Want To Unlock Breakthrough Creativity? Get Bored

Overwhelming. That’s one way to describe the experience of modern life. Especially if you’re living in a large city, your senses are being taxed non-stop by noise, clutter, multi-tasking, and the demands of ubiquitous electronic devices. The hustle & bustle of everyday life robs you of mental energy, leaving you feeling anxious, tired, and overwhelmed. In fact, most people start to feel significantly more stress, pressure, and frustration after only 20 minutes of these types of interruptions. It’s likely why you aren’t making any significant progress on that creative project you might shelve. You know the one I’m talking about — the book you want to write, the blog you want to start, the course you want to create, the business you want to run, etc.

There’s at least one big idea in your life that requires breakthrough creativity — a new way of seeing things — to transform it from an idea into action. But you can’t seem to get into the right headspace. You’re stuck because the quality and quantity of your mental bandwidth directly influences your creative capacity. And because you feel distracted, exhausted, and overwhelmed, you can’t produce any good or different ideas.

I’ve got some science-backed and seemingly counterintuitive advice for you. To induce the headspace needed for a creative breakthrough, get bored. Yes, you read that correctly. Enter into what The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as “the state of being weary and restless through lack of interest.” Create a sort of mental “white space” — the perfect primer for a blank canvas that will invite your big idea. The science behind this strategy involves shifting from a state of overwhelm to underwhelm, thereby triggering an elastic need for stimulation.

A study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology revealed that bored people “are more likely to engage in sensation seeking.” They look for things that engage their minds and stimulate the brain’s reward centres. These people are more likely to think differently and come up with new creative ideas. “Thus, boredom may encourage people to approach rewards and spark associative thought.”

Here are four specific ways in which I induce boredom:

1. Use noise-cancelling headphones. Stephen Stansfeld, a Professor of Psychiatry at Queen Mary University of London who focuses on noise and health, explains how unwanted noise can cause irritation and anger. “Having a lot of background noise when you’re doing something is tiring,” he said in an interview. “Without noticing, you’re putting in a lot more effort in order to block out the noise. So when you shut it out, there’s a sense of relief.” Try substituting your daily default to music and podcasts with some rare radio silence.
2. Go for a walk in nature. The Japanese have a term, shinrin-yoku, which translates to “forest bathing.” Here in North America, we might call them nature walks. A study found in the Journal of Affective Disorders revealed that volunteers who took a 50-minute walk in a woodland park improved their cognition, as measured by the ability to remember a random string of digits and repeat them in reverse order, compared to those who took a walk through city streets. Unlike the notifications on your phone, nature tends to gently tug — but never grab — at your attention.
3. Eliminate social media distractions. We’ve known since at least 2012 that social media contributes to the release of dopamine — a “feel good” chemical — in the human brain. And we’ve recently learned that the compulsive behaviour encouraged by the medium is reducing our attention spans. Each tiny red dot from YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, etc. is compelling you to task-switch. These distractions, in turn, are wreaking havoc on your productivity. It typically takes more time to complete the tasks you’re switching between (and with a higher chance of errors) than if you were to mono-task, in sequence. So undergo a much-needed social media detox. Get comfortable with doing simple things, like eating, without distraction.
4. Practice mindfulness. There’s a reason why Google, Goldman Sachs, and Medtronic are among the many leading firms that have introduced meditation and other mindfulness practices to their employees. Researchers at The Rotterdam School of Management conducted an experiment with a group of senior innovation managers at a large Dutch research organization. These executives meditated for 12 minutes and then generated ideas on how to create a more inclusive culture in an organization. Most participants reported that meditation helped them clear their minds, focus more on the task at hand, and come up with original solutions. Use applications like Calm and Headspace to help you begin your mindfulness journey.

The link between boredom and creativity was tested again by researchers at the University of Central Lancashire. They asked 80 participants to perform mundane tasks such as copying and reading numbers from a phone book and then to come up with as many possible uses for plastic cups as they could. As predicted, the groups that completed the boring tasks beforehand came up with more creative answers than the control group that had not. Across thousands of similar experiments, we’ve unearthed conclusive evidence that boredom is a potent prelude to creativity.

What if you don’t have the luxury of disappearing to a creative sanctuary in Wyoming to work on your big project? Take what you can get, when you can get it. Even if you’re living in a big city and fighting off endless distractions, there are tiny things you can do to create and protect your attention. The four ideas I’ve suggested above are inexpensive and can be micro-dosed between deadlines, commutes, and meetings.

The key to making this strategy work is not to feel any guilt about getting bored. Remember that there are diminishing returns to being productive all the time. And that boredom encourages you to take action toward a non-boring alternative. You need this downtime to create the conditions conducive to high-octane uptime. Since most of us don’t like feeling bored for too long, the feelings of being weary and restless through a lack of interest motivates us to seek out new goals and experiences that we might otherwise let pass by.

In this always-on, always-connected world, boredom might be an elusive state. But trust me, it’s a potent one. Get bored. Stare out into the distance, take a walk through nature, drown out the noise. At the very least, put your phone away for a while. By shifting from a state of overwhelm to underwhelm, you might unlock your next big idea.

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