your boredom doesn’t need curing

Our ability to remain preoccupied at all times is at an all-time high.

We listen to podcasts on our commutes.

We stare intently at our phones at all hours of the day.

On the surface, being able to access news feeds and consume content from virtually anywhere and at any time sounds like something to rejoice about — a true cure for boredom if there ever were one.

But what if boredom isn’t something that needs curing?

In The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzche suggests that boredom, despite being uncomfortable, is often the thing that must precede excellent work: “for thinkers and all sensitive spirits, boredom is that disagreeable ‘windless calm’ of the soul that precedes a happy voyage and cheerful winds. They have to bear it and must wait for its effect on them.”

A 2013 study conducted by Sandi Mann and Rebekah Cadman found that participants who engaged in “boring” tasks such as copying phone numbers from a telephone directory — a form of this ‘windless calm’ — subsequently performed better on creative tasks compared to the control group.

Angel Investor Naval Ravikant stresses the importance of rest, suggesting that we “work like a lion. Not a cow.” Unlike cows, who graze all day to stay nourished (sound familiar?), Naval suggests that “the way people tend to work most effectively, especially in knowledge work, is to sprint as hard as they can while they feel inspired to work, and then rest. They take long breaks. It’s more like lion hunting…you sprint and then you rest.”

By striving to remain preoccupied at all times, we may be keeping ourselves at a permanent distance from our best work — Nietzsche’s “happy voyage and cheerful wind”.

Thankfully we don’t have to do much in order to close the gap.

In fact, the best thing— at least for a brief period of time — may very well be to do nothing at all.