Boredom in quarantine is a chance for creativity

Among the many challenges that this pandemic has posed for us, living with the boredom is certainly one of the most recurrent. In a study published in Italy, at the end of March, with people who were in isolation situations for more than a month, boredom was cited as one of the most difficult issues to deal with, second only to the feeling of loss of freedom.

The truth is that boredom, defined as discomfort or temporary disgust, has always been part of the group of uncomfortable emotions, which we try to escape as soon as possible. That irritating feeling is actually a sophisticated warning system for our brain that we are not happy with what we are doing and a push for an attitude change.

According to research carried out by German psychologists Thomas Goetz and Anne Frenzel, published in the journal Motivation and Emotion, there are different stages of boredom. At first, the feeling of apathy and relaxation is followed by a phase in which our mind begins to open different exit doors for us. We imagine solutions, such as going to eat something, turning on the TV, reading a book or taking a shower.

In phase three, called search, we enter the search process. If I decide to eat, for example, I know I can open the fridge and start looking for solutions. The fourth step is the reactive, an active moment of rupture where we decide to produce and create to solve the problem, following the example above we could decide to bake a cake. Peter Toohey, author of the book ‘Boredom, a lively story’, summarizes: “creativity is an antidote to boredompeople produce creative things to medicate their problem”.

I have lived and seen this experience in practice. My 6-year-old daughter is part of the so-called alpha generation, made up of children born from 2010 onwards, the year Apple created the iPad. This is the first generation that has been living with technology since birth, and for whom the analogue world may seem far away. However, in this period of isolation, so much technology is also boring. And I, being part of the executive moms group, often have the impulse (and countless times I make the mistake) of trying to promote her a schedule full of activities and schedules. But the fact is, in this quarantine, I’m not realizing it. Want to know the consequence? Boredom, just as experts say, has boosted her creativity.

I have drawings all over the house, books that Carol decided to write from beginning to end by herself, and even posters on her bedroom door warning the tooth fairy: “you can come, because there is no coronavirus here”. Constant exercises to prevent and solve problems and the most diverse ways of using creativity to express positive and negative feelings during this period of isolation.

With all this, added to my uncontrollable impulse to always try to see the “full side of the glass”, I leave here an invitation: if we manage to keep ourselves (and keep our children) in the discomfort of boredom, we will certainly come out of all this more open to creativity and, therefore, more prepared for the new normal that lies ahead.

Cintia Gonçalves is a publicist, strategist and mother of a 6-year-old girl. With a 25-year career, she led one of the most important advertising agencies in the world. Today she studies and gives lectures on culture, behavior, creativity and the future of work. She acts in the construction of business and communication strategies, in addition to leadership development.

What you need to know about pregnancy in times of a pandemic