The Benefits Of Boredom!

Modern life means boredom is a thing of the past – but, in fact, a bit of staring into space is actually good for our emotional health..

- Manoush Zomorodi

When was the last time you were bored? Staring into space? Probably just before you got your first smartphone. In this age of endless e-mails, scrolling through Facebook and updating Instagram, boredom seems old-fashioned. The first smartphone flickered to life in the early ’90s, but they’ve only really become ubiquitous in the last decade, making boredom a thing of the past.

Why does this matter? Because far from being a waste of time, an hour spent doing nothing is key to creativity, says Manoush Zomorodi, author of Bored and Brilliant: How Time Spent Doing Nothing Changes Everything. Manoush noticed that she suddenly had a burst of new ideas while on maternity leave, when she was endlessly pacing the streets pushing a pram. She also realised that this kind of daydreaming had evaporated from her life since she’d bought her first smartphone. “It was as if all the cracks in the day, when I used to let my mind wander, were now filled with my phone,” she says. “Essentially, I hadn’t been bored since 2009.”

Daydreaming is important, because it’s only when we let our minds wander that the brain enters its most creative state – the ‘default state’ or ‘imagination network’. This is when we make new connections, sparking light bulb moments. “Daydreaming is the key way we make sense of the most complex aspects of life,” she says.