SEtalk: The Surprising Power of Being Bored

When was the last time you were truly bored? Not a little impatient. Properly, painfully bored. Take your time. I'll wait. Most of you can't remember, can you? Neither could I, and that worried me. These days, we never have to be bored. Waiting for a bus? Check your phone. Queuing at the supermarket? Check your phone. Two seconds of silence in a lift? Phone. We've filled every empty moment of our lives. But here's the interesting part. In 2014, two British psychologists ran a strange experiment. First, they made people do something incredibly dull: copying numbers out of a phone book for fifteen minutes. Then they asked them to think of uses for a plastic cup. And guess what? The bored group came up with far more creative ideas! Boredom, it turns out, isn't a waste of time. It's the moment your mind starts to wander, connecting ideas you never knew were connected. Think about where your best ideas come from. In the shower. On a long walk. Lying awake at night. Hardly ever while you're scrolling through social media. We've been trading our daydreams for notifications. So last year, I tried something radical. Every day, I took a twenty-minute walk without my phone. Ugh, the first week was honestly unbearable. But by the third week, ideas started pouring in. In fact, this very talk began on one of those walks! So I'm not asking you to throw your phone away. I'm asking you to leave a few gaps. Let yourself be bored once in a while. You might be surprised by what turns up. Thank you.