We’ve all been there. You’re staring at the ceiling or scrolling through the same three apps for the fortieth time today. Your brain feels like mushy oatmeal. Honestly, the internet has ruined us because it’s made us think that every single second of our existence needs to be filled with "content." But that’s a lie. Boredom isn't some disease you need to cure immediately with a TikTok marathon; it’s actually your brain’s way of saying it’s hungry for something real.
The struggle is real.
When you’re stuck wondering what to do when you are bored, the instinct is to find the path of least resistance. That’s usually your phone. But researchers like Dr. Sandi Mann, a psychologist at the University of Central Lancashire and author of The Upside of Downtime, have found that boredom is actually a gateway to creativity. When we’re bored, our minds wander. That "mind-wandering" is where the best ideas come from. It’s the "eureka" moment in the shower, but for your whole life.
The Science of Why Your Brain Is Itching
Boredom is basically an emotional signal. It’s like hunger, but for engagement. Scientifically, it’s a drop in dopamine. Your brain is used to a high level of stimulation, and when that drops, it feels uncomfortable. It’s actually physically annoying.
There’s a famous study from 2014 published in the journal Science where people were left alone in a room for 15 minutes with nothing to do but think. The catch? They had the option to give themselves a painful electric shock. Guess what? A huge percentage of them—especially the men—chose to shock themselves rather than just sit there with their own thoughts. That’s how much we hate being bored. But if you can push past that initial "I want to shock myself" phase, you hit the good stuff.
Stop Scrolling and Start Doing
If you want to actually feel better, you have to move. Not necessarily a marathon. Just... movement.
The "Two-Minute" Micro-Task. Clean one drawer. Just one. Don't look at the whole kitchen; you'll get overwhelmed and go back to the couch. Clean the "junk drawer" that every house has. Finding a battery from 2012 and a random soy sauce packet provides a weirdly high level of satisfaction.
The Analog Reset. Go outside without your phone. Seriously. Walk to the end of the block. Look at a tree. It sounds like some "live-laugh-love" nonsense, but there’s a concept called Attention Restoration Theory (ART). Natural environments help your brain recover from the cognitive fatigue of looking at screens. Even ten minutes makes a massive difference in how your brain processes boredom.
Master a "Useless" Skill. Ever tried to juggle? Learn to whistle with your fingers? These things take focus but have zero stakes. That's the sweet spot. You aren't doing it for a promotion or for likes; you’re doing it because it’s a puzzle for your hands.
Turning Boredom Into a Career or Hobby Pivot
Sometimes boredom is trying to tell you that you're stuck. If you're bored at work or in your personal life every single day, it’s not a "downtime" problem; it’s a "direction" problem.
The Low-Stakes Side Project
Maybe you start a "commonplace book." This is an old-school tradition used by people like Marcus Aurelius and Virginia Woolf. You just write down quotes, ideas, or things you hear that don't suck. It’s not a diary. It’s a repository of things that interest you. Over time, you’ll see patterns. "Oh, I keep writing down stuff about urban gardening." Boom. There's your next rabbit hole.
Deep Work vs. Shallow Entertainment
Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown, talks a lot about "Deep Work." Boredom is the prerequisite for depth. If you can’t handle being bored, you can’t handle the long, grueling hours it takes to master a complex skill like coding, woodworking, or writing a novel. Use your boredom as a training gym for your attention span.
Digital Decluttering Is Actually Kind of Fun
If you absolutely must be on a device, don't consume. Edit.
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Most of us have 4,000 photos of our cats or blurry screenshots we don't remember taking. Go through your photo library. Delete the trash. Organize the rest. It’s digital housekeeping that clears up "mental RAM."
You could also:
- Unsubscribe from those "30% off" emails you never open.
- Update your passwords (use a manager, don't be that person using "Password123").
- Clean your physical keyboard. Take the keys off if you’re feeling brave. The amount of crumbs in there is usually horrifying and fascinating.
The Social Solution
Sometimes we're bored because we're lonely. Not "I need a crowd" lonely, but "I haven't had a real conversation in three days" lonely.
Pick up the phone. Don't text. Call someone. It feels weirdly aggressive in 2026 to just call someone out of the blue, but people usually love it. Or, better yet, go to a physical third space. A library, a park, a coffee shop. You don't even have to talk to anyone. Just being in the presence of other humans—what sociologists call "passive social interaction"—can break the cycle of boredom.
Why We Get Boredom Wrong
Most people think the answer to what to do when you are bored is "find something fun." But fun is fleeting. Purpose is better.
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Doing something difficult is actually a better cure for boredom than doing something easy. This is related to the concept of Flow State, popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. To get into "flow," the task has to be just hard enough to challenge you, but not so hard that you give up. Scrolling Instagram has zero challenge, so it never creates flow. Building a birdhouse or learning the chords to a new song? That’s flow territory.
Actionable Steps to Take Right Now
If you are currently sitting there, bored out of your mind, do these things in this exact order:
- Drink a full glass of water. Dehydration often masks itself as lethargy or boredom.
- Change your physical environment. If you’re in the bedroom, go to the kitchen. If you’re inside, go outside. Even a 10-foot move shifts your perspective.
- Set a timer for 15 minutes. Tell yourself you will do one "productive" thing—even if it's just folding laundry—and once the timer goes off, you’re allowed to be bored again. Usually, once you start, the boredom evaporates.
- Write down three things you’re curious about. Not things you "should" do, but things that actually make you go "huh, I wonder how that works." Then, go to Wikipedia and fall down the hole.
Boredom isn't a hole you're stuck in. It’s a blank canvas. The discomfort you feel is just the friction of your brain trying to start its engine. Don't fight the boredom; use it as fuel to finally do that one thing you’ve been putting off because you "didn't have the time." You have the time now. Use it.