Boredom - your powerful creative engine
Despite the fact that boredom is assumed to be a negative thing, it can actually be extremely useful. We are used to perceiving tedium as something that makes us lazy. However, have you ever considered the idea that it can also boost your creativity?
Shane Bench and Heather C. Lench, two American scientists, investigated how the brain responds to boredom by generating ideas to engage us in meaningful activity. Therefore, when you don’t feel motivated, your brain just comes up with new goals and ideas. Studies by the University of Central Lancashire show that there’s a link between boring activities and the creative process. Moreover, the more boring the task is, the higher the level of creativity people show during the test after it. The scientists explain it as the "daydreaming effect," which occurs when we are engaged in something dull and passive (such as attending a tedious meeting).
The paper of Penn State University research confirms the connection between boredom and creativity. The scientists found out that participants who had just watched a boring video performed better on the creativity test than others. The research claims that our brain is looking for something interesting to entertain ourselves when we feel bored, and, thus, it motivates us to try something new. So, sometimes tedium can be beneficial. That’s why it is recommended to start your working day with some monotonous activities like answering emails, printing documents, making copies, and so on. When all of such things are done, the brain turns on the creative mode and generates effective ways to solve your tasks.
"I feel bored all the time and haven’t invented anything special yet," you may say. But were you actually bored? It’s not that easy in today’s reality when everyone has a bunch of entertainment right in their pocket. Yes, we’re talking about your phone (this little distracting machine). Every second when we have nothing to do, we start checking our messengers, new feeds, Instagram stories, and so on. The main goal of developers is to make sure that we never leave their website or app. They make the interface nicer and nicer, offer us a bunch of fun functions to make us go from page to page, press a variety of buttons and never feel bored. That’s why many people say that our devices kill creativity. Our brain is always distracted by a continuous flow of information pouring from the screen. It’s so busy with content consumption that it does not have time to generate its own ideas!
The author of the book "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self", Manoush Zomoro, claims that reducing the time spent on using your phone leads to a creativity boost. Hans Wilhelm, an author of children's books, calls boredom a source of inspiration. In one of his speeches, he shares that reducing the use of TV, radio, and phones — in short, sources of information noise — helps him focus on his own feelings, which ultimately inspire him.
Still have any doubts? Fortunately, it’s easy to check if the relationship between tedium and creativity exists. We suggest you conduct an experiment. Put down your phone and do something that doesn’t require thinking, for example, cleaning your house or walking in nature alone. Don't make snap decisions, just give boredom a chance and be ready for the kiss of the muse!
Article by Viktoria Kogan,
Unarthodox Element Blog Contributor