On Boredom

I have a challenge for you and its pretty simple! In a whole day, you have to do absolutely nothing. No social media, No screens, no music or any distractions. Even though the challenge is pretty simple, almost no one would be able to do it now! What is ironic is that this is the way, we used to live a decade ago, but now not even a day goes by without an external stimulus to keep us entertained. We check our phones whether we are standing in queue, waiting for someone or when we take a break from work or whenever we feel bored.

So why is boredom, such a hard thing to deal with? A better questions is why do we need to be distracted all the time?

Distractions, whether we realise it or not, are comforting and provide instant gratification. Whereas being bored would be an uncomfortable experience and might something be outside the comfort zone of most people. This instant gratification seeking behaviour is amplified by the technology, making it much harder to do things that would yield a better life in the long run. As someone who has majored in Artificial Intelligence, I find it very concerning that the current technology is headed towards a more immersive and addictive future where profits are being made at the expense of human creativity, ambition and values.

It takes a lot of time and effort to master a craft or a skill. With constant switching back and forth every time we have a notification, what we lose is our focus and will power. Both of which are a limited resource. Embracing boredom on the other hand, can help us follow through and be consistent in learning a hard skill which require a deeper commitment. Boredom can help us cultivate curiosity and see the world from a different perspective like how we used to back in the days when we didn’t have access to a smart phone and help us cultivate better human values. Boredom can also help us understand ourselves better. Even though it might be uncomfortable, embracing boredom can drastically improve one’s life in the long run.

In my personal experience, I have noticed that whenever I embraced boredom I had been able to attain a state of flow in whatever task that I do. Getting into the flow, helps us become happier and achieve at a higher level and that’s why it is important to embrace boredom. Embracing boredom is one of the fundamental necessity if one wishes to perform deep work.

But realistically, in this fast moving world, how can we. avoid the fear of missing out (FOMO) when embracing boredom and avoiding distraction. all day seems like stretching it a bit too far?

The answer is moderation. Instead of forcing ourself to embrace boredom all day long. A simple trick of scheduling for distractions works wonders. This can be done as many times as we want in a day but after this time, we say no to distraction and we mean it.

What this would do is build self control in a slow but comfortable manner. As there will be fewer switches due to distractions, we might be able to perform better in our day to day activities and over time, this creates a habit where we would gradually begin to avoid distractions without even realising it and at the same time we would have crafted a perfect balance where we don’t miss out on the important things in life and at the same time manage to improve our lifestyle!

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