boredom (n): the state of being weary and restless through lack of interest
Things have been a bit rough lately. I’ve been lethargic, out of tune and generally a great big lump of flesh with little to no energy to do things. Sometime during this week it hit me: I’m bored…really bored. Like, “get that man a fucking hobby” bored. I’m not sure when it started, but this general feeling of dreariness has been floating over my head for a while now. Curious, I set out to do some research on the causes and effects of boredom.
Wikipedia, of course, seems to show up no matter what I search for.
Far from being a minor annoyance, boredom can have major negative impacts on people. Perhaps more importantly, boredom is often a symptom of deeper problems, such as depression, ineffective classroom teaching, or ineffective management in the workplace.
Some people eat when they are bored which can make boredom a problem.
No shit, Sherlock. That would explain why I’m decimating the leftover chicken wings from our Labor Day get together.
I ran across another article on I-resign.com with a section titled The Wider Effects of Boredom.
Boredom has been linked to illness and depression. “[It] is the major component in what we call world underload, an unhealthy state characterized by low job demand. When you experience underload, the result is usually anxiety, which can eventually lead to illness”, says Dr. Michael J. Smith, Ph.D., research psychologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati.
This hints at a deeper truth for humans - if you find yourself bored you are probably in a situation where your behaviour has been artificially restrained and your potential limited. Boredom is a biological alarm bell that you should be doing something else and if you don’t, the damage may be permanent.
I can definitely vouch for the negative effects on health caused by boredom. I don’t feel as healthy as I did several months ago. I feel less motivated to get out and exercise. When I’m at home, I’m more apt to sit in front of the television than I am to read a book, play a game or do something useful.
Personally, I think it’s a breakdown in the positive feedback loop. Without challenge there is no accomplishment. Without accomplishment there is no accolade. Without accolade you’re less likely to seek out greater challenges. I need that challenge. I don’t necessarily care what form it comes in, I just need something to get me rolling again. Something to break up the monotony. In the past two years, that’s been my job…but lately my job hasn’t been supplying that challenge.
How do you deal with boredom? How do you set your own challenges?
September 6th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Well, the first thing I try to do is determine if it’s boredom or burn-out. Both can feel the same at times. Boredom means I find my mind wandering while I do something. Burn-out means I don’t enjoy what I’m doing. The best way to determine it is “Would you be happy doing what you’re currently doing if you changed something?”
The next thing I do is try to figure out how to solve the problem, what it takes to change X. With boredom, I’ll add work or personal projects to distract myself from what I’m doing. For burn-out, I try to figure out how to make the proper changes.
Changes doesn’t always mean “leave the company”, but it may mean “leave the group”. You do know that YDN is looking for folks, right? (Trust me, that’ll solve the boredom/burn-out problem right quickly.)
September 6th, 2007 at 7:33 am
I’m usually bored when after i reached my goals and when it happens i try to make thing even better (that must be my perfectionist side) and get other goals
Usually i’m a bit bored on Sundays, over here everything is closed (Man i can’t even spend my money!) So i’m like surfing around through Stumble upon to discover new websites
September 6th, 2007 at 9:09 am
jr, I think it’s mostly boredom, but I won’t rule out the possibility that I’m just burnt out. I’ve been running at full speed for the past year since we decided to hurry the Yahoo! Mail Web Service out the door for a pre-release at the September Open Hack Day.
Now that I’m no longer working on that, there’s a void. The project I’m not now has been slow to get rolling, meanwhile my mental metabolism is still going at the same pace it was when I had a ton of hard challenges to tackle. Now that I don’t have that anymore, it’s like my brain is getting hunger pains.
At this point I’m not considering leaving the company, but it is making me think back…wondering what I’d be doing right now if I hadn’t declined Google’s offer back in April.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
“How do you deal with boredom? How do you set your own challenges?”
i had a kid. he keeps me challenged 24×7.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
I will clarify…how do you set your own challenges that don’t involve sticky baby poo?
September 12th, 2007 at 9:24 am
[...] JR’s posting was the one that tipped the scale for me. There was also Ryan’s posting and Jeremy’s (as noted by JR). As noted, there’s a whole lot of bad morale going [...]