Ways To Avoid Being Bored: Boredom is a common feeling that many people experience. It is characterized by a sensation of emptiness as well as irritation with that emptiness. Boredom isn’t something that appears out of the blues. There are mental and physical antecedents that cause it to happen.
Boredom might set in when you’re feeling energized but have nowhere to channel that energy. It may develop when you are dissatisfied with or uninterested in an activity. It can also happen when you’re having trouble concentrating on a task.
In general, varying circumstances can trigger a sense of being bored such as:
a. Psychological Arousal: Boredom and relaxation do not go hand in hand. Boredom arises only when you are psychologically aroused and want to accomplish something but don’t have anything to do.
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b. Lack of Motivation: Lack of motivation and laziness encourage boredom and vice versa, forming a vicious cycle. A Busy Environment That Prevents Focus: An excessive amount of external stimulation can be overpowering, leading to withdrawal, disengagement, and boredom.
c. Mind-Wandering: Mind-wandering exacerbates boredom. It’s nearly difficult to prevent boredom while your mind wanders.
d. Lack of Control: Boredom is more likely to set in when you have less control over a situation. If you believe you can influence the circumstances, on the other hand, you’ll find yourself completely immersed in the work at hand.
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A common expression used by many to emphasize their boredom is “I’m so bored, I could die“. While this is largely an exaggerated statement because you are unlikely to die after one boring day, boredom is not the finest sensation to experience. When you’re bored, you’re more likely to have a short attention span and be uninterested in what’s going on around you. You may have feelings of apathy, weariness, nervousness, or jitteriness.
Now, some people are quite good at avoiding boredom triggers, which means they are seldom, if ever, bored. Others, however, do not. As a result, understanding how to avoid boredom is vital to not just live a happier or more meaningful life, but also a more psychologically rich one.
This article explores some ways to avoid being bored.
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How to Overcome Boredom and Laziness
1. Identify the Sources of Boredom and Work On Them: Keeping track of occasions when you were bored or that led you to be bored is a crucial step toward avoiding boredom in general. Make a mental note of the time, place, and activities that preceded the boredom so you can avoid them in the future.
It doesn’t end there; try to figure out what works best for you in terms of avoiding boredom. It could be listening to music, reading books, exercising, or playing video games. Engaging in such activities may help you feel more liberated and increase your brain’s activity.
2. Find A Rhythm and Stick With a Routine: Routines offer some form of structure to our days and a feeling of consistency that helps us find purpose in our lives. When people are involved in regular activities, their lives feel more important. However, when there’s a lack of a routine thereof, feelings of boredom may creep in. By developing routines and sticking with them, one may be able to have a sense of purpose that shields them from boredom.
Moreover, it’s possible to feel bored at times even with a routine in place. To avoid this, you must make mundane tasks more interesting by adding a unique element to them.
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3. Improve The Quality Of Your Activities: Most times, the boredom people experience could be a result of the quality of activities they engage in. So one way to avoid being bored is by improving the quality of your activity. This can be achieved in the following ways:
a. Prepare ahead of time: When you don’t have the bustle of work to keep you occupied, boredom can creep in. Too much time is frequently worse than not enough time. It might be difficult to avoid boredom when you suddenly have a schedule vacuum.
Take, for instance, some people become frustrated or bored during the holidays because their typically busy routine is reduced. Make a schedule for your life so that there are no major gaps or work overloads later. Spend a few minutes to fill schedule holes with high-quality activities and experiences so that the likelihood of getting bored is reduced.
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b. Make it work: You will likely become bored if you are required to undertake an activity that you believe is of poor quality. Find strategies to structure your life so that your work, errands, and responsibilities may become enjoyable, high-quality experiences.
Turn mundane tasks into chances for personal development and learning. Listen to an audio book or lecture, for example, on your way to work or while cleaning your house.
c. Put Quality of Experience First: It is easy to become engrossed with ambitions that fail to deliver. Concentrate on achieving goals that will improve your quality of life, rather than merely a higher wage or more prestige to boast about.
Set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) objectives that are in line with your overall vision for your life.
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d. Escape the habits/routine sometimes: While habits are a part of life, they should not be the only thing you focus on. If your habits/routine aren’t providing you with the results you want, break them. Make time to get out of your routines.
As much as having a schedule is important, you also need to break up the monotony so boredom doesn’t get in.
4. Take a Break and Relax: When taking on challenging tasks, it’s easy for boredom and frustration to set in, especially when you are being too hard on yourself. In such a case, taking a break when you need it is a good way to avoid being bored.
It’s better to leave that challenging task and come back to it later when you’re feeling better. Allow yourself to benefit from much-needed mental rest, nutrition, and recharging times.
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5. Ignite your Creativity: Boredom may result from overusing the analytical left brain hemisphere and underusing the creative, emotional right brain hemisphere. Boredom is the mind’s resignation after not being allowed to fulfil its natural creative desire, which is why people often feel anxious and bored at the same time.
Reigniting your creativity and brainstorming unique and ingenious ideas is a fantastic way to avoid boredom. Try to incorporate creativity into daily activities.
6. Try Something New: Boredom is a powerful motivator toward new things/ideas for many. Engaging in new activities not only relieves boredom but also facilitates the development of new skills and knowledge, which may help one avoid boredom in the long run.
Embracing new experiences and experimenting with new things not only helps you avoid boredom but also helps you live a psychologically fuller life.
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7. Set Goals and Pursue Challenges: We tangle ourselves in knots of boredom when we hold ourselves back due to laziness. Furthermore, a lack of motivation can also be a vicious loop that may lead to boredom. If you’re frequently bored, you’re likely missing out on something to do. Setting goals and taking action might help avoid boredom as it stirs up a feeling of purpose in an individual.
Take up new challenges, and throw a fresh activity into the mix. Fill the time with a new goal, task, or activity. Starting the process is often the most difficult, but once you get started, the likelihood of getting bored is reduced.
8. Connect With Other People: Boredom sometimes arises in the absence of social vigour. In such a case, interacting with other people, and having friends with whom you can hang out or speak is a terrific way to avoid being bored.
Although making new connections may look difficult and intimidating at first, it can help you avoid boredom tremendously. If you can’t think of a means to meet new people in your area and maybe your friends are quite engaged, you can meet new people online using any of the many social networks and communication apps accessible.
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Conclusion
Boredom is not the best feeling to experience and it can spring up unexpectedly in the middle of a busy day or, worse, during a relaxing weekend. While getting bored is sometimes inevitable, there are ways one can avoid them. By consciously engaging in a variety of meaningful activities, one can effectively deal with and avoid the triggers of boredom.
Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, ACMC, is a lawyer and a certified mediator/conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a developer with knowledge in various programming languages. Samuel is determined to leverage his skills in technology, SEO, and legal practice to revolutionize the legal profession worldwide by creating web and mobile applications that simplify legal research. Sam is also passionate about educating and providing valuable information to people.