7 Ways To Cure Boredom

One of the patron saints of my Happier at Home project, Samuel Johnson, wrote, "It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible."

One "little thing" that can be a source of unhappiness is boredom. Doing paperwork. Listening to your manager's "deep dive" into the latest round of company data.

Here are seven tips to re-frame the moment; even if you can't escape a situation, by re-framing your emotions about it, you can transform it.

1.Put the word "meditation" after the activity that's boring you. (This is my invention.) If you're impatient while waiting for, say, a bus, tell yourself you're doing "Bus waiting meditation." If you're standing in a slow line at cafeteria, you're doing "Waiting in line meditation." Just saying these words makes me feel very spiritual and high-minded and wise.

2. Dig in. As they say, if you can't get out of it, get into it. Diane Arbus wrote, "The Chinese have a theory that you pass through boredom into fascination and I think it's true." If something is boring for two minutes, do it for four minutes. If it's still boring, do it for eight minutes, then 16, and so on. Eventually you discover that it's not boring at all. If part of my research isn't interesting to me, I read a whole book about it, and then it becomes absorbing. The same principle holds when doing any boring or irritating task.

3. Take the perspective of a journalist or scientist. Really study what's around you. What are people wearing, what do the interiors of buildings look like, what noises do you hear, what do the documents show? If you bring your analytical powers to bear, you can make almost anything interesting.

4. Find an area of refuge. Have a mental escape route planned. Think about something delightful or uplifting (not your to-do list!). Review photos of your kids on your phone. (Studies show that looking at photos of loved ones provides a big mood boost.) Listen to an audiobook.

5. Look for a way to feel grateful. It's a lot better to be bored while waiting for a meeting to being than to be in an agony of suspense about whether your team failed to meet goals. Maybe your competitor is having an even tougher time.

6.Consider: "Am I the boring one?" La Rochefoucauld observed, "We always get bored with those whom we bore." I remind myself of this when I'm having a boring conversation with someone.

7.And of course, always bring something to read (in physical or virtual form).

What strategies do you use to combat boredom?

Related articles from Gretchen Rubin:

7 Tips to Know If You're Boring Someone.
5 Mistakes I Continue to Make in My Marriage.
Happiness theories I reject.