Most often people tend to go with the flow when they are feeling bored, and then finally realize that so much time has been wasted, which could have been well utilized in many ways, and feel guilty about it. Boredom is a dull psychological state when you lose interest in what you are doing or what you should be doing. It is a good idea to have a few tricks up your sleeve to combat boredom when it strikes next.
Fight Boredom
Boredom could strike the busiest of the people and it can strike you when you are at work or at home. Boredom has the capacity to drain you off your energy, and distract you from important chores. You could prepare a checklist of things that you can do when boredom strikes, and just click yourself off that state, and engage in these recharging activities.
When Boredom Strikes At Work
Usually, in the office, you have plenty of work to fill you time with. However, sometimes you may find that you have nothing "official" to do, while your colleagues are quite busy. You cannot go out, as you need to be in the office a certain number of hours. Then what do you do? Now, you can while away this time "just feeling bored" or you can engage in activities that you did not get time to do when you were "officially busy."
- Befriend Colleagues: Most of the time you are so busy with your own work, that you may not know your colleagues whom you meet every day or even see while working. Of course, if they are busy, you should not disturb them; however, there may be some other colleague or colleagues who are also "in the same boat as you" for the time being. This is the opportunity for you to befriend them.
- Recheck Your Work: When you are busy, you may not have the eye for detail for your work. You could simply go through "already finished" work for any errors that you might have overlooked earlier. This way, your "bored time" could be well spent for sharpening your skills.
- Browse the Web: Browsing the net need not be mindless browsing. Of course, if you are allowed, you could engage in checking your personal mails, or playing scrabble or some other games. You could also download some informative material and save it for future reference that will help you with your work when you are "officially busy."
- Lend Help: Okay, so you are free, but other colleagues are busy. If it is permitted, you could ask them if you could help them in some way. Who knows, they might become your best buddies in future besides returning the favor when you need assistance.
When Boredom Strikes At Home
Even though you are free to do anything at home, when boredom strikes, you are normally just stuck in it. This is because you are not ready with your list of things to do when it strikes. During such times, try these out:
- Explore: Who knows what you might find in your own house. Search your old cupboards or the belongings in your room. You may end up finding your favorite lost T-shirt or things that would kindle your old memories. Besides, you can organize them once found.
- Cultivate a Hobby: Most people have thrown hobbies out of the window, and drawn the curtains and are glued to the TV. However, TV also gets boring. A new hobby that is enjoyable should be cultivated to turn to when boredom strikes, such as gardening, cooking, or reading! If these sound boring, adopt a pet and play with it or go for a walk at such times.
- Invite a Friend Home or Get Invited: When alone and bored, you could call up some friends and catch up on "old times' sake." This will not only rejuvenate you but after coming back you will be able to get more work accomplished because of the renewed energy.
Prepare a Priority List
If all this does not sound practical at a given time, you could use this unexpected time by making a list of things that you missed out on and given an opportunity would like to do. Sometimes, what happens is when you get free time, you normally don't remember these things and just while away your time. Only later you realize that you could have done this or that. A sample list could look like this (of course you could make an entirely different list):
- Watching your favorite classic movie
- Taking a stroll in the new mall
- Calling your school buddies
- Or just sleeping!
They say life is short. Short or long does not matter, how you spend it matters. Your time should give you satisfaction, and boredom does not give you that. Just be ready with your "list" when boredom strikes and see how good you feel by doing what is there on that list.
