Feeling boredom may turn you into a more creative and accomplished person

While many of us struggle with having nothing important to do, there is research suggesting that this feeling of boredom can turn us into more creative and productive people.

The famous French novelist Victor Hugo says in his book Les Misérables published in 1862: "There is something more terrible than the hell of suffering, and that is the hell of boredom."

It is an observation that is apparently still true today. In modern societies, boredom is something people escape from, whether by playing a game or browsing their personal accounts on social networking sites.

Perhaps it is not surprising that we feel that boredom is not comfortable at all, but just look at the importance that modern societies give to being busy with work and useful things. We find the richest people among us working longer hours than usual, at a time when busyness has become a symbol of importance and prestige.

On the other hand, boredom and emptiness have become associated with people who do not achieve anything important in their lives, and with the lazy and loafers. These traits are associated with a state of mental laziness, the lack of a goal to strive for.

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In a society where happiness is often associated with things like being productive, of course those bored people will be unhappy.

Psychologist Martin Wang describes boredom as "imaginative inhibition," and a number of studies have indicated that those with a tendency to feel boredom lack external motivation and easily become frustrated when exposed to challenging situations.

But perhaps our understanding of boredom is wrong, as there are a number of studies indicating that by not allowing ourselves to feel bored even once in a while, we may miss out on an important opportunity.

Reorientation of free time

Many thoughts come to us during leisure or idle time, when we are on the way to work, when we are taking a shower, or when we are taking a long walk. In fact, we may be at our most creative and productive when we're bored.

In a study published by Pennsylvania State University, researchers Karen Gasper and Brianna Middlewood found that study participants who were bored performed better on creativity and innovation tests compared to people who were relaxed and cheerful before the test.

The researchers asked volunteers in the study to watch video clips that evoke specific emotions in the viewers, before testing their ability to think of some words.

For example, the two researchers found that when these people were asked to think of words related to "means of transportation", most of them said: "a car", but the people who were bored before the test, their minds were thinking differently, so that some of them answered with the word "camel".

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Perhaps the most mundane tasks in our work have surprising potential for creativity. In a series of experiments conducted by researchers Sandy Mann and Rebecca Cadman at the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom, some volunteers were asked to copy phone numbers from a note in front of them, and then asked them to think of as many possible uses for two plastic cups as possible.

Compared to the volunteers who were not asked before the task, the volunteers who copied phone numbers before the task were more creative in thinking.

The researchers say that being bored encourages thinking creatively. Because your brain issues signals that your state at that time is missing something, and that you must move forward to get out of this state, so you unleash your thinking to help you with that.

When we think about something, or entertain our imagination in what we call daydreaming, we benefit a lot from the state of our subconscious mind, which is not bound by its need for a specific thing in order to put things in their usual order, as Sandy Mann explains. "Our subconscious mind has more freedom," adds Mann.

The key to thinking more creatively, Mann says, is to make sure you have some free time to allow your mind to wander around and think more freely.

But most of us take advantage of the few spare moments in the day browsing social networking sites and checking e-mail. Mann advises that you should consider practicing some other activities, such as swimming, because this gives the mind an opportunity to think more freely, away from electronic distractions.

The most successful businessmen in the world, such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, have been known to include in their daily agenda some free time to just sit and think.

According to Jerome Singer, who has studied the positive aspects of daydreaming for decades, allowing one's mind to "wander" freely gives one the opportunity to retrieve many memories, and make many meaningful associations.

When a person feels bored, it gives an opportunity to the subconscious mind to recover many lost memories from a long time ago, and to have the ability to link different ideas.

Daydreaming contributes to enhancing that ability to access our memories, knowledge, experiences, and imagination that helps us reach those important moments for creative thinking, says Amy Fries, author of Daydreaming in the Workplace: Awaken Your Potential creative.”

This state of calm and relative detachment that characterizes daydreaming helps quiet the noise, so we can hit the target,” Fries adds.

Studies using magnetic resonance imaging have shown that the connectivity between different parts of our brains increases when we think freely, such as during daydreaming, compared to thinking while concentrating on a specific task.

It shows how people are able to connect disparate ideas and see things and experiences that may not have happened before in their knowledge and experience.

And periods of boredom can help us be more productive. According to Andreas Elbedoro, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Louisville, periods of boredom help us realize that the activities we are doing are important or meaningful.

Elbedoro believes that boredom acts as an organizing tool that can help motivate us to complete our plans and projects.

And Elbedoro says: “In the absence of boredom, a person may remain confined to those circumstances in which he does not accomplish anything, which leads him to miss out on many psychological, cognitive, and social experiences that benefit him. Boredom is a warning that we are not doing the thing we want to do.” We do it, and at the same time it motivates us to achieve our goals and projects.”

Why do we feel bored?

It does not seem that boredom is something that we can be afraid of, but we should also know that not all types of boredom produce beneficial results as we mentioned.

While our feeling of inactivity or lethargy can push us to think creatively and be productive, chronic boredom can also lead to negative effects that can reduce our life years.

As Sandy Mann says, feeling bored because there is no motivation is very different from feeling bored because you feel that everything in your life is useless. "You may have a lot of work to do, but you may suffer from chronic boredom," Mann adds.

Chronic boredom is described as that unlimited feeling that can cause you health damage on the physical and psychological levels.

In the past, idleness was an attribute of wealth and success. But the contemporary business world is trying to convince us that the opposite must be true. But it also comes at a time when the digital economy requires innovative and unconventional thinkers.

So perhaps it is time to welcome the feelings of boredom, and instead of fearing the “hell of boredom” as Victor Hugo describes it, remember that boredom can simply be a bright moment that has been waiting for its arrival for a while.