How to Stop Being Bored

Picture one of these scenarios:

You’re in a long, mind-numbing meeting where there are like two people are talking to each other and everyone else is trying their best to appear mentally present with carefully placed nods and jargon comments like “close the loop” and “let’s touch base”.

You’re stuck in morning traffic that’s especially bad due to some god-awful construction blockage. The little old lady in front of you is riding her brakes like she’s trying to spark a tire fire and you have to pay attention to not rear end her.

Worst yet, someone with the personality of a plastic park bench is trying to small talk you about the weather or their job and there’s no quick or easy escape in sight.

The feeling of boredom begins to seep in; a rich cocktail of impatience and restlessness mixed with a reluctant acceptance. Boredom saturates your muscles with that “NmmyANGH” feeling. You begin to think “Please let something interesting happen otherwise I’m going to die.”

Welp, I’m here to share my advice on how to stop being bored!

Entertain Yourself

Think about something funny. It could be a joke you heard, an obscure reference or something interesting that happened. If you snort a laugh out of nowhere and it weirds people out, even better. This will create the chaos you’re seeking and is a tried and true system for alleviating boredom.

Chaos comes in many flavors. This can range from nonchalantly dropping your pen on the floor to playing devil’s advocate in a conversation.  The devil’s advocate approach is especially delicious because it can sometimes improve your perceived engagement in a given situation.

Another strategy is saying something off-the-wall or asking a probing, overly-personal question. As long as you stay away from protected topics, you’ll be fine.

WARNING: This can backfire on you and hurt your reputation. Use sparingly otherwise risk people thinking you’re weird and possibly crazy.

SpAcE OuT

Go ahead, you know your mind needs a break and YOU deserve it. I’m convinced this is what 90% of bored people do. You can recognize spaced-out people by their lax facial features and general unawareness of their surrounding. In extreme cases, spaced-out people can be found in grocery stores and shopping malls where they basically run into your shopping cart while shambling over to the free sample stand(reptile brain needs food).

And don’t forget, your mobile phone can provide endless hours of space-out time. Spacing out is not always safe or acceptable, so use with caution.

Engage Yourself

This one is the most difficult, but also the most constructive. You can TRY to not be bored. Yeah, you might not actually care about numbers or the nuances of office politics, but someone talking sure does. It’s easy to find distractions, but if you’re up for a challenge and also possibly a masochist, you might want to take a chance asking Joe from finance about the week of rain we had. He might tell you about his hectic morning commute and you can tell him about yours (HELLOOOO brake lady).

There’s a high likelihood that if you are bored all the time, you’re either a dreadfully boring person or need a new outlet for your energy. In a world full of constant distractions, sometimes we need to take a second to reevaluate our values and the things that matter.

Ultimately boredom comes down to a lack of meaning assigned to people and things. Luckily we have the unique ability to control how we perceive our given situations and the subsequent actions we take.

Cheers to being well adjusted!

-C.