PodcastRebecca HassS3 2Comment

S3 E51: How Boredom Helps Your Creativity + Productivity (Part 1)

PodcastRebecca HassS3 2Comment
S3 E51: How Boredom Helps Your Creativity + Productivity (Part 1)

I share my takeaways from the excellent book Bored And Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive And Creative Self, to help you make more mental space for boredom, which leads to creativity and meaningful productivity!

 
 

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TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everyone, welcome to Episode 51 of Being A Whole Person. 

Today I'm excited to share with you some of my takeaways from the book Bored And Brilliant How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive And Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi. Actually, this will probably be two episodes’ worth of takeaways because there's so much good stuff in this book. 

But first, I have a couple announcements. Number one, very exciting, last Friday, I mentioned that it was Coaching for Creative Wellness’ third birthday, which was exact on last Friday, but we're celebrating the whole month. To celebrate, I'm going to be offering the Support Your Creative Focus Bundle. 

That includes my e-book, Fuel Your Creative Work With Compassionate Productivity, which is a really cool PDF workbook that helps you create a humane and sustainable to do list and schedule. This process can evolve with you, no matter what your energy level is that day. You also get a 45 minute 1:1 coaching appointment with me to actually make a plan to put this stuff into practice. Because, how many things have you downloaded, that you're like, “Oh, this will be great.” Then you don't set aside the time to use the resource, and then it just sits there collecting dust on your computer, or “digital dust”, whatever you want to call it. I've definitely done that, maybe you have, too. So this will help you actually put it into practice. 

Then you also get a month of Compassionate Creativity Coworking Club membership so that you have the dedicated time set aside. We meet every Tuesday from 3:30 to 5pm Pacific, and it would be great to have you there. So this is on sale as of right now - $88 for the bundle. The coaching appointments can be booked for some dates just before and just after Thanksgiving. So there's a link in the show notes to check that out. 

If, for some reason, you are dying to get the bundle, but none of the times that I have in my schedule work for you, send me a note. Maybe we can work something out that will fit into your schedule, because, if you're dying to do it, I would love to have you do it. I'm gonna have 10 spots available for the bundle, because I don't want to have a million coaching appointments and burn myself out, I need to have the energy to show up for you. So go jump on it if you're interested. 

Number two, my usual reminder to please rate and review the show if you're enjoying it. These ratings and reviews really do go a long way and help us get found by the algorithm gods that, unfortunately, are part of digital life. Or, fortunately. But I really do appreciate those of you who have already left ratings or reviews. It doesn't have to be anything long, but thank you in advance if you do that. 

So let's get into talking about Bored and Brilliant. I took so many notes when I was reading this book, like I stuck a Post-it note on each page. I think I used an entire stack of Post-it notes. I don't know why it took me so long to get to this book, because I used to love Manoush Zomorodi’s podcast Note to Self. It’s no longer a podcast, it's not that I don't love it anymore. I sort of forgot to keep up with her work since then, even though this book sounded really cool. 

I randomly found it at the library one day, and was like, “Oh, yeah, I gotta check this out.” You heard the title, “How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive And Creative Self” definitely aligns with my work, and what's on this podcast. So I was thrilled to actually read it, and I'm thrilled to share with you some great nuggets from the book. 

So this book started as a series of challenges on her podcast, and the premise was that she was asking, if we change our relationship to our gadgets, could we generate bigger and better ideas? Note to Self is all about how humans interact with technology. So that's kind of how that got started. 

The book takes you through seven different challenges. It has things like observing your tech habits; abstaining from certain aspects of your technological life, like taking photos, or deleting that one app that is your biggest time waster; stepping back to notice things, I'm not going to go through each challenge in this episode, I'll let you read the book. But that just kind of gives you an idea. Then there are lots of anecdotes and info from experts woven in, so you really get the psychology and the science behind it. 

A lot of what's in the book were things I knew already, and probably things you know already, too. But, of course, just because we know something intellectually doesn't mean that we don't need reminders, still, too. It's great to hear more of the science, and learn more about why these things are. So I had four and a half pages of notes that I typed out. I'm not sharing all of that in the podcast, but just to let you know, lots of good info here. 

Just to preface, I want to talk about how the book defines what is boredom, and what is brilliance, since that is the main part of the title. So here's a few bullet points about boredom. Boredom is necessary. It's been equated with mediocrity and laziness and being boring. Boredom is necessary to feeding and cultivating your own thoughts. 

Boredom is a state of mind. In your brain, the neural network called the “default mode” is activated when you get bored, which activates your imagination. So when your mind is wandering, your brain is not idle, it's using almost as much power as it would be if you were doing something more active. I'll get into that a little bit later in the podcast. 

Boredom is productive. We think about being bored as time wasting. Sometimes mind wandering falls into that same category. But you know, as a creative person, it's definitely productive. 

Boredom is a wake up call telling you, “This is a moment for your imagination to come alive.” It's telling you to pay attention to the world around you, and put down your cell phone, probably. 

Here's how they define brilliance: brilliance is humble, it can be small and simple. Brilliance is subversive, perhaps a bit audacious or unexpected. Brilliance can also be predictable. We might get ideas when we least expect it, like in the shower or on a walk, which is what happens to me all the time. We can practice this state of boredom to allow the brilliance to come through. 

Brilliance can also be slow. It might mean that we have to tolerate some tedious tasks, or wait for an insight to show up. It doesn't come when we want it to, which can be very frustrating. Brilliance can also be really mundane, like a new way of loading the dishwasher, or adding something to a checklist that makes your work more accurate. Brilliance is not always the Technicolor lightbulb that we think it is, but it's still amazing. 

So the first lesson from this book that I kind of already alluded to, boredom isn't pointless. I know all of us who are artists and creators know that we need space. You need openness to collect and process all of our ideas. But there are all these messages we get that vilify boredom, and associate it with laziness or being boring. 

As a kid, I learned to never say that I was bored, because my mom would say, “Oh, I'll give you something to do. I've got chores for you to do.” Then I would quickly take it back, and figure out something fun to do on my own. I really think that that helped me cultivate more imagination, and have this ability to figure out something to do with my brain. It also helped that I was growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when we didn't have so many devices. Although, once I got AOL, in seventh grade, in the mid-90s, then things changed quite a bit as far as having imaginative activities to do. 

I don't know about you, but I don't remember the last time I was truly bored, because, to me, that means that I truly have nothing to do. When is that ever the case? There are so many of us that do so many things, and we're excited about a lot of things. So it's more that I might not have energy to do a certain thing, than actually being bored and having nothing to do. Or it might be more like a place, a mental place that I might be in, stuck doing something that I don't want to do - that tedium I mentioned earlier - but I can always find something specific to think about or I'm happy to let my mind wander. 

I often get really good ideas when I'm doing accompanying in a class. Perhaps there's a moment where I don't have to play the piano or a 10 minute stretch where they're doing something else in the class. I always keep a little notebook there, because those are the times when I have some great ideas. Because, again, mind wandering, my brain gets to go to those more imaginative places. 

The way that they define boredom in this book also says, boredom makes people want to engage in more meaningful activities than the boring ones. So naturally, our brain is going to go toward more stimulation. 

There was an experiment done where people were asked to do 20 minutes of a meaningless task. One group was tasked with copying numbers from the phone book, then they were asked to think of as many uses as possible for two paper cups. Then, the other group was asked to read phone numbers aloud for 20 minutes, which is less of a mind wandering possibility, because it takes more brain resources. Then they were asked to do the same thing, think of creative uses for paper cups. The second group had way more ideas than the first group, because they were more bored while doing this task. People who are more bored, think more creatively than those who aren't. So let's get bored. 

As I mentioned before, that's our brain going into what's called the “default mode” or the imagination network. And that's the mental place where we solve problems, we generate our best ideas, we engage in autobiographical planning, where we make sense of the world and our lives. We might be setting future goals, we might be having empathy for other people, or making moral judgments. There's a lot that goes on in the default mode, and drifting inward like this is not shutting down at all. 

If you think about it, it's actually crucial for our brains not to respond to all tasks or all immediate stimuli, right? We would be overloaded if we paid attention to every single little detail, so, some boredom is necessary for us to be able to function. 

Takeaway number two, allowing for boredom prepares you better for the entire creative process. The futurist, Rita King, who was mentioned in the book, was quoted as saying, “the tedium of creativity,” and she said it was a mistake to assume that the euphoria of an idea will persist through all the little steps that might be dull. That's so true, right? We get super excited when we conceive of a project. 

Our brains love novelty, new experiences, there are a lot of survival reasons why we should be attuned to new things, or possible dangers, but the longer the project that you're involved in, the more possibilities there are going to be for boredom, frustration, setbacks, confusion, uncomfortable feelings. Sometimes we get stuck in that stuff. We can't remember that magic from the very beginning because it has worn off. 

I'm not saying that to discourage you, but just to validate that if, and really, when, it happens, it doesn't mean that you're doing it wrong, or that that project isn't worthwhile. Knowing that that's going to happen in the middle, that you might get tired of it in a way, allows you to plan strategies to get you through those tough parts of the process, and reconnect yourself with why you started in the first place. That should definitely be a future podcast episode, the survival strategies for each phase of the creative process. I'm making a mental note. 

Takeaway number three, use the endowed progress effect to your advantage. The endowed progress effect is the principle that when we get close to achieving a goal, our brain is more likely to pursue finishing, because it thinks it's close to completing it. I've definitely run into this before - stalling out during a project or a task that seems endless, because perhaps it is endless. Maybe it's something that continues to grow, something that involves lifelong learning. 

Then it becomes really helpful to break down these big tasks, big projects into really small bits, so that you have something you can check off each day. Then you feel like, “Okay, I really am making progress. I got to cross something off my list.” Even though that might sound kind of silly. We can kind of hijack our own motivation that way - hijack in a good way, of course. 

We can also make time based goals for things like something you're planning on practicing. You're not going to be like, “Well, I'm done learning how to play the piano, check, did it!” You're going to be like, “Okay, well, I'm going to plan an hour a day,” or whatever your goal might be. Then you can check that amount of time off. It's not that you're planning on accomplishing a certain outcome. Or, you might be, but you can kind of use both of those sides for making your tasks. 

They also point out in the book that progress bars help you stay in an app longer. Like, if there's a checklist that you're supposed to do, you will more likely stay there and finish because you want to check off the steps. I personally find that really satisfying. So you can use this for good, not evil, by breaking down tasks yourself, and knowing why you're persisting, because sometimes when we are in scroll mode, or phone mode, we just want to stay there, even though the thing that we're checking off a list might not be that important. 

Takeaway number four, distraction is a choice. That's not 100% true, but to an extent, distraction is a choice. We all have different amounts of focus and neurodivergence. Of course, there are reasons you get distracted that you can't always choose, but we can set boundaries around distraction. I know as a highly sensitive person, I have to be more careful about distraction. Perhaps that's you, too, because we HSPs need more time, we need more mental space to process our surroundings, and our experiences and our feelings. Then we layer social media or tech distraction on top of that, and it can get overwhelming really fast. 

It's been documented that when we are being rewarded consistently, like reading a story, or having a mental picture, or a video game, it definitely impacts our ability to use our executive functioning effectively. So it's harder to be more intentional about where you're putting your attention. I love this quote from the book, “Smartphones behave like a four year old child, their default is to alert you to everything, they want attention right now, and they have no social boundaries.” 

So, if you think about your phone like a person, you wouldn't tolerate a person treating you like that. I mean, maybe if you have a four year old child yourself, that's a different matter. But if that was your friend doing that to you, you'd be like, “Hey, can you maybe give me some space here,” or, “I'm only available between 4 and 5pm,” or whatever it is. 

We can set boundaries with our devices by turning off notifications, and deleting apps that we're not using, reducing those ways that it is trying to grab our attention in every moment. 

The last takeaway for this episode is: think about your digital intake, like your food intake - is it nourishing? I love that this book got into comparing the digital intake to food because I already think about it this way. You might have heard me talk about the “digital munchies”, which is when you just want to keep distracting yourself, you want to open like six more tabs and scroll even more, just as you're getting the most overwhelmed. It's sort of like this one long mental snack, as if you've just been munching on chips all day. You're not really full, but you probably feel a little bloated, a little achy, not nourished, really. 

technology takes advantage of our social inclinations, and affects our behavior, kind of in the same way that the food industry does with salt, sugar, and fat, which are the things that keep you coming back to the same food because it's so appealing. So then there's a mismatch between our instincts, which tell us that those things are really good, and the environment that is abusing those instincts and trying to take advantage of them. 

Every app, every website is trying to figure out the best or most frequent way to tap into that bias for novelty, for new information. Our brains also really like certainties, so where there's any kind of ambiguity, it causes more stress. So a rideshare app, or a delivery app shows you that map and you can track exactly where the car is, as it's getting closer to you. You know exactly how it's going to work, you've paid for it already. It takes out a lot of those elements of surprise, and our brains really like that, so that can feed that addictive quality, too. 

It also can be exacerbated by work expectations, our tech addiction, like, corporate culture can expect you to be on all the time. Even if you're self employed, a lot of these expectations from that sort of corporate culture might be spilling over. I'm really generalizing, because I'm in the United States. If you're somewhere else, I'd love to hear about the work culture where you are if it's different, especially if it's a little healthier than us here in the U.S. 

I was really struck by a couple of references to other countries, like, Germany is trying to get rid of that digital creep into every aspect of our lives with actual government regulation. In 2012, Volkswagen decided to shut down their BlackBerry servers to stop writing emails 30 minutes after the workday ends, and then they wouldn't turn on again until 30 minutes before the workday begins. So you cannot get to work email because it is shut off. 

In 2016, there was French legislation passed that granted the right to disconnect, and it became illegal for companies of over 50 employees to send emails outside regular work hours to other employees. So that just kind of floored me, because I don't see that happening in the United States anytime soon, but I love the idea. 

Going back to that concept of the “digital munchies”, there has been research done by Gloria Mark, who is professor of Informatics at UC Irvine. She found that, in this study from 10 years ago, people shifted their attention between online and offline activities every three minutes, on average. Recent data shows that it's actually every 45 seconds, which is a little shocking, but also not that surprising, because we have become much more distracted in the era of ubiquitous cell phones. 

The more people switch their attention, the higher their stress level becomes. That is why getting into the digital munchies where you keep opening tab after tab can be a vicious cycle that you just have to nip in the bud and walk away in order to stop. Also, when external interruptions are at a high level, like coworkers interrupting you, or maybe your kids at home with you, even if the level of external interruption goes down, then people get in the habit of interrupting, interrupting, and start to self-interrupt by looking at Facebook, or whatever it is. So the more we can avoid playing into that and breaking the cycle, the better. 

I'll leave it at that for today. I'll have five more takeaways from this book for you next week. I really encourage you to pick up the book, it's really great. Also, check out the show notes, if you're hearing references that I mentioned and you're driving right now, and you want to look up this stuff later. I found a lot of things that I want to look into more deeply after this. I hope that some of this stuff has been interesting for you or helpful, and that perhaps you can use these tips to make a little more space in your brain and have a little more space for creativity. Until next time, I hope you have a fabulous week, and I'm always rooting for you! 

Pianist and composer