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A post about boredom?

Boooooring.

I like to believe in an extremely over-simplified way that says that things are as their names are. So, naturally, a blog post about boredom will be, according to me, boooooring.

Unless I’m writing it, of course. And since this is a post about boredom and creativity, discovering the crazy way boredom leads to new ideas, it’s infinity better. In this post I’d draw a parallel between boredom and creativity, explaining in detail how boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas.

Boredom looks unappealing to almost everyone. Like, who wants to be bored out of their minds when they could instead be doing a million other interesting or productive things? Who the heck wants to be bored?

Boredom means idleness. Idleness means inactivity. Inactivity means rest. For workaholics, that’s a nightmare come true.

So how do we utilize boredom and creativity to use them in the best way possible to boost our productivity and creativity.

BOREDOM AND CREATIVITY

Alicia Walf, a neuroscientist and educator at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, says that boredom is actually good for our brain’s health. Boredom can help restore creativity and innovative ideas.

Sometimes I feel that boredom and creativity are literally two sides of the same coin.

I really used to be so goal-oriented that I’d prefer to spend all my day working and working away instead of getting bored.

But I’ve come to realise the indispensable relationship between boredom and creativity, how important boredom really is, especially for the creators, the artists, the writers, anyone who’s doing the work with the right side of the brain, you know.

Boredom leads to new ideas and new takes on situations we might already identify but not know so much about. Boredom boosts creativity.

I used to be bored when I was younger, some ten or eleven maybe, and there’d be these long summer vacations and I literally seemed to have nothing else to do. (I wasn’t writing stories back then, at least not with the same fervour.) So I’d spend all my time playing with Barbies (yeah, can’t believe I was a kid once) or watching TV, or making amateur drawings or playing stupid games (that involved treasure hunts, yeah, can’t believe that either.)

Then I turned thirteen and blah blah blah. This time when summer vacations came around, I had something to do. I was writing stories, yeah, way to go girl.

Then there was covid. All down the drain.

Covid messed with all of us in a real cruel way.

I didn’t get birthday hugs and lost contact with many of my friends, and stopped studying in the online classes because really, why would you study when there wasn’t anyone around to watch you (it didn’t even earn you any good points)?

But the one good thing that came out of covid was that I once again began getting bored pretty often. I wasn’t like, much good at wriitng, so I usually spent most of my time daydreaming and all.

Something good came out of that daydreaming.

THE PARALLEL BETWEEN BOREDOM AND CREATIVITY

Boredom is really parallel to creativity and finding new ideas.

Boredom is that state of mind where you’re sitting idle and tired and restless, and feel like you should do something, anything. And it seems like you actually want to do nothing. Like nothing, you don’t wanna sleep, you don’t wanna eat, you don’t wanna watch TV, you don’t wanna read or study, you don’t wanna go outside and play, you don’t wanna talk, you don’t wanna do anything.

I’ve actually seen too many of those days, and see even more of them on weekends and holidays. Because I haven’t gotten the normal routine of school and TV and studying on these days, I just felt like I haven’t got anything to do.

Just a couple days ago, I was being bored out of my mind pretty much all afternoon, and it was in that moment that I switched off the TV after at last getting done with it, and I opened up my notebook and stared at a blank page for a long time. Ughhhhhhh.

I wanted to hit something really hard. There was just so much frustration inside me. Uhhhhhhhh.

Are you kidding me, God? I glared at the ceiling, frustrated, then apologetic the next second. I mean, please. Can’t I do at least one productive thing today, just so I can go to bed with a satisfied smile on my face and sleep peacefully? Please?

God actually listened to me. And it was also my bored state of mind playing a role.

I penned down the idea of a non-fiction book and wrote down the introduction and first two chapters. Damn.

This is some crazy thing going on here. Boredom can always lead to some of your most brilliant ideas. This is why boredom is good for you.

And because I’ve had this experience more than once in my life, I can safely say that indeed boredom in a way motivates us and brings us new unexpected ideas that might just end up changing the world.

I mean, for all it’s worth, if you’re bored, go and stare at a wall until an idea magically strikes.

This is also backed up by others: Austin Kleon adds this idea in his book Steal Like An Artist, which is in my opinion, a really important book for the creators and artists and all those who create anything. In fact, he also draws this comparison and relation between the presence of boredom and creativity.

Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. I get some of my best ideas when I’m bored, which is why I never take my shirts to the cleaners. I love ironing my shirts-it’s so boring, I almost always get good ideas. If you’re out of ideas, wash the dishes. Take really long walk. Stare at a spot on the wall for as long as you can.

Austin Kleon, “Steal Like An Artist.”

Get Bored.

Want to brainstorm an idea? Get bored. Want to recharge energy? Get bored. Want to work like crazy? First get bored.

WE DON’T LIKE BEING BORED

So I’ve noticed this thing that many of us always tend to do anything in order to keep boredom away. Like, if we feel like we’re getting bored, or that we’ve got nothing much on our hands to do, we’d literally do anything in order to restore the work balance that we’re used to in life.

The thing is we’re so used to always being busy and active that for once not having anything to do makes us uncomfortable and in my case it hugely feels like I’m just wasting my time. We don’t like getting bored.

But the best thing to do would be to stop fighting it. It feels hard to understand why boredom is good for you, but I’ve come to experience this more than once.

The more we fight being bored, the more empty our day feels like.

In order to rush ourselves to work, work, do something, anything, we just end up feeling more alienated from work than before.

So when you’re bored, don’t force yourself to work. Just stop trying to find the most interesting thing to fill up your time with. Stare dully at a wall for all it’s worth. The brain frequently comes up with new ideas in these times of inactivity and dullness.

WHY BOREDOM IS GOOD FOR YOU

Letting ourselves get bored is a really important thing to do, especially if the work we’re doing involves thinking up new ideas, new ways of doing things, art, basically.

It helps the mind to find new ideas. It restores the lost energy. It helps us with the not-thinking part, which itself prompts the whole process of transformation of boredom into creativity.

HOW TO BE BORED?

There’d be some days when the universe practically wants you to be bored because it’s trying to send you a subconscious signal: yeah, just don’t do anything right now, you’re close to finding out an idea.

So how to be bored, how to prompt boredom and find the creativity we need in life?

1. In those empty spaces between two things you’ve got to do, or two places you’ve got to be, whether it be in the elevator, or waiting for a friend in the cafeteria or traveling on the metro, don’t open up your social media just as a way to indulge yourself somewhere. Be bored. Ridiculously bored.
2. Let your mind wander a little, away from its routinely trajectory and let it think up way better and newer ideas.
3. Take your walks sometimes without a podcast or some music or keep you company, and try to obverse the little things around you.
4. Stare at nature.
5. Be indifferent to the pre-determined standards of a productive or a wasted day. If the day’s going on empty without much being done, try to do anything but change it. You chase away what you run after. I personally find this true. Whenever I’m bored and try to do something, write a book or an article, all I do is either produce bad, unworthy content, or not produce anything at all.
6. Get lost. Wander around. Look at everything with a keen eye.
7. If you feel like you’re wasting time by getting bored, waste it. Boredom is really a great motivator, and after you’ve been bored enough and your mind has rested enough, it’ll produce great ideas and energy.

CONCLUSION

So this was how I think boredom induces creativity and motivation within all of us. Some of us just don’t focus enough on it.

This was your guide to bringing out the best of you, to understand why boredom arises, and how boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas ever so that you can work creatively in whatever profession you are. It really is helpful, in being a writer, boredom.

Are you an artist? Do you produce any form of art? Or are you the non-artistic type (though I think all of us have a little amount of creativity inside of us).

Whichever the case be with you, I think in today’s world all of us are in a dire need for inspiration.

If you’re looking for ways to create better content and live in a creative and more exceptionist way, I think you’ll land at the right place by clicking on this post: 13 GOAT Quotes for Artists to Find Inspiration.