The Science-Backed Case for Embracing Boredom in the Workplace Research shows that for BIZ Experiencess, a dash of ennui can actually be an asset. Here's how to turn boredom into an engine for creativity.
By Aytekin Tank
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
"The desire for desires" is how Leo Tolstoy once famously described boredom.
Based on this quote, you'd think that the author of War and Peace viewed what Merriam-Webster defines as "the state of being weary and restless through lack of interest" in an entirely negative light. And judging by such a prodigious body of work, you'd imagine he shouldn't have had time to be bored. In fact, according to Creating Anna Karenina by CUNY English professor Bob Blaisdell, that state — an early life hack, if you will — was part of Tolstoy's writing process — along with other seemingly negative emotions.
As Blaisdell reveals, the multiple Nobel Prize in Literature nominee required 53 months to complete Anna Karenina — and barely touched the manuscript for 30 of them. He referred to the 1878-published work as "sickening," "unbearably repulsive," "terribly disgusting and nasty," and "a bore, insipid as a bitter radish." But we all know how the story ends: with a novel considered among the world's greatest pieces of literature.
In today's hustle culture, boredom is regarded as the antithesis of productivity, but as the CEO of a company that depends on continued innovation to remain competitive (not to mention helpful to our users), I've found that the best ideas come when I give my mind space to wander and have developed some strategies for integrating it into my day.
As any BIZ Experiences can attest, when you're running a business, it's a challenge to do nothing (one of the observations I made in a 2018 article in The Startup). And that's not a humble brag: In an increasingly competitive market, it's almost impossible to shake the feeling that there's always something you could be doing. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't also try to clear your mental plate for a little while.
Consider this: Research shows that creativity is enhanced by boredom. In a 2013 study presented by Rebekah Cadman and British psychologist Sandi Mann, subjects were divided into two groups. One was assigned the snooze-worthy task of copying numbers from a phone book. A control group, meanwhile, had no such assignment. Afterward, both were directed to complete a creative task (come up with as many uses as possible for a plastic cup). Remarkably, the first group wound up being the more creative.
Dr. Mann explained: "Boredom at work has always been seen as something to be eliminated, but perhaps we should be embracing it." In the study summary, researchers opined that the enhanced creativity they observed might be the result of the daydreaming that happened when subjects simply had nothing to do.
John Eastwood, a psychologist at the Boredom Lab at York University, Canada (yes, there is such an institution) and co-author of Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom, has observed that feeling bored causes a certain degree of discomfort, spurring people to look for something positive with which to replace it.
"In that gap, there's a real chance to discover something new," he explains in a 2020 BBC article. "What matters to me, and what am I passionate about? I think that looking can be a source of creativity."
Like most things in business (and life), you'll increase your chances of succeeding — which in this case includes occasionally being bored — if you approach that goal strategically. Here are some tips that have worked for me.
Related: An BIZ Experiences Reflects on Free Time Now That His Kids, and Business, Are Grown Up
1. Automate your busywork
The first step in committing to boredom is ensuring you have time for it. This can be done (at least partly) by not letting days be consumed by rote, manual and tedious tasks. The idea is to automate them so that you can let your mind wander.
Don't get me wrong: We all have certain aspects of our jobs that don't necessarily excite us but are still vital, yet I'd bet that if you take a close look at how you spend time, there are some (maybe even many) tasks that can be carried out just as quickly and efficiently (if not more so) by an automated tool or app.
In my new book, Automate Your Busywork: Do Less, Achieve More, and Save Your Brain for the Big Stuff (Wiley), I provide a detailed guide to identifying busywork and to building what I call an "automation machine" — a system that incorporates as much automation as possible, and which you can continually refine. For example, sales and marketing professionals can incorporate no-code automation tools like Landbot to add customer service chatbots to websites, while HR professionals can use tools like Harver to screen job candidates based on preset characteristics, and social media marketers can apply tech like Brandwatch to monitor competitors, brands and organizations based on keywords, industries and products.
And once you start looking for ways to automate, you'll likely start seeing them everywhere, but you will certainly appreciate the extra swaths of time for more meaningful work, rest and, yes, boredom.
Related: Why You Need to Start Automating Repetitive Tasks
2. Let a familiar activity guide you
Being bored doesn't require sitting around and watching paint dry. If it did, I don't think I could do it. Like many BIZ Experiencess, I'm too high-strung. One way is to engage in physical activity while embracing free mental space (as long as that activity doesn't require a lot of thinking).
For Lit Hub, Aaron Angello writes that boredom doesn't result from a lack of imagination; it actually provides access to the imaginative (or, as he calls it, the "beyond-conscious") mind. To tap into yours, find a task in which you don't have to think about what your body is doing.
Angello recalled a catering gig and the strange allure of washing dishes.
"It was repetitive, it was physically isolating, and it was terribly boring," he writes. "And it was the only time during that job when my creative mind was freed from tasks, from processing all the ridiculous things it must process at a job like that."
Maybe your boring activity is washing dishes, taking a walk (as long as the path is familiar) or looking out the train window on the commute home. The takeaway is that your daily date with boredom doesn't have to be in the office: It can be anywhere and in a variety of forms, as long as you carve out time for it and commit — no podcasts and no distracting music, just you and your thoughts.
3. Write things down
Comedians are famously known to carry around notebooks, as the best ideas often arrive away from a desk or screen, but when wandering in the world with eyes and minds open.
When I take a break and stroll through our San Francisco office neighborhood, I put my phone on silent (as we all know, even a quick glance at an email can completely derail a train of thought). I take the same path along the water and bring a pocket-sized notebook for ideas. Sometimes I'll devise a solution for an issue that's been bothering me for weeks. Sometimes I just think about my kids. The notebook's there in case inspiration strikes; if it doesn't, that's okay, too.
Related: 9 Ways to Rewire Your Brain for Creativity
You can't force creativity. You can only create the space for it to occur naturally, and one surefire way to fuel that state is to fight the impulse to always be doing something and allow your mind to just be.
