At some stage of the day, everyone one of us will be bored. Whether that’s on the school bus, sitting at home waiting for dinner, or even at work (although you would never admit to that); boredom catches us all.

Yet being bored has always been associated with disinterest and lack of natural passion, but boredom can be a mark of success, accomplishment if you will. For boredom can be a sign of completion. If you were to speak to any teenager currently taking exams, they would all say that in the last 10 minutes of the exam, they get bored. They have completed, checked and double checked their answers, and the minutes tick by so slowly. They have completed, done their best in the test, and due to the constraints of testing, are unable to do anything else. 

This can be the same for Workers. Workers who commute to work, either by car or train, on the way there may find ways to solve their boredom. Many train commuters sit and read the paper or a book on the way to work, in preparation of the day ahead. On the way home however, many gaze outside their carriage window, the paper having old news, and the day of work completed. 

In both these cases boredom has been brought upon them, by their day schedule. In these ways it would be unfair to say that these people are bored for lack of interest. They are bored because they have nothing or limited chance of doing something productive with their time. Further to this, in these situations, the last thing you would want to do is strain your brain, after a stressful amount of time doing your job.

Perhaps then boredom should be classed as brought on, by the day schedule, and self made, something which we could have changed. 

Self-made boredom can at times be the most infuriating. If you decide to go against the flow of friends or the way the day works, either not going to a concert, or getting up much earlier or later, this can lead to patches in the day where you feel you are unable to do anything. If you do this rather more often than normal, this can lead to numerous occasions of boredom, hence the favourite children line “I’m bored”.

However, there are many ways to solve self made boredom, such as learning a new language, reading a novel or just using your time more wisely. This could be getting up a bit earlier, giving more free time to undertake activities such as sport, or changing a few aspects of your day to always give originality and to remove the clockwork running of your life.

Whatever choice you make, boredom will always play a part in day to day life. The trick is to make that boredom as small and beneficial as you can.

Image by Jule_Berlin via Flickr