Boredom, or being bored is what most people avoid at all cost. When we wait for the bus we get our phones out. When we think we have a minute to spare some content is never far away.
What does boredom actually do? It creates space for finding new things to do, new things to explore. It leaves room for playing. Simply picking something up and play with it. In our over organized lives this room is often not there anymore. But it is essential for developing new ideas and give the brain a moment to wander around and figure out new ways to get busy.
We have forgotten the beautiful art of doing nothing, really winding down and relaxing in order to give the mind and the body some rest and a reset.
Being hard at work at your craft doesn’t mean you have to be busy every minute of every day. This is a surefire way to burnout and fatigue. Offcourse you can work hard and burn the midnight oil from time to time to finish a project or take advantage of a creative abundance, but take time off in between projects.
When the mind is at rest it never stops, most people forget that these are the moments you have room for planting new ideas. It’s also something you can train. Up to some point at least.
Another part of boredom is you can have space to play, just like your younger years. We have lives with instant gratification but if you put the distractions away and get to that playing mode, cool things can transpire.
It’s not that we don’t have enough time, it’s the lack of attention that is causing the rut in our creative sides. And other important things we need and want to do.
The practical side
I have struggled with this problem a lot, when I am tired and need to rest, I grab my phone and start scrolling. So nowadays I put my phone away when I need my rest. I also limit my social media consumption and clear my desk when I do my cognitive hard tasks. Like writing, making music or learning something.
I plan these activities, and this is not to take out the spontaneous side of it, it’s to make sure I do these things. With all my focus and attention.
I started with 15 minutes and 5 minutes of rest. And built it up to blocks of 25 minutes with 5 minutes rest. I my case maxed out at 2 hours total per day.
With everything you do build it up slowly. You will not have the strength or endurance to do the chosen activities for hours on end. It’s also counterproductive. Start slow. Let’s take writing as an example. Write for 15 minutes a day or every other day and built it up from there. You can’t run the marathon straight away, so you also can’t write a book out of the gate. It might seem like people do. But it all derives from consistent practice.
Take these 1% gains and don’t fear the setbacks too much, most of the things I do fail. I know this because that’s how I learned everything in life. We all know this but society has forgotten all that it seems. But there is no instant success.
The second big thing, plan days or parts of days where you do “nothing”, whatever that is, go sit in a chair without anything nearby but a pen and paper. Go for a long walk without listening to music, a podcast and so on. Waiting for the train? Don’t grab your phone. It can be small things.
At some point something hits you, maybe not all the time but simply being aware of your surrounding can work magic on the creative side of the brain. You can make a choice to write the ideas down in your notebook, or not. Just do what feels right. At some point all these “boring” minutes add up to build creativity.
Why pen & paper
Another crucial part of this process is when you have an idea you want to save an idea, make sure you write it down, and not make a note in your phone. The act of committing the idea to paper by writing instills it in your brain much better than when you type it in your phone. It’s also easier to browse through a notebook than it is to scroll trough your notes in your phone.
It might seem like a very small detail, but it’s a big one. It really works way better. One of the reasons I write instead of type things like ideas, thoughts, my diary and so on.
Slowing down is not doing nothing
A lot of people fall into the “busy trap”, being busy is not the same as doing your most effective and best work. Things take time, ideas need to develop and need room to breathe. It also means we are doing a lot of things that don’t attribute to our goals, the things we want to be doing. Instead we fill our days with a lot of noise. Feeling tired most of the time.
Slowing down and leave room for boredom, opens the mind up to creative thinking and focus. the fun thing, with a few easy “hacks” we can all incorporate this in our lives and find our creative side again. Have fun giving it a go.
