The Price of Boredom

I had a day off this week, and I wrote my to-do list the day before. It had a total of eighteen things on it. It was a combination of things that had to get done, things that I wanted to get done, and a few things I wanted to at least get started. Right away in the morning, I looked at my list and found five things that could be done in less than an hour. One hour later, all five were done and crossed off my list. The good news was that my list was over twenty-five percent done. The bad news was that none of those things were a priority. I had some breakfast and quickly crossed another small thing off my list. I started working on one of my priorities, but it took me longer than I wanted it to. The time it was taking and a few distractions meant that it got done, but I had lost all momentum. I took a glance at my list again and was already starting to think about what I could skip and do tomorrow. I was thinking about taking a nap, knowing that if I did, time would run out on being able to do two of the things I wanted to get done. That’s ok I told myself, I could do those two things in the morning. I watched some TV, and played some darts, time was ticking away. I had a decision to make, and I needed to make it quickly. I glanced at my list and decided that if I didn’t get anything else done, I would be ok. Then I forced myself to stop and reevaluate. I was a little over fifty percent done with my list. I had told myself that I could do a few things in the morning, but when I took a step back, I thought about how I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and I also have to work tomorrow night. My normal plan is to sleep a little in the morning and a little in the evening. If I had to do those things, I couldn’t sleep in the morning. My mind started thinking about how I would have to push everything to further in the week. I also thought about how my list was only fifty percent done. What is fifty percent? According to my math, it’s a failing grade. I texted someone and told them to yell at me. I wanted them to tell me to get up and get moving, they had no problem yelling at me. Next thing I knew I was in my car, and I was on my way to getting two things done. Then I was so motivated by getting those things done that when I got home, I went and worked on the thing that I least wanted to do. I did the math, seventy-seven percent of my list was done. That’s when it hit me, I needed to get two more things done for the day. If I could get two more things done, this is what it would show me, it would mean that I would finish at eighty-eight percent. That is not only over eighty percent that I find acceptable, but it would also mean that if I fell short, I wouldn’t drop below that mark. I didn’t want to settle for anything less. So, how did I go from wanting to quit to getting motivated? The biggest thing was that I realized that I was bored. I got off track, and I just couldn’t get moving. The goal that had been right in front of me was moved. As soon as I realized what had happened, I did a few things to get back on track and get the goal in front of me again. When it was all over, I had to stop and think about boredom for a while. I asked my friend chat GPT, what are the biggest issues that boredom can cause? The answers scared me. Here is only part of the list that it returned to me:

1.    Anxiety and Depression

2.    Loss of Motivation

3.    Risky Behaviors

4.    Overindulgence

5.    Identity Drift

6.    Wasted potential

7.    Strained Relationships

8.    Decline in Physical Health

That wasn’t even the whole list! As I read through the list, what scared me the most was that I recognized all those things. I would love to say that I am so busy that I just can’t be healthy. I would love to say that I get sidetracked because I have so many things going on. The truth is that if I lose track of what my goals are, I get bored. When I stop focusing on what really matters to me, I just stop working at it. How can we recognize the difference between being overwhelmed and being bored? I think the main question might be, am I procrastinating? Am I watching YouTube videos when I should be posting something? For me, that is my biggest tell. When I see that I am watching clips of old TV shows on YouTube, it’s time to shut it off and get busy.

Focus for the Week

What can I do to recognize sooner that I am bored or procrastinating instead of overwhelmed? Also, and this is a tough one, am I keeping my people focused on the goal? If I move the goal, or I notice that they don’t have their eyes on it anymore, they get bored. If they get bored, go back and look at that list of eight things you will have to deal with!