The brain is hardwired to look for stimulants. Every time we enjoy a new experience, neurons in our brain fire off and we experience pleasure, or a brief respite from boredom. However, after a while, the same experience cease to have such an effect, and as such we get bored. The cycle continues as we look for other things to fight off boredom.
When faced with boredom, we immediately feel we need to get rid of it. We switch tasks to something that will make us less bored, or we will become distracted easily.
First, there is very little hope for falling in love with a habit that you truly hate. It’s very difficult to hate something and be in love with it at the same time.
Let’s say you dislike working out, but you know it’s good for you. If you want to fall in love with the boredom of going to the gym, then you have two options.
Option 1: Increase your proficiency at the task.
Option 2: Fall in love with a result of the task rather than the task itself.
Option 3 : Schedule time for distractions.
Next time you get bored at work, don’t punish yourself so much, accept it as natural. It’s easy to become frustrated with yourself if you get distracted. But with the above suggestion, you might master your boredom, change it, and turn it into a tool to improve your productivity and make work more enjoyable.
