Workplace Wellbeing: Looking beyond boredom at work 

It's generally regarded as a negative emotion yet when our brain has nothing to do, it can rest and consolidate its learning and generate out-of-the-box insights 

Shot of a young businesswoman throwing paper planes while sitting at her desk

MANY of us actively avoid boredom. We fill our days with things to do and even schedule activities for our downtime. But what if being constantly busy and productive is a mistake? What if we’ve got boredom wrong?

Dr Sandi Mann, a psychology lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire and author of The Science of Boredom: The Upside (and Downside) of Downtime, argues that it’s time to reassess our understanding of this much-maligned emotion,

“We should try to view it more positively, as an emotion that can be a catalyst for change and improvement in our lives,” she says.

“Our emotions usually have a purpose. They are telling us something and we should listen. If we’re consistently bored at work, it might be time for a new job. If we’re bored of our house, perhaps we should get new wallpaper. Whatever it is, something needs to change.”

Muireann O’Dea is a PhD researcher in psychology at the University of Limerick and believes it’s a mistake to avoid feelings of boredom.

“Boredom plays an important role in psychological functioning, signalling to us that what we are doing is not meaningful or engaging enough and helping to motivate us towards something that feels more worthwhile,” she says.

O’Dea understands why many of us are reluctant to engage with our boredom as it’s often experienced as a difficult emotion. 

Feeling that one’s life has meaning is a central human motivation and the low feelings that come with boredom can threaten our sense of self.

“Studies show that boredom is so aversive to some people that they would rather do something negative — even painful — than continue being bored,” she says. 

She’s not exaggerating. A 2014 University of Virginia study required participants to spend 15 minutes alone in a room, deprived of all external sensory stimuli. 

More than a third of the participants chose to give themselves a mild electric shock rather than have nothing to do.

Not all negative

Boredom can have a detrimental effect in the workplace. Studies have shown that it’s associated with procrastination, a decline in performance, decreased job satisfaction and a higher likelihood of burnout. 

It can also warp our perception of time, with research such as a 2014 study from Israel demonstrating that we perceive time as passing more slowly when we’re bored.

Because of boredom’s negative effects such as undermining our sense of self and causing us to underperform at work, it’s no wonder it has such a bad reputation. 

“It’s surprising that society teaches us that it’s something to be avoided,” says Mann. “But that’s the paradox of boredom. It can have negative consequences, but it can have positive ones too.”

Boredom, for example, has been associated with increased creativity. 

“When we’re bored, we look for ways to get more neural stimulation and if we can’t find it in our environment, we go into our minds “ says Mann. 

“Our minds wander, and we start daydreaming, leading us to make unexpected links. I wonder if mankind would ever have learned how to make bread or even start a fire if boredom hadn’t driven us to mess about and discover new things?”

Organisational psychologist Leisha McGrath

Organisational psychologist Leisha McGrath agrees. 

“We tend to value linear thinking,” she says. “But when we allow for boredom, lateral thinking can emerge and that’s where intuition and creativity can come into play, leading to moments of innovation and deeper understanding.”

Studies prove that short episodes of boredom can enhance creativity. In 2019, an Australian research team found that people who had just completed a boring task performed better when asked to generate ideas than those who had completed a challenging craft activity.

McGrath believes we could benefit from moving away from packed diaries and allowing time for boredom and daydreaming in our schedules. “We suppress creativity by constantly being busy,” she says. 

“By putting quiet time in the diary, we make space for new ideas to bubble up. We’re human beings, not human doings. We should give ourselves an opportunity to just be every once in a while.”

Short-lived boredom can also give much-needed respite from the frenetic pace of modern life, which results in our brains regularly being overloaded with information and our focus being kidnapped by distractions.

“It’s good for our nervous systems to have a break from all that stimulus,” says McGrath. “We feel calmer and less stressed as a result.”

Necessary downtime

Mann encourages us to reframe this type of boredom as necessary downtime. “We tend to view unstructured downtime as boring, but we shouldn’t see it that way,” she says. “During those moments that our brain has nothing to do, it can rest and consolidate its learning.

When we experience boredom, McGrath advises us to notice how persistent it is. If it’s prolonged, perhaps it’s time for some deeper reflection.

“The restlessness that can come with boredom can drive us to question where we are in our lives,” says McGrath. “Are we where we’re supposed to be? Are we in the right job, for example? 

"Boredom can be a powerful catalyst for change and for that reason, we shouldn’t ignore or avoid it. If we do, we can miss out on realising our full potential and living more meaningful lives.”

However, fleeting moments of boredom may have little to teach us. Sure, we can harness them for their potential for creativity and rest but otherwise, they are simply an inevitable part of life. 

“It’s normal to feel bored every now and then and brief experiences are not a major cause for concern,” says O’Dea.

She suggests two strategies for managing short-term boredom. “If you’re completing boring tasks you cannot avoid, try to find some meaning in what you’re doing,” she says.

Muireann O'Dea, PhD researcher in psychology at the University of Limerick

The second strategy is a long-term one tackling our mindset. 

“Research we conducted at the University of Limerick also shows that certain positive emotions such as gratitude and awe increase perceptions of meaning in life and can buffer against the experience of boredom,” says O’Dea. 

“For instance, individuals who practice more self-compassion perceive their lives to be more meaningful and are consequently less prone to boredom. Fostering those emotions may reduce the experience of boredom.”

McGrath also has some helpful suggestions for dealing with boredom. 

“If you know that you’re going to be stuck in a lengthy conference call, you can prepare for that,” she says. “Make sure you’re well-resourced in terms of sleep. Try not to have too many stimulants such as caffeine or sugar. 

"Maybe ask if there can be regular breaks giving you an opportunity for movement. And keep the goal of the conference in mind. Focus on why you have to be there and what you need to get out of it.”

Boredom is a far more powerful emotion than we give it credit for, according to Mann. 

“We’re taught to fear it and to do what we can to escape it,” she says. “But it’s usually trying to tell us something or urge us to travel outside our comfort zones in search of something new. It can drive us to change our lives.”

Now that’s far from boring.