articles for each emotion, but only 12 with boredom as their subject.3)
Are we anxious about studying boredom? Perhaps there’s a deeper aversion to boredom we just don’t want to face.
There’s no doubt boredom has a bad rap. It’s been linked to a whole suite of negative outcomes, from reduced interpersonal relationships, decreased task accuracy, and increased risk taking behaviour.
It is only recently social researchers have realised that boredom serves an important function.
When we no longer feel stimulated by an activity, we grow bored. We start to contemplate possible responses to the situation. In this way, the displeasure of boredom is both a trigger and motivator to seek alternative experiences and goals and, in so doing, change our circumstance.
Boredom moves us. And at its most effective, it moves us toward those pursuits that are more meaningful or congruent with our goals.
This is one of the reasons Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, states:
“To simply wait and be bored has become a novel experience in modern life, but from the perspective of concentration training, it’s incredibly valuable.”
Cal Newport
If our impulse is to reach for the nearest distraction as soon as we feel bored, we might be short-circuiting an important exploratory behaviour that may be the solution to our long-term fulfilment. Like fear, if we spend too much time avoiding it, we may fail to see what’s on the other side of it.
In a pilot study by two European researchers, participants who experienced a higher degree of boredom demonstrated a higher correlation with a subsequent search for more meaningful activities. The researchers found the interim results so interesting they crafted a larger study to see whether the degree of boredom might motivate socially positive actions.
The way they did this was straightforward; they asked 31 students to complete a recurring, repetitive task (eg. estimate the odds of selecting a blue or red ball in a random distribution of balls). At the end of this task they asked them how much they would donate to a charity associated with their university.4)
The research concluded that people who experienced higher degrees of boredom were more likely to donate to the cause. The higher the degree of boredom, the more likely those affected participants sought greater meaning elsewhere.
This and other research suggests that boredom plays an important role in how we pursue goals and fulfilment. At the least, it argues that we consider the positive role boredom can play, and not just the negative one, as has been the focus of much research to date.
There is increasing evidence that suggests that boredom may not only be a mental state, but an emotion as well. In a study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University, boredom was found to elicit a similar response to feelings of elation.5)
Boredom, Creativity & Innovation
Having attended at least ten hacking events over the last decade (for companies I worked for, as a participant, an observer and occasionally a judge), I am convinced that boredom plays a role in the success of these events.
With many hack days running over 48 to 72 hours, what ignites people’s enthusiasm is the chance to do something different from their usual activities and tackle new products and services that either respond to the lacklustre performance of existing ones or promise entirely new ways to do things. In other words, these teams find what’s boring within what exists, and replace it with something more compelling.
When we think about it, hack events are successful because they are an important interruption to what is often a routine annual calendar. They are the equivalent of Buffet’s open schedule. They deliver an opportunity to break away from routine and participate in a new discovery.
Hack days often start off the same way; with a sense of nervous excitement and open possibility. Participants have described this to me as an uncomfortable feeling that they know will subside as the days progress.
Hack days are effective because they apply structure to give space to unstructured activities. They are the equivalent of being intentional about scheduling “open time”.
What Can We Do
There is a simple way you can explore the connection between boredom and creativity in your life.
The next time you feel bored, instead of reaching for something to fill the space (whether our social media feed or some other form of entertainment)… why not endure a little longer?
Ask yourself the question – what other activity could fill this time which may be more meaningful?
Even if you have only a short time available to you (20 minutes), consider using this time toward a personal goal.
What we’re doing here is ‘trading activities’. We’re raising our awareness of knee jerk patterns, and replacing them with purposeful ones, and being aware that boredom is the catalyst to doing so.
I’m also not suggesting to do this all the time. We all need a break and I love my Netflix time, just like anyone. But lately I do consciously switch these activities with thinking time.
At first this might feel strange, even a little uncomfortable. But when we swap activities for ones which take us closer toward our goals, it’s a likely sign we’re on the right track.
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