Imagination helps us all to live our best lives and to achieve our dreams no matter how long it takes. It also helps to fuel our creativity that can stem from anything and anywhere at any time. Boredom is something that not many people would consider creativity coming from it. In fact, it can cause a rush of creativeness where the outcome can be something really fantastic. Now, there are many stigmas when it comes to being bored, however, it may actually just be a blessing in disguise! On the other hand, putting our attention towards a project or whatever it may be has become increasingly harder especially with all the new technology out and more distractions than ever before.
The world today is always on the go since it keeps evolving and growing and we have a hard time slowing down to really take it all in and enjoy life. Once people eventually slow down, they become bored and don’t know what to do with themselves anymore. In fact, they may actually feel like they are being lazy and not contributing to society in some way. This is the reason we keep hearing that lazy people will get nowhere in life or amount to anything and our reaction is to look down on them and try to be doing something every moment of the day.
On the other hand, boredom can be the superpower we all desperately need in this world. While people are constantly moving, constantly doing something, there are those who was creating or even inventing the next big thing in all types of fields. When people take the time to do nothing and just relax, they can have inspiration spark in the most unusual of ways. For example, someone can be sitting outside looking at nature and leaves falling off trees. This person can have a creative idea or concept by just looking at the leaves falling to the ground. As a designer I can sometimes come to an impasse on a project where I am running low on the creativity juice I need to complete this project. So when I take a break by watching TV, listening to music, going outside, interacting with others, basically anything, I have found that I become more inspired and creative than I was when I began this assignment. My creativeness comes from the patterns or designs of clothing or furniture on a show or even from the way I am feeling when I’m listening to a song. My creativity can spark from anywhere. Cal Newport, titles a section in his book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, “Don’t Take Breaks from Distraction. Instead Take Breaks from Focus.” This title stands out in a way that completely goes against what many people believe when they are not focusing on what they should be focusing on. Boredom is what they believe distracts us from achieving what we want, however, Newport states that taking a break from all the focusing to turn it towards the distractions because you never know what may come from it. Furthermore, in the article, “How Being Bored Out of Your Mind Makes Your More Creative,” Clive Thompson talks about studies that explored boredom and creativity. He talks about how one study asked a group of subjects to do something boring like copying out numbers from a phone book and then take tests of creative thinking like devising uses for a pair of cups, and the results were that the bored subjects came up with way more ideas than the non-bored control group. This further proves just how much creativity can come from boredom. So the next time you need a creativity boost, do something boring or make yourself bored and just relax, it will come to you!
Motivation and attention helps to increase not only productivity but it also increases one’s creativity and imagination because you are motivated and taking the time do whatever it may be even in things you may think you hate doing. In the article, “The Art of Staying Focused in a Distracted World: The tech-industry veteran Linda Stone on how to pay attention,” Linda Stone, a longtime tech executive, states, “From the time we’re born, we’re learning and modeling a variety of attention and communication strategies.” She goes on to explain how a baby mimics everything they see from their parents. If this is the case then we need to be able to teach them that technology and smartphones isn’t the world, by showing other activities that are great to do like going outside, doing art, reading, basically anything that doesn’t involve much technology. I have seen many kids ranging from 2 to 8- years-old who are already asking to have their own smartphone or tablet or to play on them or with other technology. I mean what is this world coming to that before we can properly speak we are only happy when there’s technology in our hands. In addition, teaching young kids at that age about how to assert their attention into various activities can be a tremendous help later on in their life, and doing so without a lot of technology involved can be even better because then they won’t be so distracted by it and be able to produce incredible work.
Michaela Ganezer 