The other day I read this article I kicked my smartphone addiction by retraining my brain to enjoy being bored. I posted about it in my Reader Takes Notes Blog. Basically, the article talks about how important it is to experience boredom. If you always obliterate boredom by going online or playing games, you decrease your ability to think creativity. You never get to space out, let your mind wander, and discover original ideas. What the article doesn’t talk about is the how. How can we learn to get bored again? So here are a few things I came up with:
I decided to create mandatory boredom time periods. So during these periods, I am not allowed to read, use my cellphone, or play music. These time periods are whenever I: poop/pee, take a bath (yes, I’ve actually experienced putting soap all over my body and shampoo in my hair, and instead of just sitting in the bathroom to relax, I get my ipad, which I brought to the bathroom, and start watching videos or checking Facebook. Yup, it’s that bad), eating, and 30 minutes into waiting time (whatever waiting time that may be like waiting for the doctor or whatever, I have to set my alarm for 30 minutes and only when that alarm goes off am I allowed to read or something).
You’ll understand my concern about this if you’ve read Nothing has changed since the last time you checked Facebook (where I talk about how Facebook can train you to overly crave social approval), No Facebook Weekends (another Facebook-related resolution that I’m trying out), and I’ve also done an input deprivation week (where I go a week without reading or getting any other inputs. Instead I concentrate on outputs, like writing, drawing, making videos, or anything creative). So the resolutions keep piling up. Hope they actually work!
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