Boredom as a Catalyst: Transforming ADHD Challenges into Creative Opportunities
There is plenty of chatter about how you can use boredom to your advantage these days. Suggestions that you can use it as a tool to fuel creativity. I like this perspective.
That being said, I feel like there is a secondary boredom, at least for an ADHD brain, that is a bit of a different beast. (Spoiler, I’m experiencing it right now.)
The ADHD Perspective
The reason that many of the popular productivity systems, or knowledge systems, or habit trackers fail for people with ADHD is because after a while it isn’t new, and it isn’t compelling enough to keep going. If you’re lucky enough to have turned something into a habit, you reach a point where that habit is boring and unfulfilling and without realizing why, you end up in a “funk.”
The ADHD brain needs new and novel to keep the brain engaged, and once something has lost that luster, it’s hard to get it back. The answer is to find a new system to replace the new, boring one.
The Good Kind of Boredom - for Everyone!
As I said at the start, boredom is having its day here lately. The boredom in question there is when you’re sitting on the couch and don’t feel like watching TV, don’t feel like playing games, don’t feel like going out. This boredom, something that can happen when have been denied an activity and have no other activity to put in its place.
Why is that boredom good? Because it pushes you to get creative. Bored people make art out of ketchup packets. Bored people learn to play a song using a kazoo. There can be a childlike level of curiosity that comes with boredom, and it can be good for your mental health.
If you find yourself getting bored, that’s the fix, lean into it. Don’t find a way to silence it, embrace the boredom and see where it takes you.
Handling the Icky ADHD Style of Boredom - for Everyone as Well!
If you find that you’re not really excited by the habit you created, or that you’re no longer “Getting Things Done!” (tm) then you are ripe for an opportunity to change.
This kind of boredom is more deep-seated and can be frustrating until you figure out what’s happening. The first obstacle is recognizing it for what it is. While you might make a ketchup packet tower in this case, it’s more likely that you’re just frustrated and feel impotent.
Figuring Out that You’re Bored
Mindfulness or self-awareness is here to save the day! If you have a practice of journaling, write about your feelings, you're frustrated. Look at it from 10,000 feet and recall when you didn’t feel like this, look at what’s changed. Additionally, look at the things you find yourself avoiding. If you have a task list with a task that keeps bumping, dig into that.
While it might be that you’re just stuck and don’t know how to proceed, there is a pretty good chance that you just need to change your approach.
Rebuild the System
Have you ever rearranged your living room so that it’d feel new or different? You can do that with your behaviors and your thoughts too!
For an ADHD brain, you might need to gamify your flow. If you were working with a task list before, putting those tasks into a system with a scoreboard can give them some meaning. Shoot for a high score each day, or set a score goal for the week. It’s a bit of extra work on the front end, but pays off on the back end (until you’re bored again). This system might look like this:
1-5 minute task = 1 pt
30 minute task = 2 pts
60-90 minute task = 3 pts
project completion = 10 points
Again, for the ADHD brain, you might need to put a 1 pt just for starting rule in there as well.
If you already had a scoring system? Well, cool, neat that you do! Or when you get tired of this system, you might have a pomodoro timer you set up, and then you get a point for using that, or you can use it to try to stretch your tasks out and maybe expand your creative output.
Maybe your system adds a creative task every day, so after you’ve done 30 minutes of tasks, build a ketchup tower, or for a 90-minute deep work session you can spend some time on your game console of choice.
Use your bored brain to come up with a way to tweak your current system.
Boredom is a Catalyst for Change
In either of the scenarios, once you’re bored, your brain is going to look for ways to change what you’re doing. The ADHD boredom can be difficult since it isn’t obvious, but you’ll probably notice that you’re not getting as much done, so learning to spot it will be vital if you want to get back into a ‘productive’ mindset and workflow.