A week of engineered boredom sharpened creativity

engineered boredom – By limiting internet use to research and deliberately letting their mind wander during downtime, the narrator reports fewer anxiety symptoms and more story ideas. Their experience also runs into a scientific debate: one researcher says boredom and creativity a

On a train ride, the rabbit hole would usually start with rage-bait. A few minutes in line would turn into scrolling. Time that should’ve been quiet enough to spark ideas would instead be crowded by notifications.

As a knowledge worker who spends a lot of time on the internet. the narrator says distractions and information overload kept getting the better of them—even after trying multiple practices that helped with doomscrolling. Reading a nonfiction book first thing in the morning and a fiction book before bed meant they no longer began and ended their day staring at a phone. But waiting in line, commuting, and exercising were different battlegrounds.

They found themselves pulled into rage-bait on the train and. at the gym. into routine habits that left little room for thought—queuing up a couple of podcast episodes before heading out. Over time. coming up with story ideas started to feel like “pushing a boulder up a hill. ” something they normally loved. Since their livelihood—and sanity—depends on that creative work, they decided something had to change.

The experiment wasn’t a full digital fast. It was narrower: reduce the flow of information to make space for creativity. For a week, they set a goal to consume information via the internet only if it was for research purposes. They also committed to letting their mind wander during the moments when they would typically listen to a podcast or mindlessly use their phone. In other words, they tried to “engineer” more moments of boredom.

The results came quickly. They say they came up with several ideas during a single train ride. They also describe a moment when they were stuck: one afternoon. when they were really struggling to extract any creative thought. they closed their laptop and stared out of their home office window. They report that their mind started wandering. and “eventually” their brain began asking questions they were able to turn into solid story ideas.

They also noticed changes in how they felt day to day. Stress and anxiety levels improved. They connect that to the way social media can thrive on sensational and controversial content, and they expected their creativity bump to be tied to injecting boredom into their routine.

But when they questioned academics and researchers who study boredom, the relationship between boredom and creativity turned out to be less simple than their own experience.

Dr. James Danckert. a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo in Canada. says there is no positive relationship between boredom and creativity. He coauthored a research paper arguing the two may in fact be incompatible. “What you’ve actually done in your own experiment kind of confirms it,” he says. “You’ve disconnected from stressful things and allowed yourself space to think—not to be bored. Creativity is a great solution to boredom. but the logic does not work the other way around; boredom does not make you creative—if anything. it leads to poorer performance on creativity tasks.”.

Daniel Hermens. a professor of youth mental health and neurobiology at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Australia. offers a more nuanced view. In an article he coauthored for The Conversation. he argued boredom can be beneficial in small doses because it can counterbalance a world that has normalized overstimulation. “Boredom can be a circuit-breaker,” he says. “When you feel comfortable with a little bit of boredom and allow your mind to wander. you’re more likely to seek novelty in a positive way. You might engage in creative pursuits, for example, rather than seek short-term dopamine rewards, like social media scrolling.”.

Hermens also points to something the narrator had essentially been experimenting with: the difference between boredom and mindfulness. He notes that people often confuse boredom with mindfulness. The difference, as described, is that one carries a positive connotation while the other carries a negative one.

Heather C. Lench, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Texas A&M University, adds another layer. “It seems to be a common assumption that boredom means nothing to do,” she says. “But that’s not necessarily true.” Boredom. she explains. only occurs if the environment and what someone is doing don’t align with their goals. A person can feel bored when they’re being still while nothing is happening. just as they can feel bored in a stimulating environment like a party.

The narrator considers a possibility that ties the experiment back to that distinction. Perhaps, they suggest, reducing content consumption created more space for mindfulness. They emphasize they did experience boredom—“I definitely did”—but because they didn’t leave the option open to seek short-term rewards. they directed their search for novelty into thinking and random questions. Over the week. their brain “got used to having ‘unfilled time’. ” as Hermens describes it. and their default response became letting the mind wander.

Still, the benefits didn’t come without a cost. They recognize their boredom moments were fleeting. Hermens warns against extremes. “You don’t want to have a brain that’s constantly stimulated by information every time it’s awake. ” he says. “Equally. you don’t want to have a brain that’s understimulated and not social every time it’s awake. ” he continues. He notes this can lead to rumination, a feature of depression.

That warning landed hard when the narrator fell ill. In the past couple of days. they were hit with an unpleasant cold. which they say means they’re experiencing a “pretty high dose of boredom.” They describe negative effects they can feel. They managed to finish writing this story. which they treat as a positive—but they also admit they resort to mindless scrolling at times when their symptoms are at their worst.

Even so, Hermens frames their reaction as encouraging. The narrator says Hermens assures them that the fact they’re questioning their habits is a positive sign, and they’re hopeful they can return to significantly reduced screen time—when they’re not stuck at home with a fever.

Lench says she’s conducting further research to figure out how people can train their brains to respond to boredom positively. For the narrator. the lesson is simpler and more practical: if they want more creativity. they need habits and practices that make it easier to follow through. One habit is letting their mind wander. especially when the urge hits to listen to another podcast or check social media.

Lench, in the quote the narrator shares, puts it this way: “Creativity does seem to take time, effort, and focus. Boredom can be a driver toward investing that effort in something novel and different. But it’s not guaranteed. Like any habit. when you practice channeling boredom into something creative. it will become easier and easier to pick up something creative when you’re bored—instead of something easy and distracting.”.

“It might seem counterintuitive to practice creativity,” Lench adds. “But building in habits around creativity can help us spend more time in creative tasks.”

A week of engineered boredom, for this narrator, didn’t just change what they did with their time. It shifted what their brain defaulted to—until illness turned downtime from chosen spacing into unwanted, high-dose stillness. The science they consulted doesn’t settle the debate outright. Instead. it mirrors the lived contradiction of their own results: boredom can open a door to thought. but it can also tip into the kind of emptiness that doesn’t feel like freedom.

boredom creativity doomscrolling information overload mind wandering social media anxiety rumination internet use habits research