Boredom is a good thing. Learning to embrace this underrated skill will boost creativity, productivity and mental clarity. Here’s how to be bored and LevelUP.

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How often have you had to deal with the time-honored tradition of your kids being bored and complaining about having nothing to do?

I had both of my kids home with me over the summer and the constant urge to make sure they were constantly stimulated was exhausting in and of itself.

In my youth, I had enough toys and things to keep me occupied. But yeah, there were still plenty of occasions where I would announce my boredom.

It’s funny to see the tables turned on me now that I have two kids with a room full of toys and even a built-in playdate and they cannot find something to pique their interests.

As we grow up, we replace the Bluey episodes and monster trucks with a smartphone, but we still experience boredom.

But in many ways, we see this as a weakness. Something to be avoided. 

Today you’re going to learn why boredom is not the enemy that we’ve thought all this time.

It’s actually a good thing to be bored. 

In fact, you’re going to learn why being bored is a super power that will lead to a more fulfilling life.

And you’ll learn how to be bored and make this your ally going forward.

Let’s get into it. 

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What’s the first thing you do at the first sign of boredom? 

Easy. You reach for your phone. 

The mere thought of having to spend a few minutes without entertainment, without dopamine, without something that stimulates your mind is too much to take. 

We’re doing something wrong if we are not being fed hits of dopamine.

Instead of just taking a beat to chill out, we try desperately to avoid this brief period of nothingness and resort to reaching for our phone. 

On average, Americans pick up their phones almost 60 times per day and spend almost five hours staring at that screen daily.

What used to be small, little respites from the rigors of life and work has now regressed into an addiction to keep our mind distracted and busy. 

And we’re suffering as a result.

Since early childhood, we’ve assumed that boredom was some kind of bad thing.

It sucked being bored as a kid.

My dad would have me sit in the car and wait while he ran a quick errand. That 15-minute task felt like three hours. 

Side note: Yes, I’m a kid of the 80s and yeah, we’d wait in the car sometimes. The a/c was on, so I wasn’t going to die. And the doors were locked, so I wasn’t going to be taken away by the kidnapper van.

Webster defines boredom as: “the state of being weary and restless through lack of interest.”

This carries on through adulthood.

I’d see coworkers get irrationally angry when we’d have a lull in our workload as we transitioned from one client project to another.

“What are doinggggggg? This sucksssss.”

As someone who’s always embraced a love of learning and exploring multiple passions, I’d find the extra time to read or study or learn something new.

This is because I knew that eventually the workload would dramatically increase and I’d be working all hours of the day and night again, so I embraced the downtime. 

The younger members of my team did not. 

And they complained about it vocally until finally our supervisor gave them busy work to do, like the teacher who finally caves to give extra quizzes because the know-it-all student wanted more of a challenge.

Ugh. Corporate life sucked. But I digress.

In reality, it’s during these downtimes when creativity really emerges and your brain kicks into overdrive. 

Today, I’m going to make the case that you should be bored more often. 

Want to get in great shape? You need to make it boring.

Ask me what I’m eating for breakfast two weeks from Tuesday and I’ll be able to tell you with about 95-percent certainty: protein oatmeal with some fruit (usually a banana). 

It’s part of my 1-2-3 Meal Plan Framework that I teach all of my students.

• One breakfast that you can eat just about every single day;
• Two lunch options that I can rotate;
• Three to five different dinners that I can make throughout the week.

Keeping things “boring” with a meal plan framework solves the inconsistency problem.

I’ve been coaching people for almost 20 years and the biggest problem many face is they can eat healthy for a few days, but cannot stick to it consistently for the long term. 

Usually this comes from having far too many options. It becomes daunting trying to navigate all of it, so they can’t stick with it.

We call this decision fatigue: having an overabundance of options and the inability to choose as a result.

Instead of spending all day thinking about what I’m eating at my next meal, we simplify it by having a plan.

Eating this way simplifies the fat loss process. 

There’s less decision fatigue that leads to a just saying “fuck it” and ordering fast food instead because you were too busy to think of a dinner to make for tonight. 

You already know that you’ve got a beef stir fry on the menu because that’s part of your plan.

On a similar note, I admire the hell out of bodybuilders. 

Minus the whole enhanced steroid stuff, of course, but stay with me.

Bodybuilding is not my sport and I’d never be interested in pushing my body to that kind of limit, but their dedication to the craft is amazing. 

Say what you want about bodybuilders, they are masters of simplicity and keeping things as simple and boring as possible. 

They eat similar meals daily and their workouts are pretty freaking boring and standard, too. 

They don’t do a bunch of high-intensity, burpee-cardio, muscle-confusion workouts. Nope.

Bodybuilders hit variations of the keys standard lifts and a few accessories.

And they do it over and over and over again as they get stronger and build better physiques.

They keep things boring. 

Boredom is not your enemy, it’s your ally to win this game of life.

This works not only with eating and training. 

President Obama would simplify his wardrobe and wear similar suits to avoid making unnecessary decisions since he had to basically run the free world for eight years.

Here’s how he explained it for an interview with Vanity Fair:

“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” he said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” He mentioned research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one’s ability to make further decisions. It’s why shopping is so exhausting. “You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.”

– President Barack Obama

The many advantages of learning how to be bored

Our brains are on overdrive with work, parenting and everything in between. 

But whenever it gets a chance to relax for a minute, you hate being bored and have to stimulate it some more. 

That leads us to seeking out dopamine hits from our phones and tablets to cure the boredom. It’s a cycle. 

This wreaks havoc on your mental health over time, according to research from Columbia University:

• Increased sense of urgency from fear of missing out,
• which leads to increased anxiety and stress,
• and can lead to poor sleep (and more stress).

It’s a non-stop cycle of suck that you can avoid by simply learning how to be bored instead.

Boredom boosts your creativity. 

You’re more apt to daydream and let the mind wander and think about things. Reflect. Introspection. 

When we are not being force-fed outside stimulation from phones and social media, the brain will kick into high gear to use its imagination to entertain us and think creatively.

But, on the other hand, refusing to be bored is a form of a control issue (or lack thereof): you cannot self-regulate and therefore need to resort to constant stimulation. This type of boredom means you are more likely to disengage from an activity (perhaps work or your loved ones story about their own office drama). 

But learning to be bored and enduring that boredom will give you a powerful tool to self-regulate. 

You’re essentially training your boredom muscles so you aren’t so inclined to reach for your phone every single time you feel a hint of boredom. 

As a result, your mind will start to do what it has naturally evolved to do for the centuries before the damn smartphone: think, daydream, create, think some more, plan.

You’ll be more adventurous. 

Sounds counterintuitive, but embracing boredom will help you realize the need to branch out and try new things. 

Since we’re engaging in an activity that doesn’t move any closer to a goal, it becomes uninteresting and unchallenging. As a result, you’ll be more likely to tweak projects and goals to ensure you find a more challenging objective. 

You need to be challenged in the Goldilocks range

Knowledge acquisition should not stop because formal schooling is over.

Education only begins after you leave school and enter “the real world.”

Turn your life into a video game (here’s a handy guide to doing just that) and develop the side quests necessary to turn your life around, find what you’re passionate about and win.

The problem many face is a lack of time. Which, I’d argue, is flawed because it doesn’t take much to tackle big problems if you have a plan. 

As little as 15 minutes of focus and deliberate practice towards a new skill can be enough to change your entire life around. 

The bigger problem is in the difficulty level of the side quest. 

If you pick a challenge that is far too easy, you won’t be stimulated enough, you’ll get bored (the bad kinda bored that leads to procrastination) and you’ll quit.

On the flip-side, if the project is far too challenging, you’ll get anxiety over it and use boredom and procrastination as a means to avoid doing the work. 

And then you’ll eventually quit.

You must learn how to be bored effectively

Sometimes, I’ll just sit the Interns (my kids) down on the couch and tell them that we’re gonna be bored for a few minutes and do nothing. 

They hate it.

But I encourage them to use their creativity and let their imagination run wild in their minds. 

There’s a Daniel Tiger episode where the characters are getting bored waiting for their turn at show and tell. And in classic Daniel Tiger fashion, they break out in song to tell a valuable lesson.

“When you wait, you can play, sing, or imagine anything.”

– Daniel Tiger

Remember this when you get bored. 

Let’s really break down a few key rules to learn how to be bored in a good way; a way that stimulates creativity and growth.

Schedule boredom in your calendar

One of the best things you can do is utilize technology to develop a better habit. 

It’s going to be pretty difficult to remind yourself throughout the day to take a boredom break. 

In that case, you’ll probably want to get started by simply scheduling a few minutes into your day or week for just chilling out and doing nothing. 

It doesn’t have to be much. Maybe 10 minutes before or after a lunch break. 

Eliminate distractions

Of course, during this boredom break, you’ll need to remove as many distractions as possible. 

Put the phone on “do not disturb” or at least on silent. And then put it away so you resist the urge to reach for it. 

No reading. No music. No social media. 

Determine your “activity”

You don’t necessarily need to sit in one place to accomplish this either. 

Sure, you could determine that you’d simply like to find a little park bench and sit there with your eyes closed for a bit.

Or you could choose to get up and go for a tech-free walk. In which case, you’ll probably want to choose a familiar route so you’re not distracted by new and stimulating things along the way.

Embrace boredom

Let your mind wander and try not to start stimulating it with music. Avoid the temptation to guide your thoughts and start planning. 

That defeats the purpose. 

Although, it will likely be your default at first, so you’re going to have to be patient and let the brain catch up through a few practice sessions before you really get the hang of boredom again. 

It’s likely been quite a few years since you’ve let the mind wander like this (untouched and undisturbed without immediately pulling it back into reality).

Be present

It’s okay to observe your surroundings. Do so with a sense or presence, though. 

Instead of thinking about that pair of shoes you spot in the store window that you walk by, think about actually noticing the leaves on the tree outside of the shop. 

The chirp of the birds. 

The cool breeze against your cheek.

Definitely avoid the urge to try and plan out “what’s next.” 

The goal is to be more present and intentional about your time with your own thoughts. 

Recap your time

Jot a few thoughts down in your journal about your boredom exercises. 

You may start to notice that during (or even after) those sessions, your brain gets a jolt of fresh and exciting clarity on something you’ve been pondering for a while. 

When I’m working on a project and hit a sticking point, I’ll step out for a walk with no tech (no music, podcast or audiobook for stimulation) and just be with my own mind. 

After about 15-20 minutes around the block, in many cases I return with a sense of clarity and intention. 

Perhaps I haven’t completely solved my problem, but usually I have a different perspective about it and can attack it again having been refreshed and recharged.

All because I learned how to be bored. 

Now that you’ve learned how to be bored successfully, it’s time to take boredom to the next level

If you’re interested in working with me to get a complete body transformation program that couples minimalist training with a personalized approach to nutrition (no calorie counting here), then you should check out my Lean4Life Coaching Program.

As mentioned previously in this article, I keep nutrition and training simple (almost kinda boring) so you can focus on the most important parts: staying consistent so you can get in great shape … and actually stay that way.

If you’re not ready for that, no worries. Take your time, I’ll be here.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “how to be bored” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete