Do Nothing to Achieve More: The Science of Boredom

We live in the most comfortable era in human history. Food arrives at our door in minutes. Entertainment is available 24/7. We can buy anything we want with one click. We can work, socialise, and even exercise without stepping outside.

But have these changes given us more time? Do we feel happier and more fulfilled? Or do we now feel burnt out? Struggling to deal with the stress of a website taking five seconds to load up! Something needs to change.

Journalist Michael Easter spent 33 days in the Alaskan Arctic on a caribou hunt to try and figure this out. He wanted to understand why, despite having everything modern life offers, so many of us feel like something’s missing.

What he discovered is pretty fascinating.

We Weren’t Built for This

Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson spent decades studying what he called “biophilia” - basically, our innate need to be around nature. His research showed it’s literally in our genes.

Spending time in nature isn’t just a nice thing to do if you have time. It’s actually essential, like sleep or food. When we don’t get it, our brains start going a bit haywire.

Easter described his pre-trip brain as being “like a roadrunner on crystal meth, dementedly zooming from one thing to the next.” If you live in a big city like London you’ve probably felt this way yourself. I know I have, which is why I went back to re-read Easter’s book ‘The Comfort Crisis.’ In it he says that after just a few days in the wilderness, he felt like a monk after a month at a meditation retreat. He said he just felt ‘better’.

The difference wasn’t a complicated biohacking routine or a miracle supplement, it was simply time in nature.

The Problem With Never Being Bored

Easter simplifies the terminology around how the brain works to say that it operates in two modes: focused (getting stuff done) and unfocused (resting and rebuilding resources). You need both. You can’t stay in focused mode forever without burning out. It’s like running and never stopping.

The problem is that we never let ourselves be bored anymore. We carry the best distraction device ever created in our pocket all day everyday, just waiting to give us a dopamine hit whenever there’s a chance of being bored. Waiting for the kettle? Check phone. Standing in a queue? Check phone. On the tube? Check phone. I was in the gym the other day and a stranger pointed around the gym and said ‘look every person is on their phone’. He was right, now we can’t even wait for the next set without checking our messages.

Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina that “boredom is a desire for desire” - it’s actually a motivational state. When was the last time you laid on your bed just looking at the ceiling? Or sat just looking out the window? Nowadays we are so unaccustomed to seeing people being bored that if you do this people will worry and check if you are okay! I’m trying to remember a Frankie Boyle joke, he said something along the lines of he was in a park and observed everyone just looking at their phones, but then he noticed one man who was different. He was taking in the sights and sounds of the park, completely present. He was looking at the trees, smiling at dogs, smelling the flowers, listening to the birds, like a fucking psychopath!

It’s sad that our default mode is now to be distracted. Researcher James Danckert’s work shows what this costs us:

- Depression

- Life dissatisfaction

- The feeling that life’s racing by

- Missing the beauty around us

Steve Jobs said, “I’m a big believer in boredom. Boredom allows one to indulge in curiosity, and out of curiosity comes everything” He knew that our unfocused brain is where creativity happens, where you process complicated stuff, where breakthroughs occur. Your brain needs space and time to rest. Scrolling through Instagram might seem like rest as it’s not productive work, but it isn’t.

Humans Have Always Known The Importance of Nature

The ancient Egyptians created elaborate pleasure gardens way back in 1550 BCE, specifically for helping the population de-stress. Around the same time, the ancient Persians were doing something similar. Cyrus the Great was famous for his love of gardens - excavations in his capital city revealed the Pasargadae Persian Garden with over 1000 meters of carved limestone channels designed to water various plants and fill small basins. These gardens measured 150 meters by 120 meters and were created as an oasis from the desert heat, with trees and pavilions providing shade. They were so beautiful they were called “pairidaēza” - which actually became our word “paradise.”

Even Victorian London recognized this need. Public parks were deliberately created to offer healthy recreation for all, especially the working classes. The Victorians saw recreation as providing mental and physical wellbeing - literally a “re-creation.” In 1839, statistician William Farr noted that “a park in the East End of London would probably diminish the annual deaths by several thousand… and add several years to the lives of the entire population.” Victoria Park opened in 1845 specifically for the benefit of the East End’s working class, where there were real fears about disease spreading amid the industrial pollution and overcrowded slums. William Pitt the Elder described parks as “the lungs of London” - he understood that green spaces weren’t a luxury, they were essential for survival in an increasingly industrial city.

Fast forward to the 1980s: Japan created an entire public health initiative around “forest bathing” (shinrin-yoku). They built parks across the country and told people to go sit or walk in the woods. A flood of studies into forest bathing showed positive results. In one study, just 15 minutes of sitting and walking in nature reduced blood pressure, heart rate and stress hormones.

Even before we had the scientific studies to back it up, people knew that we actually need nature, we’re not separate from it.

I don’t have time for this

We might not all have the luxury of heading to Alaska for a 33 day hunting trip like Michael Easter. The good news is we can get positive results in an incredibly short time. A 2016 study by Rachel Hopman found that a 20-minute walk through a city park causes actual changes in your brain structure. You come back calmer, sharper, more creative. But here’s the catch - you get none of these benefits if you’re on your phone. Your brain needs to actually switch off.

The University of Michigan found that just three 20-minute nature walks a week significantly dropped cortisol levels. It’s basically mindfulness without having to meditate. Nature does the work for you.

The 3-Day Effect

River rafting guide Ken Sanders noticed something with his groups. On day three, people consistently changed. “From decades of river rafting going back to the 1980’s, I’ve long been aware of the metamorphosis that occurs on day three of wilderness trips” he said. He happened to speak about the three day effect to David Strayer, a neuroscientist at the University of Utah. Strayer had experienced the calm and clarity himself from spending days trekking through the Red Rock Canyons of Southern Utah. In 2012 he and his team studied backpackers on wilderness trips with one rule: no mobile phones in the wilderness. His tests showed that just three days in nature increased creative problem solving by 50%.

Science journalist Florence Williams made an entire audiobook documentary about this (“The 3-Day Effect”), following veterans and trauma survivors experiencing genuine transformation through multi-day nature trips.

And the good news is that the effects stick around even after you get home. A Berkeley study followed US military veterans who spent four days rafting in Utah. A week later, their PTSD symptoms were down 29%, stress down 21%. Relationships, happiness, life satisfaction were all measurably improved.

Do this first

Gary Keller’s book “The ONE Thing” makes a surprising recommendation: the first thing you should schedule each year is your vacation time. Why? Because you can’t sustain high performance without rest. The people who achieve the most aren’t the ones grinding 24/7 - they’re the ones who protect their recovery time.

Stephen Covey said it perfectly: “The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

You know what to do, so what’s stopping you?

If a few days in nature can increase your problem-solving by 50%, improve your focus, lower your stress, and the effects last at least a week after you return…

Can you really afford not to?

You’re not taking time away from being productive. You’re multiplying your productivity when you come back.

Your brain was designed for this (Wilson proved it’s in our DNA). The Egyptians knew this 3500 years ago. Japan made it national policy. Steve Jobs believed in it. Modern neuroscience confirms it. It’s no longer up for debate.

The question isn’t whether you have time. It’s more how long you can keep running your brain in constant focused mode without ever letting it properly rest.

What can you do today

It might be unrealistic to head off to the Arctic today. However, you can get outside for a 20 minute walk in nature, just make sure you leave your phone behind, or at least switched off in your pocket. And the same applies to smart watches too!

When you get back, schedule when you can get away and experience some real time in nature. The research shows even a few days produces real, lasting benefits. The key is to schedule it, put it in the diary, then protect it like you would your most important meeting.

Your brain is craving this. The science backs it up. Ancient civilisations built entire philosophies around it.

The only question now is when you’re going to do it.