Although neuroscience suggests so Boredom might be good for us, all of us attempt to avoid it. Even probably the most exciting jobs on the planet – astronaut, nuclear engineer, helicopter pilot, virus hunter – can sometimes be crammed with drudgery. No one is immune from paperwork and meetings.
The problem with workplace boredom is that its negative effects can last. You may give you the option to finish a nerve-wracking task like putting stamps on 500 envelopes, but doing so will compromise your ability to handle subsequent tasks. Suppressing boredom doesn’t prevent its effects; it simply postpones it until a later date.
Like a slap within the face, downplaying boredom with a task causes attention and productivity deficits to skyrocket.
In recent peer-reviewed research, my colleagues and I show that a more practical approach is that this Alternate boring tasks with meaningful ones. This helps prevent boredom from affecting subsequent tasks.
These findings are based on several studies now we have conducted. For example, we asked volunteers to either watch a lengthy video about the different sorts of paint that might be utilized in a house or a more interesting video a couple of house Rube Goldberg machine. In a subsequent task, participants who watched the boring coloring video wandered more and were less productive—but not after they were told the duty was designed to assist children with autism. In other words, making the second task seem meaningful offset a number of the negative effects of boredom.
Boredom serves a vital purpose. It signals to us that we should always stop what we’re doing and do something – anything – different. But boredom can develop into problematic after we try to disregard it.
image credit : theconversation.com