You are waiting for a kettle, a lift, a friend who is late. Your hand is already on your pocket before you decided anything.
That is not a character flaw. Most of us have spent years making sure boredom never gets a full minute to exist. If it feels unbearable now, that is what an untrained skill feels like.
Getting comfortable with it is possible, and it works the way most comfort does: in small amounts, repeated.
Why is being bored so uncomfortable?
Because it is unusual. Most of the day we have something to look at, so sitting with nothing is a rare event.
In a well-known set of experiments, Wilson and colleagues asked people to sit alone with their thoughts for 6 to 15 minutes. Many of them chose to give themselves a mild electric shock rather than keep sitting there: 67% of the men and 25% of the women.
That is a striking result, and it tells you something kind. If an empty room is hard enough that people will pick a small shock instead, then finding it difficult is the ordinary response, not a personal failing.
Source: Wilson et al., Science (2014).
What is worth sitting through it for?
There are small hints that the empty stretch does something useful.
In one study, people who first did a dull task (copying phone numbers) then came up with more creative uses for a plastic cup. In another, an undemanding task that let the mind wander during a break improved creative solutions to problems people had already started working on.
These are single experiments with specific tasks, so treat them as encouraging rather than a promise. Still, they point the same way: a quiet, unfilled mind is not wasted time.
Source: Mann & Cadman, Creativity Research Journal (2014); Baird et al., Psychological Science (2012).
How do you accept boredom instead of fighting it?
Change what the feeling means. Boredom is a signal that nothing is demanding you right now. It is not an emergency.
The urge to fix it is the part that feels urgent, and that urge is not the same as the boredom itself. It tends to arrive as a pull toward the phone, build for a short while, and ease if you do not act on it. You do not have to enjoy it. You only have to notice it and let it be there.
A useful move is to name it quietly: "this is boredom, and I want my phone." Putting a feeling into words has been linked to a calmer emotional response in the brain, which is a modest reason to try it.
Source: Lieberman et al., Psychological Science (2007).
How do you increase your boredom tolerance in practice?
Start smaller than feels necessary. Tolerance grows by repetition, so a short session you finish beats a long one you abandon.
- Begin with two to five minutes. Sit, stand at a window, or wait in a queue without reaching for anything. Finish it, then stop.
- Move the phone out of reach. In one study, people did best on working-memory and fluid-intelligence tests with their phone in another room, even when it was silenced and unused. Later replications found smaller or mixed effects, so take it as a hint, but distance makes the practice easier either way.
- Pick the moments that already exist. Kettle, lift, bus stop, the walk to the shop. You do not need to carve out new time.
- Add a little each week. Five minutes, then ten, then a short walk with no audio.
- Let your mind go where it goes. You are not meditating or solving anything. Wandering is allowed.
Source: Ward et al., Journal of the Association for Consumer Research (2017).
How do you just be bored?
Do one dull, low-stakes thing and nothing else. Wash up without a podcast. Walk without headphones. Look out of a window.
The aim is not to feel something particular. If you are restless for the first few minutes, that is the practice working, not failing. Restlessness usually settles if you stay with it, and the act of staying is what builds the tolerance.
One honest caveat: nothing in the research says there is a fixed number of days after which boredom becomes pleasant. Expect it to get easier, not to become a treat.
How do you survive a boredom spike?
Some moments are worse than others, usually when you are tired or have just put the phone away.
- Expect the first minutes to be the hardest. The pull is strongest early and usually softens.
- Decide your plan beforehand. At the peak you will talk yourself into anything, so settle the rule when you are calm.
- Have one low-effort thing in mind. A stretch, a glass of water, a look outside. Choosing from a list is another decision you do not need.
- Go to sleep on time where you can. Tired days make everything harder to sit through, and screen time has been associated with later bedtimes and less sleep.
If you want a guided hand through the first few minutes, Boredom's Daily Reset is three minutes of voice in your ear while the block holds. It is optional, and the practice works without it.
Source: He et al., Frontiers in Psychiatry (2025).
The short version
Boredom is uncomfortable because we rarely meet it, not because you are bad at it. Many people find an empty few minutes hard, and that is the normal place to start.
Practise in small doses, keep the phone out of reach, name the urge, and let your mind wander. There are hints that the quiet is worth something, and it does get easier the more often you stay.