Boredom - the main ingredient of creativity

It would seem that humanity once and for all conquered boredom. When you are holding your phone or tablet, connected to a high-speed Internet, it automatically becomes a source of information and entertainment. But maybe sometimes we need a little bored? What if boredom is the main component of creativity?

Even if we do not get bored in their spare time, we still have to fight this feeling at work. "We rarely recognize their colleagues that sometimes bored in the office. On the other hand, a certain level of boredom leads to the activation of creative thinking ", - writes David Barkus (David Burkus), magazine columnist for Harvard Business Review.

David cites the example of a famous scientific experiment in which volunteers were asked to perform a task on creativity. For example, think of a second application for the pair of plastic cups. On the job better mastered those participants who initially asked to do boring work, for example, to rewrite a number from the phone book. It turned out that monotonous work makes us dream about creativity. The stronger the boredom that we feel, the more we begin to dream and the creative ideas generated by the brain.

Barkus also talks about other work that documented the effectiveness of boredom for creativity. Subjects were shown video, then asked to be tested for association. More creative approach to the verification of those who face it looked uninteresting videos. Experimenters have suggested that boredom motivates people to try new things and find themselves useful employment.

Elpidoru Andreas (Andreas Elpidorou), a researcher at the University of Louisville, believes that "boredom helps to restore the perception of their actions as such." He describes it as a regulatory function, which helps to constantly stay active and do their own projects, tasks and problems.

If we do not get bored, they would not feel satisfied with what they have done. And the experience of pleasure from the quest rewards - emotional or social - would exist apart from us.

Boredom - this warning: you do not what you want. It forces us to move toward this goal, and to undertake relevant projects and assignments.

"Boredom - is a fascinating emotion that is usually considered as a negative feeling. However, this motivating force ", - said Dr. Sandi Mann (Sandi Mann) from the University of Central Lancashire. She says that to miss - it's good. For example, if the road home from work takes you a long time, it can be used to think about new ideas. It is unlikely that you will have fun to ride in the bus or subway. But you can use this time to come up with the next project or the desired target.

How to use boredom? Barkus said: boredom necessary experience to do the job better. So maybe you should spend a few uninteresting meetingsSend emails, take the hands of a monotonous and simple operation to push the brain to active creative activity. Boredom in the workplace is generally considered something so that must be immediately eliminated. But, perhaps, we should go a bit in the wake of this feeling, then to give out creative ideas one after another.

David Foster Wallace (David Foster Wallace) also spoke about the link between boredom and creativity. He recorded his thoughts on this subject, and this note was found among the drafts of his book The Pale King.

It turns out that happiness - long live the joy and happiness - is on the other side of the destructive feelings of boredom. Pay attention to the most tedious things you can think of (filling out tax declarations, game viewing golf on TV), and boredom will cover one another, a third wave has not yet It kills you. Come out of this state, stepping on the black-and-white reality in a bright and colorful. As a sip of water after a few days in the desert. Bliss in every atom.

David Foster Wallace

You should try to do the boring daily tasks first, then to be taken for those that require a creative approach. It seems that this mode of action is somewhat similar to the ancient practice of meditation.

If humanity is indeed almost overcame the boredom, perhaps, it has developed a much more deleterious condition in which we are constantly looking for a pretext to distract from the work. Maybe we need to work on a more active and artificially immerse themselves into a state of boredom, to force the brain to work in a creative way.