Boredom Over Burnout

“Depression, ADHD, and burnout syndrome point to excess positivity. Burnout syndrome occurs when the ego overheats, which follows from too much of the Same.”

– Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society 

To ring in 2025, my church participated in a fast. Everyone selected something to fast from for 21 days. Some eliminated all food; others forewent certain types of foods, like meat, bread, or sugar. Caffeine, soda, cigarettes, alcohol—whatever obstacle needed to be moved to allow for silence, deeper reflection, and prayer. Like several of my friends, I opted to fast from social media. 

Now, don’t worry. I’m not here to “yell at the clouds” over your favorite social platform. “These kids today” will be adults tomorrow. Eventually, those same adults will get old enough to complain about “these kids today” (Eccles. 1:1-11). There’s already a goodly amount of literature about the effects of being chronically online. 

I’ll limit my comments to what happened to me during my social media fast. I’m a knowledge worker, and I use the internet every day. The value I provide is in skills like critical thinking, content creation, and solving problems. If you’re online a lot, and especially if you switch between tasks, you’ll encounter a form of mental resistance called “attention residue.”  

The TLDR version: switching between tasks costs your brain energy. You know what I’m talking about: you’re working on a project, focused in a meeting, or deep in thought. Ding-dong. Beep. Chirp. Your brain has to stop what it’s doing, attend to something else, and deal with it. Then, it has to bring you back to what you were doing before the interruption. 

That cycle takes energy. And the neuronal energy you have every day is limited. Now, add scrolling your choice social platform into that mix. Is it any wonder that I’m so exhausted at the end of every workday? How much of a valuable resource (my attention) am I wasting just by (needlessly) shifting between tasks? 

After the first five days of the fast, I noticed changes you’d probably expect. I was able to concentrate at a deeper level for longer periods of time. I worked at a faster, but still comfortable, pace. I was more engaged in conversations with my family and my coworkers. I slept better. And, because I wasn’t juggling attention residue all day, I was able to really concentrate on reading. A book of all things! You remember those, right? The things with the pages and the ink and the words? 

But I’m happy to report one change I did not expect—I became bored. Why’s that a happy thing? Because I could not remember the last time I experienced boredom. And it felt amazing! One tool I invested in to help me channel that boredom was a Lochby Pocket Journal. When taking some mental respite from work, I’d open it and jot down some ideas. 

American football exists because Walter Camp became bored with rugby. Heavy metal exists because four guys from a working-class English neighborhood wanted to make blues riffs darker and scarier. Boredom is the primary ingredient in creativity. To invent, dream, contemplate, or imagine, you must be willing to be bored. 

Incessant stimulation takes boredom away. Think about it. It’s impossible for you to be bored if you’re stimulated. Stimulation leaves no room for you to realize that you have nothing to do. Without the thought, “I have nothing to do,” you can’t fashion something new. 

Consider the things you do for fun. Things that bring you pleasure or make you happy. Games, music, sports, reading, hang gliding, motorcycle riding. Those things all happened because somebody was bored. And they found a way to use their boredom to make something that made life easier or more rewarding for other people. 

But if all I do with my time is toggle between influencers, AI-generated conspiracy theories, and dance trends, I’m never bored. Which means I don’t realize that I have nothing to do. Which means I don’t make anything new. That leaves a person’s problem unresolved, and it leaves me unfulfilled. 

Unrelenting stimulation won’t lead you to boredom. It’ll lead you to burnout. Because you’re experiencing too much of the Same. One deactivation alone won’t do it. Boredom is something you have to cultivate. To plan and schedule ahead of time. 

Be brave enough to be bored. You might even see that you’ve got the time and energy to finally get your own website up and running. 

Hopefully, this wasn’t a boring read! My name’s Grant, and I’m a writer and creative consultant. Contact me today to discuss your next project.