While COVID-19 is keeping healthcare and essential workers busy, it might be a rather different situation for you. Once you’ve sat on the couch for a few days straight, after redecorating the house and watching all of the series that exist, of course, you might be wondering: what’s next? This feeling of boredom might hold more to it than meets the eye.
Understanding boredom: A current study on boredom, conducted by psychology professor James Danckert and his team at the University of Waterloo, is looking to figure out what causes boredom, what we can do about it, as well as the link between boredom and depression.
According to Danckert, “We define boredom as an uncomfortable state of wanting to be engaged in something, but failing to satisfy that desire”. Well, that makes a lot of sense since most people have had their routine disrupted and their sense of freedom taken away.
When you feel as though your purpose and meaning has been put to a halt, you may start to feel dissatisfied and bored.
Pinpointing boredom: The feeling of boredom could be confused for other states of emotions, including fatigue or even anxiety. That’s why, before you deal with your state, you need to accurately assess what you’re feeling and name it.
Essentially, boredom is telling you that you’re not being effective with your time in the way you want to be. It’s an indicator that you need to change your situation.
Boredom’s risk and potential reward: Looking to make such a change, you might consider establishing a new routine, which itself can be risky, as you may be tempted to create another schedule that just “carries you along”.
When you fill your days to the brim so that you’re busy from the moment you wake until you go to sleep, you have little time to think about boredom and the busyness may stave off its discomfort.
As for its benefits, the most that boredom can do for you is to make you aware that you need to make a change. It’s what you do next that can make you more creative, engaged, or successful. And those actions and their results are uniquely yours.
