Microboredom redux
After posting about boredom and its romanticization, I’ve been doing some thinking, and talking to some people, and I want to split out some things about boredom. It’s such an exciting topic. Hah.
types of boredom:
- Boredom that keeps you from engaging in anything. It drags you under. It might feel sad, or like it deadens your thinking. This is a good time to take a break and do something silly or dumb, for a limited time, that gets you out of the mindset, so you can go on to doing something else. It may also be a good time to do something fun that isn’t "productive" necessarily, again, to get the brain going, and then decide what else to do. But, it may be hard to get yourself focused on the fun stuff, because your mind is in inertial spin, in which case, the dumb crap like a game of solitaire or a tv show, or a sudoku puzzle may be great as a break from the boredom.
- Boredom because you’re done being occupied with/ excited by whatever you were doing. This is a time people jump into endless solitaire games. And oh, they keep playing them. Or, when people start hopping around online between endless "important" sites and information, or getting sucked into details of designing a flyer or website or whatnot. This is a type of boredom that might be ok in the micromoment; it’s a part of transitioning between activities, and it may be hard to to take that space between things, or to occupy the mindset of figuring out what to do next. Be cautious of getting sucked into things, including the stuff that helps in other kinds of boredom. Feel the moment of flux. Then pick something simple to do, to stay in action, and avoid getting stuck in no-focus land.
Boredom isn’t the same as nothing to do. It can happen when you’re unengaged in something to do, not engaged in something interesting.
Boredom can happen to me when I’m just tired! Perhaps not focused because I’m tired, and then I get bored. But it’s hard to navigate my way to being focused.
Please comment and help me refine this!