[zeidrich]

Boredom isn't the act of having nothing to do. That's idleness.

Boredom is a problem of a lack of satisfaction. There's various reasons for that but I believe having too much to do, and too much stress is what leads to boredom. People have an amount of attention they can pay to any topic before they need to rest. You can only listen to a song for so long before it stops being pleasant and starts being annoying. You can only hear the same story so many times before it gets boring.

When you are bored, sometimes idleness can even be a fine replacement. If you're bored, and you decide to go and sit in a chair in the sun with a nice cold drink, that's a nice response.

What boredom is, is when you're in class or at work, and you need to keep doing some routine behavior, but you need a break, you need a change, but you can't. Boredom is the feeling that you have to fight in order to keep doing something that your whole reward system of your brain has told you you've had enough of.

Boredom isn't something good. It's something damaging. It's a condition where your mind is tired of a particular action, but you don't have the agency to make a change in your situation to suit that.

[SonicSoul]

Nicely said. I'd add that this article appears to equal boredom with the kind of state achieved through introspection and/or meditation. I believe that is not the default response to boredom. I think the usual response is browsing reddit for funny stuff or playing mindless computer games. All while still being bored and not getting much out of it. I'm certainly in that state sometimes and hate it especially if I could have been sleeping instead

[TrevorJ]

I don't know that it's good or bad, I think it's simply a signal, like hunger or tiredness that allows us to make an informed choice about what we can do to meet the needs of our body and mind.

[phesse14]

I completely agree with this. Boredom is an indicator. Just that. If the light turns on it indicates you have to do something about it. the question is...is it good or bad when it turns on? That depends on everyone I mean, there's not a standard for that

[wnm]

fantastic comment! very well written. Can you share your thoughts on what to do when you're bored? Especially can you elaborate on the "your whole reward system of your brain has told you you've had enough of" part of your comment?

[cmurf]

I distinguish between motivation and discipline. Some things just aren't that interesting but they need to be done, and I used to whine about lack of motivation. Then I "discovered" discipline when lack of motivation doesn't f'n matter. Just do it. When the importance wanes and tedium exceeds, I stop and go do something else. When everything seems more tedious than important, I go to sleep. I don't really ever call these things boredom, but I like the idea from another poster that boredom is a signal like hunger. Neither right nor wrong, just a state signal.

[Fjolsvith]

You might say that, but after several months of a form of Tibetan buddhist meditation, I extended my attention span to well over five hours. I found I could retrain my mind to be silent and do what I wanted.

The form of meditation is detailed in the book "Turning the Mind into an Ally" by Sakyong Mipham and Pema Chodron.

[partisan]

Are you happier than you were when you started? Are you more productive? As someone who was recently diagnosed with ADD in my mid-30s, I am weary of medicating and would really like to find a natural approach to achieving focus and through that, happiness.

[fullplate]

If you start looking, you'll find a pretty unanimous agreement of the benefits of meditation both from a research and an anecdotal perspective.

However it's not a practice that, at least initially, benefits much from doing extensive research or setting goals. Just let your curiosity guide you. Here's something that you can read in 5 minutes to get you started: http://zenhabits.net/meditate/

[partisan]

Thanks for the starting point. The 5 minute read is most important for someone who has a limited attention span. :)

[e40]

Well said. So perhaps it would be better codified as:

Idleness is not a problem to be solved. It's the last privilege of a free mind.

I have a 14 yr old and I rarely see him idle. I've had long conversations about this, but the lure of electronic devices is just so strong. I'm actively working to change his behavior, though.

[popee]

Agreed, but it doesn't need to be routine behavior, it can be anything that doesn't suit you in particular moment. So, it's kind of unsolvable problem :-)