I babysat a lot in high school and immediately after finishing a game most kids would say: “I’m bored.”  I remember being bored as a kid. We don’t have as much to do and if you have screen time limits like I did you had to get creative. 

I remember writing novels, coming up with songs, and playing pretend. Boredom, when uninhibited, can lead to moments of insight, inspiration and thought, but from a young age, we expect constant stimulation, either from a screen or pre-planned activity. 

When my 9-year-old sister sits down to eat, her immediate reaction is to turn the TV on as well. I know why. I do it. My parents do it. My brothers do it. We try to fill our minds almost 100% of the time so we don’t have to engage with our boredom. 

I’ve been wondering about boredom for a few weeks so I wrote down a few ways to help you be bored better and know what the heck you’re supposed to do when you’re bored (and you guessed it, Tik-Tok isn’t always the answer). 

Boredom is like a pain signal, take action when you feel it 

I’m not going to argue that boredom is inherently good; in fact, people much smarter than me consider it closer to a pain signal, a sign that something is wrong. It still could be helpful, albeit uncomfortable. Pain, like touching a fire, tells us hey, something is wrong. 

“Boredom is the uncomfortable state of wanting to engage in satisfying activity, but being unable to do so,” says Brene Brown in her novel Atlas of the Heart. 

So, when we flip on the TV or check our phones, we’re probably trying to fill an “uncomfortable state of wanting;” however, our default activity is rarely engaging. Think about how often you see someone watching TV and scrolling their phones at the same time? Probably haven’t found your satisfying activity yet. 

When you feel bored, take action. This is your chance to write. To read. To learn a skill. To find work that satisfies you. Lean into your boredom for just a second longer, and don’t pick up TikTok. (Let yourself be bored enough to make a TikTok.) 

Create space for boredom

If we never feel bored, that’s a problem too. Boredom inspires us to be creative. In fact,  many talented and successful people cite boredom as a source for their creativity. If they weren’t bored, they wouldn’t have had the time or reason to go after the careers, hobbies, and ambitions they ended up excelling at. 

So imagine if you actually let yourself bored for a few minutes, and then you used it as an opportunity to engage in a satisfying activity. Imagine if instead of flipping through your phone, you sat in silence for a few minutes. I wonder what our brains could come up with. Maybe you’d pick up a hobby you’d left behind. 

For me, my most creative moments happen when I’ve been bored. My blogs were inspired by boredom and the need to engage in something satisfying. Over quarantine, I wrote songs again, I wrote blogs, I painted. 

There’s something inherently beautiful about creativity, but busyness does not yield creativity.

In order to do something unique, you have to feel like what your doing isn’t satisfying. So, instead of filling every block of time, sit in boredom. 

Allow yourself time to be curious, to wonder, to create. Boredom is like a pain signal, but a remarkably helpful one. 

Don’t be bored forever.

At the end of the day, you can’t let yourself sit in boredom forever. Remember, boredom is a signal that something is wrong. 

If you’re bored at work, it might be time to rethink your job, seek more responsibility or add creativity to your work. Think about how you can really engage and create meaning in what you do. 

Boredom is a call to action. We don’t need to be bored forever. If you’re bored with your job, maybe it’s a call to start looking for a new one. If you’re bored on Saturday afternoon, maybe it’s a call to start a new project, pick up a book, or go walk around outside. 

So, let’s rethink boredom

Next time you start to feel bored, ask yourself how you can engage in stimulating activity. The most bored I’ve ever been was during quarantine, but during that time I ran a half-marathon, cooked most days, wrote more, and read more. So, figure out what you really want to do. Asking why you’re bored may keep you off the phone a little longer.  

Not that a good TV show can’t be stimulating. Or social media can’t be fun. I don’t love extremes, and I don’t think we can blanket technology as bad or harmful; but, we also can’t let our phones or busy lives stamp out the creativity that can come with boredom. 

Explore boredom and embrace the creativity and innovative thinking it can bring.