Social isolation and confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic has, unsurprisingly, led to an uptick in boredom. As restrictions lift in some parts of the world and daily routines begin to be peppered with out-of-the-house activities again, we will likely see boredom levels decrease. I imagine they’ll decrease slowly, like when you get stuck on a slide at the playground you’ve outgrown, since restrictions are lifted as painstakingly slow (rightfully so!) as peeling an onion layer by layer.

But what about the effects of boredom? Will they piggyback on boredom as it takes the slow slide? Boredom is not an isolated state. It has other mental and physical health consequences, and those likely won’t be as easy to reverse as it is to quell boredom with that thing we used to do for fun before the pandemic. In other words, the long-term effects of boredom will take longer to recover from.

In this post, I write about what makes us prone to boredom and how boredom impacts us mentally. I also propose some analysis of this in the context of confinement in the COVID-19 pandemic, pose ideas on what we should learn from this unprecedented (are you tired of hearing that word yet?) situation, and offer one simple strategy to mitigate boredom.

As much as routine can be comforting, routine is associated with boredom, which is anything but comfortable. That feeling that you could scream or feel like you want to crawl out of your skin from being so bored is not comfy. In addition, routine is associated with apathy, defined as a lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern. A shortage of stimulation can lead to a general lack of feeling. And not much is less stimulating than routine. After all, routine is inherently ordinary. It takes something out-of-the-norm, something challenging to pique interest. So it makes total sense that routine equals boredom and a general dearth of interest. Science says so too. For instance, researchers found that patients in physical rehabilitation reported apathy and boredom during personal care and leisure time (the most frequent daily activities) as opposed to high engagement and “the optimal experience” of matching challenge with personal skill during rehabilitation activities (Sartori et al., 2014). Shaking it up, if you will, is the antidote to boredom.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, social isolation has robbed daily life of opportunities to challenge routine. With restrictions on social activities, it gets harder to go crazy and, say, go out to dinner on a Tuesday or have an impromptu dinner date with your neighbors. The more we are confined to our homes, the less chance encounters we have with our friends and neighbors in the supermarket, coffee shop, or street—the things that make the day just a little brighter, a little different. So it’s no wonder that staying home more is causing more boredom and apathy. I think we could all cite the exact location of that one speck on the wall we’ve been staring at abnormally often in these extraordinary circumstances. For me, I’ve spent far too much time watching (and admittedly judging) drivers park their cars on my street. I can tell you which cars are regulars and which ones “aren’t from ‘round here.” In fact, I wrote a whole poem (caution, I’m not a poet) about parking cars, provided for your entertainment below.

Staying home isn’t all that bad,

Not when you live on a lively street—

Lively with parking cars, that is.

Forward, back, forward, back,

Near misses, bumped bumpers,

Driver’s tension palpable from my perch above.

At my kitchen table, this is entertainment:

Dinner and a show—breakfast and lunch the matinee.

How lost we humans can be when given a steering wheel, four wheels, and a curb.

If only drivers would look up,

I’d give them signals behind my window:

Nonverbal cues, looks of encouragement, face palms.

The fanciest cars are often the worst,

As if the driver just learned to drive—

Frustratingly timid, leave too much space, making it harder for everyone else.

We all need a little help sometimes,

This pandemic being one of those times,

And now I see how much help humans need to park.

We create vaccines in record time,

Math models to predict the future,

Programs to be virtually in the same room from across the world.

But four wheels and a mission to parallel park?

Forget it—here, genius can’t save us,

So I turn my head and watch, how hard it is to be human.

Anyway…

And then there’s the effects of boredom to contend with—the things that aren’t so easily reversed as boredom is with a shiny new toy. The mental toll that boredom takes must be taken seriously, especially when there is no shortage of reasons for mental hardship in life. Research has shown that people more prone to boredom report more symptoms of obsessive-compulsiveness, somatization (i.e. physical symptoms of a mental state), anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity (e.g. feelings being easily hurt), and depression (Sommers & Vodanovich, 2000). In addition, boredom has been shown to be correlated with depression, anxiety, anger, inattention, impulsivity, aggression, and life satisfaction (Fahlman et al, 2013; Rupp & Vodanovich, 1997). These findings reveal that not only is boredom uncomfortable and mentally taxing for the person experiencing it, but it can also negatively impact interactions with others.

It is clear that boredom leads to negative affect. So how to mitigate it? The relationship between boredom and high symptom reporting (e.g., anxiety, depression) maybe be explained by the fact that greater boredom leads one to be overly focused on themselves (and their internal states) and therefore more likely to perceive problems (Sommers & Vodanovich, 2000). In this same vein, people who are more self-aware, more attuned with their internal states, find it easier to take interest in what’s going on around them are less prone to boredom (Seib & Vodanovich, 2000). Put simply, self-control, the capacity to self-regulate one’s emotions and behaviors, accounts for the “lion’s share” of the differences in the relationship between boredom, cognition, and affect (Isacescu, Struk, & Danckert, 2017).

But what about in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic where individual control is muddled with public health interest? Is self-control modified by the restrictions placed on society to stop the spread? Presumably, how much control you perceive over your wellbeing is determined by your values and your environment. For anyone whose passions and favorite activities are intertwined with things that were, and maybe still are, placed under restriction, how much can self-awareness and perceived control over their situation mitigate boredom? For example, one pandemic-related study suggested that people who are usually very active and now forced into a sedentary lifestyle are more prone to wellbeing issues and boredom (Zhang et al., 2020). “Forced” is an important word here because there is a spectrum for how much “forced” control people have tolerated during this pandemic. In any case, I imagine that the protective effects of self-control wear off after a time. So, I wonder how long self-control and, furthermore, an internal locus of control (i.e., the ability to rely on oneself), can really stave off boredom? Perhaps that’s a conversation for another day.

The immediate concern is that boredom is a thing in the pandemic, and its effects can lead to more serious problems. For instance, if boredom leads to feelings of depression, and depression leads to withdrawing from social interactions (which are few and far between to begin with), then it could be that finding a new at-home quarantine activity is just not going to cut it anymore. Thus, I think more research is warranted on the mental health effects of boredom in the context of a prolonged pandemic and subsequent mitigation strategies. If perceived self-control protects one from boredom, how can perceived control be increased during a time when personal control is not only hampered but is a politicized issue? Those are some big questions that I hope will be answered in prospective studies specific to this time.

In the meantime, I offer one simple idea to mitigate the routine-induced boredom and apathy while we continue to wait out the storm: mindfulness. Everyday is different if you make a small effort to notice the differences. For example, this morning I narrated every sound, movement, and whatever else caught my eye in my immediate vicinity during my writing session. As I wrote, solely focused on noting my surroundings, like the Jane Goodall of things heard and seen in a living room, I felt more of an active participant in this microscopic moment of my life. It was a small difference to my routine, but it changed my morning. And that is a win. Mindfulness allows you to seize the moment, and in a time when all the moments are running together, noticing those nuggets of differences can be kind of powerful. Besides, mindfulness is a common therapeutic tool for alleviating the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and a host of other mental and emotional hardships. Mindfulness is a gift of presence for your present and future self. It makes you pay attention to your life.

Here are a few ideas for having a mindful moment:

• Mentally note 5 things you see, 4 things you hear, 3 things you feel, 2 things you smell, 1 thing you taste.
• Listen to the water go down the drain while washing your hands (yay, hand hygiene!).
• Notice where your body is tense (for me, it’s often my shoulders) and try to relax it. Even just thinking of it relaxed will help.
• Write down something you are grateful for…what would life be like without it?
• Look outside and mentally note the most beautiful thing you see.

Hang in there.

References

Fahlman, S. A., Mercer-Lynn, K. B., Flora, D. B., et al. (2013). Development and validation of the multidimensional state boredom scale. Assessment, 20(1), 68–85.

Isacescu, J., Struk, A. A., Danckert, J. (2017). Cognitive and affective predictors of boredom proneness. Cogn Emot, 31(8), 1741–1748.

Rupp, D. E., Vodanovich, S. J. (1997). The role of boredom proneness in self-reported anger and aggression. J Soc Behav Pers, 12(4), 925.

Sartori, R. D. G., Marelli, M., Garavaglia, P., et al. (2014). The assessment of patients’ quality of experience: autonomy level and perceived challenges. Rehabil Psychol, 59(3), 267–277.

Seib, H. M., Vodanovich, S. J. (1998). Cognitive correlates of boredom proneness: the role of private self-consciousness and absorption. J Psychol, 132(6), 642–652.

Sommers, J., Vodanovich, S. J. (2000). Boredom proneness: its relationship to psychological- and physical-health symptoms. J Clin Psychol, 56(1), 149–155.

Zhang, S. X., Wang, Y., Rauch, A., et al. (2020). Unprecedented disruptions of lives and work: health, distress and life satisfaction of working adults in China one month into the COVID-19 outbreak. medRxiv [Internet] [2020.03.13.20034496. Cited 2020 Apr 13. Available from: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.13.20034496v2]