Bored at work? Here’s what you should know..
- October 9, 2024
Are you someone who often feels bored at work? Well, then you are surely not alone. But it`s also important to realize that this could actually represent something more about you and the work that you do, and even reveal some complex issues in the background, and that is what we will explore in this article.
Boredom at work, lack of interest, or lack of meaningful challenges can eventually turn into a stressor that can contribute to burnout. Everyone has probably felt at least once in their life how boredom affects the productivity, motivation and ultimately the joy of life. Sometimes boredom, monotonous drowning in a routine can cause burnout even more than overworking. It can seem confusing at first, but we should be aware of some of the more serious boredom risks,
Boredom is considered an unpleasant and undesirable emotional state characterized by dissatisfaction, restlessness and mental fatigue. Mental and physical fatigue is triggered by boredom, as the passing of time seems slower, even endless at times.
The tiresome state of boredom is like a signal that we are not doing what we want to do. That we are involved in an uninteresting or unchallenging situation, one that does not correspond to our own expectations and desires. There may be a feeling of boredom, when there is nowhere to put your energy, because it seems quite pointless to do boring duties or constantly relax and unwind. Then people begin to experience a sense of inefficiency, they become cynical towards other actively working colleagues, and this again can lead to burnout.
5 Benefits of being bored at work
Yes, as we all know, boredom is not something to be proud of. But there is also good news about probably the most common situation of boredom – at the workplace. According to a study by neuroscientists boredom at work can lead to a boost in creativity, as boredom allows more time for daydreaming, which apparently boosts creativity. Many experts claim that it’s critical for brain health to let yourself be bored from time to time.
Being bored, can let your brain have a rest, recharge and make you more resilient, even improve social connections. While being bored might seem unproductive especially in the workplace, it can actually offer some unexpected benefits. We have discovered 5 benefits that can result from being bored at work:
- Increased Creativity: When your mind is nor constantly stimulated or stressed, it can wander and come up with creative ideas. Boredom can be a catalyst for innovation.
- Improved Focus: When you’re feeling bored, it is a lot easier to focus more intently on your tasks. Which can lead to increased productivity and quality work.
- Better Problem-Solving Skills: Boredom enables you to think outside the box and find new solutions to problems. This can improve your problem-solving skills.
- Reduced Stress: Contrary to popular belief, boredom can actually help reduce stress. When you’re not in a state of worry and stress, your mind can relax and recharge.
- Increased Mindfulness: Boredom can be a good opportunity for self-reflection and mindfulness. Without distractions and rushing, you can take time to understand your thoughts, feelings, and motivations.
4 Disadvantages of being bored at work
Boredom can be dangerous to your health. Why do we get bored and how can we escape from it? Now the unwritten principle of society is: to get rid of boredom. And it’s hard to even tell what annoys people more: being in a boring friend group, at work, or turning out to be a boring type yourself? Meanwhile, some scientists have discovered that boredom isn’t just about being bored at your workplace, it can have some negative far-reaching consequences.
Increased stress levels
When we face a stressful situation that can be caused by boredom or ineffective work practice, our body releases stress hormones that affect the functioning of vital organs and their functions, including increased heart rate and breathing, muscle tension. This set of body reactions, known as the fight or flight state can affect cognitive functions and daily productivity harming emotional well-being and relationships with others, and letting physical health worsen in many ways.
If the signs of long-term stress are not recognized in time, disruptive changes in behavior and bad daily habits also appear. Under the influence of stress, certain disorders can develop, as well as alcohol, junk food, tobacco addiction or withdrawal from social life, and a rapid decrease in physical activity can occur as a companion to the boredom.
Development of bad habits
Bad habits form easily, but getting rid of them is quite difficult. Although there is nothing wrong with being a little bored in some situations, there is a consensus among people – no one likes excessively bored and unhappy people. Of course, you could say that in today’s society it is customary to show and see only the good in every situation, but like it or not, the reality is that if you are a person whose is constantly bored, not doing much, procrastinating at your workplace – many people will get tired of it and your employee will not tolerate that behavior for long.
Even if you are a good person, when you are bored and boring to others, you create a very bad impression of yourself, so if someone reveals to you that changing your bad habits would make it more pleasant to communicate with you, work on them.
Impact on mental health
Bored people usually underestimate their self-esteem. Modern culture’s obsession with external sources of entertainment – television, cinema, internet, video games – also takes its toll on the rise of boredom. Researchers explain this with sensory overload, which does not leave opportunities and the ability to figure out: what interests a person and what are his passions?
Perhaps our broken or confused understanding of what we really want to do is the root cause of boredom. Maybe that is why boredom sufferers tend to have low self-esteem and mental troubles. They have difficulty in correctly determining their moods and feelings, so they also do not understand what they really want. Scientists believe: the basis of the psycho dynamic model of boredom is the suppression of one’s true needs and desires, and then a person cannot find an activity that interests them.
Decrease in productivity
Low productivity is one of the causes as well as the results of boredom at work, meaning that bored people often are the ones that work long hours, are unmotivated and perform with low results. Our sense of well-being, including personal and professional productivity, is influenced by various body processes, which are variable, but fundamentally based on a combination of mental and physical energy and motivation. How productive we are and how we feel is influenced in the long term by our physical and mental health, which is based on the basic needs: self-care, adequate sleep, regular physical activity and a healthy diet. But sometimes we want to skip one of these stages and indulge in boredom, which is definitely not the best solution for productivity.
The Root Causes of Workplace Boredom
Deeply rooted in modern society is the myth that making mistakes is a humiliation that should be avoided as much as possible. We fear that mistakes reveal our weaknesses or make us failures. But it is not so. Making mistakes is completely normal and, we must add, inevitable when building your own business for example. You just have to change your attitude to mistakes.
Most entrepreneurs you meet will state that mistakes make you better and are a regular occurrence in business. The most important thing is to understand that, instead of focusing on the mistake made, the focus should be on how you react in the given situation and what will you do to solve it.
Excess idle time
Idleness is a situation when a period of time an asset is available for use but remains unproductive. Idle time can be used to describe full-time employees who are “on the clock” but not working. It is referred to as waiting time, as the time when employees are unproductive
due to certain circumstances, when the employer cannot provide actual work tasks for the employee according to the working hours agreed in the employment contract.
It is possible to fight excess idle time without giving in to boredom. To do that you have to decide what is it that you definitely want to accomplish in life and at your work place? Not just as an employee, but as a professional? If you’ve already made a list of goals, it never hurts to review and add to it. Choose one thing to achieve in a short period (week or a month), and then think about what you can do each day to move a little closer to it, even if it’s a small thing. And do it every day – take one step towards this goal.
Mismatch between interests and work
How to get things done that aren’t enjoyable and don’t match your work interests? In order to complete those tasks and duties that you just want to forget or at least postpone, it will be useful to focus on the positive consequences of these unpleasant tasks. For example, you can focus on the improvement of physical health that will be ensured by regular physical activity, or how happy you will be after completing that challenging work assignment.
This approach can be a powerful incentive not to put work off until later. Likewise, adding a positive element to an unpleasant task, such as listening to your favorite music while completing an unpleasant project, can help someone cope with a difficult task. However, the experts caution that listening to music works best for tasks that have a low cognitive load, so it may not be applicable in all cases.
Also dividing an unpleasant task into smaller more manageable tasks can make it seem less difficult and impossible. Complex tasks should be made as easy as possible. For these tasks, it is very helpful to set a time limit, for example, “today I will spend 15 minutes on this project and no more” and stick to that plan as long as it seems productive.
Underutilization of capabilities
Companies usually invest a lot of effort in resource allocation. It is important to keep everyone busy while ensuring that their tasks are valuable to the business (which often means being profitable). As the team grows, it becomes really difficult, especially when you have to assign people to multiple projects at the same time. One of the easiest ways to check if your distribution efforts are successful is to track your team’s performance and resource capacity.
Participating in professional trainings and upskilling can help prevent boredom at work. The employee must agree with the employer on attending professional training or qualification improvement courses. If the employer sends the employee to professional training or qualification improvement courses, then it is advised to agree on the suitable terms and conditions for everyone.
Lack of growth and learning opportunities
Lack of growth is destructive for everyone involved in the employment process and can cause boredom without a proper solution. Engagement, learning and personal growth are very closely related to each other and should be fostered. It can be put this way: learning compliments everyone’s personal growth and personal growth further increases engagement in whatever one does. So, if an employee better understands what needs to be done, finds better ways to perform his tasks more efficiently, deepens his knowledge of the work to be done, it strengthens and increases his involvement in the work. In fact, this is quite a logical conclusion, because an employee cannot be fully engaged if he does not know the smallest details and requirements of the work. Here’s how growth mindset and learning affects the brain: It increases the functionality of the brain by activating the neuron response that lets you adapt and re frame your thinking to deal with tasks more efficiently so that different parts of the brain can learn at different times and process information much faster.
Practical Solutions to Combat Workplace Boredom
Educate yourself using available resources
Don’t dull your mind by looking at funny pictures of cats on the Internet, reading the latest news or doom-scrolling your social media freed. Continue to improve your knowledge or do things that require mental effort. Learn a few new words in English, French or maybe Spanish. Take a book with you and read it chapter by chapter every day. Writing works too, and it doesn’t matter whether you write down your thoughts or make a list of goals for the next week or month. There are plenty of learning materials and courses online that are available completely for free.
Create New Challenges for Yourself
In our opinion, the best advice for people who often feel bored is to challenge yourself. We get bored at work because the work is too simple or monotonous. Therefore, instead of waiting for something more difficult to be given to you, challenge yourself! Set a new goal at work. Commit to doing more or faster than usual. Consider applying for or starting new projects whether at your job or as a side hustle. Set personal goals and strive to fulfill them with all your might – anything that excites you. You can start simple, for example by reorganizing and improving your workplace that both takes time and will help you reorganize your thoughts. In an organized environment, the mind also works more efficiently, thus you will become more productive, or you will come up with another idea to shorten your time.
Learn New Skills in Free Time
It is everyone’s responsibility to look at themselves with a growth perspective as often as possible, and the good news is that learning skills can be improved quite quickly, and this usually brings joy and energy to daily work. It will be more efficient to also practice what you are learning at work or share the knowledge with someone else. In addition, it is important not only to practice what you have already learned, but also to try a level that is outside the usual comfort zone – you should always try to challenge your abilities.
In order to create both innovative solutions and ideas, as well as to make balanced decisions faster in daily work, critical thinking is essential. Interdisciplinary knowledge is also essential for this, as it is important to be able to evaluate information from various resources in order to make logical and thoughtful decisions. Practically in workplaces, this means regular cooperation with other departments. Often, new skills are worth looking for outside your own field or responsibility, and can be helped by people from other professions, such as colleagues from other teams.
Volunteer
Volunteering is an opportunity for people of all ages to do community service to contribute to the overall development of society. The goal of volunteering is to gain new experiences and skills as well as meet new people in the process. Voluntary work also enables them to gain useful experience, skills and competences for personal, educational, social, cultural, civic and professional development, thereby improving their employability and active citizenship. The activities supported by voluntary work are rich experiences in the context of informal and everyday learning that improve young people’s competences.
In simple words, volunteering is a free activity to combat boredom. When a person does something (participates in social projects, becomes a member of the local volunteer team, takes care of animals, helps organize projects for children, takes care of people with disabilities, etc.) it creates a new meaning and added value.
Take an Unplugged Vacation
The main goal for a good and unplugged vacation is to allow you to indulge in a well-deserved rest and focus on things that make you happy. If you are no longer tired, stressed and feel good, you will be able to return to work much more productive – with new strength and motivation. Vacation is definitely necessary, as are daily breaks at work. Continuous work without breaks negatively affects your performance and quality of work. Therefore, going on vacation will help improve your work skills. Only when you are well rested and full of energy, you will be able to perform your duties much better when you return to work.
Exercise and Physical Activity
One of the most effective remedies for boredom is physical activity. These activities encourage and give energy for you to set new goals and make you feel more alert. If you want to motivate yourself, others or exercise in a company, involve your peers, for example, colleagues, friends or family members. Organize small competitions with colleagues, about including different types of movement and sports in daily activities. The antidote to boredom and the key to balance can be found in the healthy development of physical and cognitive abilities, which ensures a strong psycho-emotional state and protects against various physical illnesses that can be achieved through exercise and movement.
Conclusion
Every person on the planet has repeatedly thought about what to do when they are bored whether working at the computer from a home setting or sitting at the office lacking motivation and productivity. Fact is that people constantly need new experiences, otherwise boredom, dullness and depression will overwhelm them, which can have a bad effect on their mental and physical health.
A person cannot live without new experiences, just the same as without food, water and sleep. Growth and development is the key to healthy productivity levels, balanced work dynamic and professional progress. Boredom can cause various psychological problems and hinder productivity. People who are constantly bored lose confidence and acquire self-esteem issues that interfere with their daily life. It is recommended to discover and practice the things and tasks that bring you joy. You can diversify your life by learning, volunteering, challenging yourself, taking a break, listening to music and other activities that will stimulate your mind and body.
LUXAFOR HELPS PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE THEIR GREATEST PRODUCTIVITY LEVELS WITH A WIDE VARIETY OF OFFICE PRODUCTS. LET’S BE PRODUCTIVE TOGETHER!
Take a Short Break
- Step away from your desk: Take a quick walk or stretch to clear your head.
- Grab a snack: A healthy snack can give you a boost of energy.
- Listen to music or a podcast: This can help improve your mood and focus.
Learn Something New
- Take an online course: Expand your skills and knowledge.
- Read a book or article: Explore topics that interest you.
- Watch a tutorial: Learn new techniques or software.
Get Organized
- Clean up your workspace: A tidy environment can improve your productivity.
- Organize your files: Keep your digital files well-organized.
- Create a to-do list: Prioritize your tasks and stay on track.
Here are some tips to help you stay motivated:
Set clear goals: Having clear goals can give you a sense of purpose and direction.
Find a mentor: A mentor can provide guidance, support, and encouragement.
Celebrate your successes: Acknowledge your achievements, no matter how small.
Take breaks: Short breaks can help you stay focused and avoid burnout.
Surround yourself with positive people: Positive influences can boost your mood and motivation.
If you're feeling bored with your job, consider the following:
Talk to your manager: Discuss your concerns and see if there are any opportunities for growth or development.
Explore new opportunities: Research other jobs or industries that might interest you.
Consider a career change: If you're unhappy with your current job, it may be time to explore a new career path.
