Once upon a time, some scientists wanted to have fun. They took a few volunteers and isolated them in a room, one at a time. There was nothing else in the room, except a button. The problem was that pressing the button shocked the person. Seems evil? Let’s explore.

The participants were well informed about the shock. Surprisingly, during their isolation in the room, almost everyone shocked themselves, many even doing it multiple times. Why? This study shows the human tendency to shut boredom, and how people prefer even painful things like shocking themselves over boredom.

In the context of the current mission, this is interesting because the distractions we choose to kill our boredom make a big difference. We all are free to choose: read a book, play a sport, or watch random videos. In Kosma, you will see this many times, that activities are not bad by themselves, but it is their excess that makes them harmful.

In his book Indistractable, author Nir Eyal talks about how people fail to increase focus even after trying hacks like blocking notifications. Eyal suggests a curious culprit: lack of clarity. Blocking distractions cannot increase your productivity unless you know what to do in the saved time. If you lack clarity, you are bound to jump back to the phone, just like the people who opted for the shock in the experiment.

Over the recent lockdowns due to COVID-19, a lot of people got time to be with themselves, and it is great how many picked up new hobbies, maybe just to stay distracted. But we ask you to go deeper. Hobbies are great as they creatively engage our minds and best of all, what we learn in one field often proves useful in other aspects of life as well. Try to stick with your hobbies for longer, and you might find your next side-project, or maybe even a new career.

Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian polymath, is famous even centuries later for his accomplishments across multiple fields, ranging from helicopter blueprints to architectural designs, and of course the paintings like the Mona Lisa. Vinci considered working as a way of fulfillment. Yes, he hated boredom, but he did not choose to distract himself with the usual entertainment of gossip or watching sports, as famous in his days. Instead, he picked up big projects. Now with research, we know that creative activities have a lasting impact on how good we feel about life when compared to fleeting experiences like gossiping or watching a match. In fact, there is a whole mission on this later.

Looking at the lessons from Vinci and Eyal, it should be safe to conclude that designing a good life involves clarity of what to do and then giving your all to it. It is time to start looking at boredom as a call for creativity, not something awful to escape.

A relationship of escape will only make us pick easier options, and creativity is not easy. So the next time you feel bored, do not escape into mind-numbing activities of drinking or watching random videos. Instead, ask yourself, “What creative work should I do?”