Boredom Is Not The Enemy!
In fact, choosing between boredom and busyness, I would choose boredom ten out of ten times.
In an intellectual economy, our brain, and our ability to use our brain, largely determine our income and overall wealth.
And fortunately, or unfortunately, our mind is ALWAYS being trained, consciously and unconsciously. So, I present two scenarios.
1- Bill, a mid-level executive who is working on a big project that requires deep work.
2- Will, a mid-level executive who is working on a big project that requires deep work.
These two people are identical in every way. Same job, same education, same institutional privilege, they both have a wife and two daughters named Sara and Mary. Everything is identical. The only difference in their lives happens when they are waiting in line. Yes, we all wait in line, welcome to humanity. We wait at the bank, Disney Land, and especially at the bathroom during a concert or music festival. But while Bill waits in the Trader Joe’s line, he knows he has 2.5 minutes to kill, so he pulls out his phone and scrolls through 75 Instagram posts and sees that he received 35 hearts since he last checked-in (dopamine deposit). We’ve all been Bill. I’m sometimes Bill.
Then there’s Will. Will just stands in line at Trader Joe’s. Bored! Most of the time he thinks about nonsensical things, or nothing, rarely does he even consider his project.
Here’s the main point, it isn’t that Will is going to come up with some magical idea while waiting in the Trader Joe’s line to save his project. It’s that his mind/body isn’t being constantly trained to just reach, or click, for social media as soon as his mind drifts or becomes bored.
Boredom frustrates many people
When doing intellectual work, your mind will drift, welcome to humanity. And when you hit the 12th minute of work, and your mind drifts, those of us self-conditioned like Bill, click TwitBookGram for our shot of dopamine. In the long run, after years of self-conditioning, which person will be able to concentrate on their big project better, with all else being identical and constant?
Are you conditioning your mind like Bill or like Will? Also, as a reminder for those of you who can’t go 12 minutes without reaching for a distraction, if you self-conditioned your current situation, that means you can also change the conditioning.
So, get comfortable with boredom. When you feel the sensation, sit with it for a while. don’t reach for your phone, just be bored. Try it. good luck.