Boredom Has a Use—Here’s How to Use It
Written by Vince Jasper Dizon
Boredom: The enemy of those who want to do something—anything. The sluggishness, the ennui, those moments where time itself seems to drag on… To echo the words of Westgate and Steidle (2020): Wouldn’t we be better off without such a sluggish state? Yet, as these same authors remind us, science often subverts what we might figure to be common sense.
Among scientists, emotions have been viewed as more than simple mental whims. One perspective on emotions discussed by Clore, Gasper, and Garvin (2001) is the affect-as-information approach, which proposes that emotions serve as important signals. These signals can guide our actions, motivating us to create circumstances that promote positive feelings while reducing opportunities for negativity to strike (Baumeister et al., 2007). Boredom as an emotion is also one such signal. Its purpose? To help us look for ways to stop feeling bored (Westgate & Wilson, 2018).
Westgate & Wilson (2018) propose that feeling bored mainly leads to dealing with it in one of four ways:
1. Doing something else instead of whatever is boring you.
2. Reframing whatever is boring you.
3. Adjusting the difficulty of the boring activity.
4. Managing your mental energy.
The first option is perhaps self-explanatory—if boredom is telling you that whatever you’re doing isn’t satisfying you, then it might be your cue to do something else (Westgate & Wilson, 2018). If changing activities doesn’t seem like a realistic option (e.g., maybe the boring activity is still a valuable one for work, school, or yourself), then it might be time to consider your other options. In certain cases, reframing how you see the activity might help (e.g., transform a problem to be fixed into a puzzle to be solved). If the activity is too easy or too hard (or maybe both), consider changing your approach by making the activity harder or easier, respectively. For example, if paperwork feels boring, you could make it more engaging by listening to a podcast or breaking it into smaller sections to work through gradually (depending on the specifics of your boredom). If none of the above works, then it might be time to consider how much attention you have to give. If your mind isn’t feeling up to an activity, sleeping might be a way to give your mental energy a good boost (Lim & Dinges, 2008). If time is of the essence, a cup of coffee might also do the trick (Smith, Clark, & Gallagher, 1999). And, if the boring activity is something you’ll be doing a lot of, simply practicing it might be among your best options. As with most things, practice can make a task easier—and the easier the task, the less mental energy it’ll likely consume (Petersen et al., 1998).
All this said, Westgate and Wilson (2018) pose a question: If boredom is supposed to steer us towards boredom-tackling solutions, why do we get stuck in ruts of boredom? Some possibilities that they consider are that we may not know how to tackle our boredom or that we may sometimes be poorly positioned to tackle it. For example, without prompting, most people seem to find it difficult to generate creative ideas, such as novel ways of reframing an activity (Alahmadi et al., 2017). Meanwhile, strategies that revolve around doing something else, such as resting, may not be appropriate if you’re in the middle of a meeting. In such cases, reframing the activity or adjusting its difficulty might be in order, if you have the on-the-spot creativity to do so (which, again, doesn’t necessarily come easily). Still, if Westgate and Wilson (2018) are on the right track with these considerations, then it sounds like being aware of how to tackle boredom is a good chunk of the battle—one which you hopefully find yourself better equipped to face after reading this blog post.
Our understanding of what drives our behavior is constantly changing, so for all we know, perspectives on boredom might shift drastically in the coming years. For instance, Uehara and Ikegaya (2024) note that most studies on boredom have focused on adolescents and adults, meaning we still know relatively little about boredom in children. They also point out that many adult behaviours are learned in childhood, suggesting that an improved understanding of boredom in childhood could lead to strategies or interventions with ripple effects into adulthood. Still, this doesn’t make our current understanding any less valuable. Just as knowledge seems to play a key role in overcoming boredom, staying informed about boredom research and management strategies can still help people manage boredom now, while also potentially leading to improved understanding in the future. If nothing else, hopefully this blog post has helped you stave off boredom—at least for a little while!
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References
Alahmadi, S., Buttrick, N. R., Gilbert, D. T., Hardin, A. M., Westgate, E. C., & Wilson, T. D. (2017). You can do it if you really try: The effects of motivation on thinking for pleasure. Motivation and Emotion, 41(5), 545-561. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-017-9625-7
Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., Nathan DeWall, C., & Zhang, L. (2007). How emotion shapes behavior: Feedback, anticipation, and reflection, rather than direct causation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 167-203. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868307301033
Clore, G. L., Gasper, K., & Garvin, E. (2001). Affect as information. In J. P. Forgas (Ed.), Handbook of affect and social cognition (pp. 121–144). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/documentrepid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=f247bc86285bb6fc4ce
4dc7d672ccd5799a2e441
Lim, J., & Dinges, D. F. (2008). Sleep deprivation and vigilant attention. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1129(1), 305-322. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1417.002
Petersen, S. E., Van Mier, H., Fiez, J. A., & Raichle, M. E. (1998). The effects of practice on the functional anatomy of task performance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 95(3), 853-860. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.95.3.853
Smith, A. P., Clark, R., & Gallagher, J. (1999). Breakfast cereal and caffeinated coffee: Effects on working memory, attention, mood, and cardiovascular function. Physiology & Behavior, 67(1), 9-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9384(99)00025-6
Uehara, I., & Ikegaya, Y. (2024). The meaning of boredom: Properly managing childhood boredom could lead to more fulfilling lives. EMBO Reports, 25(6), 2515-2519. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44319-024-00155-0
Westgate, E. C., & Steidle, B. (2020). Lost by definition: Why boredom matters for psychology and society. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 14(11), n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12562
Westgate, E. C., & Wilson, T. D. (2018). Boring thoughts and bored minds: The MAC model of boredom and cognitive engagement. Psychological Review, 125(5), 689-713. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000097
Disclaimer
The blog posts are for informational and educational purposes only. The posts should not be considered as any type of advice (medical, mental health, legal, and/or religious advice). All blog posts have been researched, written, and edited by the undergraduate students and alumni of the Lifespan Cognition Lab. As a teaching and research-based lab, we encourage all lab members to help make knowledge more accessible to all communities through these posts.
