Back when we were kids trying to live our best childhood, we were always on the move. We’d do anything and everything our vast imaginations could come up with within the span of a day. In doing so, we learned to occupy every moment of our time. Growing up, we adapted that same mentality of always needing to stay busy. When we’re not working our butts off at our jobs, we’re at home doing chores, when we’re not doing chores, we’re out running errands, when we’re done with our errands, we’re doing daughter/sister/friend/family/S.O. duties and reaching out to the ones we love, especially now more than ever. Day after day, every minute of our time is occupied. Which makes you think: Do we ever allow ourselves the time to just be bored?
In Cal Newport’s book Deep Work, he’s asking us to do just that. He says, “You’ll struggle to achieve the deepest levels of concentration if you spend the rest of your time fleeing the slightest hint of boredom.” Before we set off to do deep work, he wants us to first determine if our brain is ready for that level of constant concentration. But once we begin, the hard part is staying there because it’s easy to slip back into old habits. This is why Newport suggests that one should not take a break from distraction, but rather take breaks from focus, because once you’re wired for distraction, your brain starts to crave it.
Annoyed with how bored I’ve been is something I’ve been dealing with for a few weeks. For the last five years, I had been working in a fast-paced communications department for one of the largest school districts in south Texas. The work was nonstop, exhausting, rewarding, but mostly, I was living in a constant state of feeling burned out. My former supervisor and her supervisors above her asked for everything and the moon and sky. During the pandemic, things only got more invasive because we were trapped at home and had no excuse for not being able to make deadlines or being out of reach of a computer for any last-minute meetings or requests. Saying this last year was tough would be an understatement. Then, after one relatively upsetting day, I got an email from a neighboring school district asking if I wanted to apply for a brand-new position that would essentially give me the opportunity to start an entire program from scratch. I thought about it deeply for days because I knew I would be starting grad school in a few weeks and didn’t know if I would have the time to give everything the attention it deserved. The school district was half the size of my current one, so I figured that even with all the new work I would be getting, it would still be calmer than where I was at. So, I went through with the application because I knew something needed to change, I wanted the bags under my eyes gone and I wanted to enjoy my job again. I was thankfully hired and officially started the new position on February 1, 2021 and all I can say is: Newport was right.
Because my new school district is relatively smaller than what I was used to, my workload decreased significantly, even with building this new program from the ground up. My first week, I finished every task I was asked within the hour, because that’s what I was used to doing the last five years. I never knew how quickly I’d get assigned a new project so I finished what I got as quickly as I could, so I didn’t fall behind. But things changed. My brain now had to be rewired. The first two weeks in February, I’d rush to finish my assigned tasks, then be bored out of my mind for the entire second half of the day. I couldn’t stand it. I was used to working nonstop throughout the day that I no longer knew what to do when I was done. So, I took what I learned from Newport and started using my newfound time to plan and draw out my dream projects because I didn’t want to just be ok with doing my day-to-day tasks. And it’s worked pretty great so far. I developed a strategic communication plan for the year, created a social media calendar and made a content planner, something I had never done before because I was only ever used to running by the seat of my pants. I embraced this newfound boredom I had instead of being annoyed with it. I attempted to do actual deep work with the time I had and actually started to enjoy my time. It hasn’t been perfect; I still get distracted every once in a while and get the urge to whip out my phone and quickly scroll through Twitter as an easy distraction. But more and more, I’m choosing to utilize my new luxury to do things I actually want to accomplish— not just accept a quick distraction that’s aimed to hijack my brain.
Like Teddy Roosevelt, I have a long list of tasks I need to get through each day, both professionally and personally. So, like him, I need to attack each one without distractions. Newport says Roosevelt was able to get awesome grades, take a full set of classes, do his daily athletic training, study and research birds— all within the span of one day. He was able to accomplish what was needed to by giving everything his full attention and concentration. If I take on Roosevelt’s mindset, I too can accomplish what I need to and more. I don’t want to fear boredom anymore. All I can do now, is embrace it.
References:
Newport, C. (2016). Rule #2 Embrace Boredom. (First ed., pp. 155). New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing.