🏁 Axios Finish Line: Be bored

Plus: Why boredom is good for kids | Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Goldman Sachs   Axios Finish Line By Mike Allen, Erica Pandey and Jim VandeHei ·Jul 19, 2022 Jul 19, 2022 Welcome back. Reach us at FinishLine@axios.com. Smart Brevity™ count: 404 words ... 1½ minutes.     1 big thing: Embrace boredom Photo illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty   In our increasingly loud, distracting world, we're seldom bored. But just doing nothing has its perks. Why it matters: Filling our brains with the constant flood of junk food from our phones — tweets, Facebook and Instagram posts, tabloid gossip — leaves little room for creative and original ideas, studies show. That's why one of the most productive times for brainstorming is when we're in the shower, experiencing a rare digital detox. What's happening: With stimulation right at our fingertips, our tolerance for being bored has evaporated. Two-thirds of American adults routinely look at their phones even when they're not pinging or buzzing. And the problem is worse for the next generation: A whopping 87% of U.S. teenagers have iPhones. Zoom out: Science makes a case for boredom. In one study, published in the Academy of Management Discoveries, researchers lulled a group into boredom by instructing them to sort beans by color. Another group was given a far more interesting craft to do. After that, each group was directed to come up with good excuses for tardiness. The bored group bested their counterparts on both number and creativity of ideas, as judged by an objective outside group. Another study concluded that boredom motivates people to seek out novelty. Our minds wander when we're bored, and we think of new things to try. Boredom is also good for our kids, the Child Mind Institute notes. Learning to deal with being bored helps children learn flexibility, planning skills and problem-solving. What to do: Try it! Here are our tips on how to take a break from — or limit your reliance on — your devices. Start small: When you're in line at the store, just stand there instead of reaching for the phone. Or go for a short walk without a podcast or music. Take some time to embrace being bored and see where it leads you. Share this story.     A message from Goldman Sachs Policymakers must do more to help small businesses     Today's economic environment is tough for America's small businesses. A new survey of Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Small Businesses, a network of 245,000 employees creating $17 billion in annual revenues, found 93% are worried about a recession. Policymakers should be doing more to help.     📱 Bored by our phones Even though we're using our devices to avoid boredom, they can actually make us even more unsatisfied. When we're bored, doomscrolling on our phones to pass the time prevents us from actually figuring out how we want to spend our time, the Guardian reports. As a result, we're left drained and distressed — and often even more bored than we were before.   Thanks for reading. Invite your friends to sign up here. Are you a fan of this email format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 300 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: