It's Time To Embrace Boredom — How I Use These 3 Unconventional Productivity Tips To Be A Creative Thinker

To make nan astir of our activity hours, we're often told to "eat nan frog successful nan morning," shut up notifications aliases effort Pomodoro-like techniques. These are evergreen productivity tips that personification helped millions of agency workers and entrepreneurs, and I'm not aiming to downplay them. But erstwhile you've exhausted each accepted productivity connection — aliases recovered that it doesn't activity for you — it's clip to deliberation extracurricular nan box.

In nan 21st century, we look to personification a firm aversion to boredom. Our minds, perpetually racing to support up pinch distractions, personification forgotten nan creation of quiet observation, nan abstraction wherever productivity thrives and ideas are calved from nan mundane, for illustration nan sounds aliases smell astir us, an eccentric passerby aliases a fleeting thought.

In this article, I'd for illustration to banal a less unconventional strategies that personification helped maine enactment focused and boosted my productivity successful unexpected ways. Some of these methods mightiness blur nan lines betwixt activity and life, but arsenic a CEO of a tech company, I cognize each excessively bully that activity and life aren't ever easy separable.

So, here's what I sewage successful my peculiar productivity tips arsenal.

1. Do tasks astatine different times and places

When I deed a imaginative roadblock, I look for ways to shingle things up and stimulate my thinking. I tackle challenging tasks astatine unconventional times, for illustration early mornings aliases precocious nights. Sometimes, I've had revelations connected really to lick a problem during a cycling normal aliases evening jog.

Similarly, you tin alteration nan spot wherever you activity (if it's technically imaginable successful your field). Even if you personification nan astir comfortable office, sometimes moving from a chair successful nan parkland aliases a bustling java shop tin springiness you conscionable nan spark you need.

This study is supported by nan Cognitive Flexibility Theory, which claims that changing environments tin disrupt regular reasoning patterns, forcing nan encephalon to accommodate and find caller solutions. This explains why a alteration of scenery tin animate caller perspectives.

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2. Find your "best thinking" spot (or activity)

Have you too noticed that immoderate of nan champion ideas recreation to you precisely erstwhile you can't represent them down? Nowadays, situations wherever we don't personification our smartphones adjacent are becoming progressively rare.

And that's precisely nan problem.

Whenever a lull arises, we instinctively scope for our smartphones aliases distant controls to tin nan void pinch societal media aliases streaming content. We consciousness compelled to multitask while walking, often listening to podcasts aliases audiobooks. Our phones are retired moreover while waiting successful connection astatine nan marketplace shop aliases astatine a reddish light.

I utilized to successful installments nan calming effects of showers, cycling aliases swimming workouts for my bursts of creativity. But nan truth is, these activities simply provided much-needed integer detox. Without nan changeless distractions of my phone, my mind was free to rotation and innovate.

In short, my connection is to judge deliberate thinking. Create phone-free zones successful your day, whether it's a relaxing bath, a canine locomotion aliases simply an hr of integer detox. These moments are aureate opportunities for your productivity to flourish.

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3. Build an associative productivity habit

One of my apical productivity boosters is eating (or snacking) while working. Before you judge maine for promoting unhealthy and unsanitary practices astatine work, fto maine explain.

For years, I personification noticed that I consciousness a different benignant of attraction erstwhile I eat while reference a book aliases moving connected a computer. I personification looked for technological grounds to explicate this peculiarity, but I personification recovered none.

This led maine to nan conclusion that nan nexus betwixt eating and amended attraction is associative. As Pulitzer-winning productivity writer Charles Duhigg explained successful 'The Power of Habit,' associating a productive activity pinch a pleasurable 1 tin create a powerful wont loop.

Years later, I for illustration to debar snacking, truthful eating astatine nan instrumentality is simply a strategy for hopeless times. I mightiness occasionally personification my luncheon while reference a longer article aliases a document. I eat patient snacks specified arsenic nuts, berries, aliases consequence to thief myself get retired of a hard-to-solve task astatine hand.

While this eating and moving wont mightiness not beryllium ideal, it's not nan only measurement to boost productivity. Experiment pinch healthier associations, for illustration listening to circumstantial music, lighting a scented candle, aliases wearing noise-cancelling earphones. Over time, these rituals tin heighten attraction and accusation by association.

Allow yourself to beryllium bored!

As I mentioned above, we've mislaid our comfortableness pinch boredom. Constant distractions drown retired quiet moments wherever productivity sparks — from a passing thought to nan smell of rainfall aliases an different alien connected nan street.

I've learned these skills from my children: their expertise to beryllium afloat present, their insatiable curiosity and their wonderment astatine nan world astir them. By embracing a childlike consciousness of wonderment and paying attraction to nan specifications of our surroundings, we tin too foster productivity and boost productivity.