Get bored!

In this era of constantly being “online all the time,” one wonders if getting bored is a thing of the past. When our calendars are suddenly free from any goal, reminder, or event, we realize that we are unproductive and ineffective. We are so used to constantly being online that we equate productivity with the amount of face time we have through our mobile devices and personal computers. Being free suddenly makes us feel bored, and this boredom gives us a sense of nothingness.

But does boredom deserve the flak it gets from management gurus who value time for efficiency, effectiveness, and excellence? When we get bored, we think that we have completed all activities we have to do in our offices and homes. We might have also finished all of our tasks on time and have watched all the episodes of our favorite shows on Netflix, or have just gotten tired of clicking and browsing through our friends’ feeds and posts in social media. However, recent studies have shown that boredom can lead to more positive emotions, feelings, and even creativity. Thus, getting bored can be fun in the not- so- traditional sense.

In the book entitled The Positive Power of Negative Emotions by Tim Lomas, boredom, which is considered a “negative feeling,” is “not only normal and natural but may in fact serve as pathways to the very happiness and flourishing that we seek.” We usually equate boredom with

what Orrin Klapp, in his book Overload and Boredom: Essays on the Quality of Life in the Information Society, described as a “deficit in the quality of life.” Although people have been attuned to this kind of thinking, Lomas argues that boredom can lead to creativity.

All of us have been bored in class, at work, at home, or even during a supposedly fun vacation or time-out with family and friends. However, recent studies have shown that a “certain level of boredom might actually enhance the creative quality of our work.”

In a study by Sandi Mann and Rebekah Cadmann entitled “Does Being Bored Make Us More Creative?” participants were asked to do boring activities such as reading a phonebook or copying numbers from a phonebook. The researchers found that levels of divergent thinking — that is, thinking creatively to produce various solutions to a

We should let boredom transform us through meaningful selfexploration.

problem — improved after the participants accomplished these boring activities.

In their study entitled “Approaching Novel Thoughts: Understanding Why Elation and Boredom Promote Associative Thought More than Distress and Relaxation,” Karen Gasper and Brianna Middlewood found that “boredom boosts creativity because of how people prefer to alleviate it.” This means that boredom can motivate people to “approach new and rewarding activities.” Thus, “an idle mind will seek a toy.” This happened to me while I was recently waiting in line to pay my bills ( sadly, no online payment facility was available) and had to wait for roughly half an hour for a simple transaction. In my boredom, I imagined improving the payment process by using all the possible queuing theories from operations management. I did a process map, an inventory, and even quality certification just by looking at all the inefficiencies that surrounded me.

Einstein reportedly “achieved the initial pivotal insight into the nature of relativity while boredly daydreaming.” This can happen to us, too. We don’t have to be Einstein, but we should let boredom transform us through meaningful self- exploration. We should not be uncomfortable with boredom, but instead let it be an opportunity to be reflective of ourselves, our work, our community, and our society. We should be like children of summers past who experienced boredom as part and parcel of childhood — where having to do nothing means thinking of doing something. Just like children, we should let ourselves be free from time to time to become more creative and reflective. �