Bored is fineHabits

unbry

Bored is fine

A short book about filling every quiet minute with noise or a screen, and what goes missing when you do

27 chapters11,636 wordsAbout 53 minFirst edition

What's inside

·Before you startThis is a short book and you can read it in two or three sittings. It's about one habit. There's a quiet minute coming, the walk to the car, the kettle…2 min
1The headphones go inYou leave the house at ten past eight. Before the door has closed the headphones are in and the podcast is on, the one about history, or the one about the…2 min
2Why the fill seems rightBefore I argue with the fill, I want to be fair to it, because most of it is good and the people who fill every minute are usually the curious ones. It's…2 min
3"Silence is uncomfortable"Start with the belief that's true, because the rest of the book depends on being honest about it. Timothy Wilson and colleagues, in 2014, ran eleven…2 min
4"My mind goes to bad places"Here's the reason most people give when pressed. The trouble with quiet isn't the quiet. It's what the mind does in it. Left alone it goes to the meeting…2 min
5"I'm learning something"This is the belief that makes the fill feel like a virtue. It's not noise. It's a history series. An interview with someone who knows things. You're using…2 min
6"It's just background"Much of the fill isn't listened to. The radio in the kitchen, the television on in the room where nobody's watching, the playlist during work. It's…2 min
7"I'd be bored"Here's the plain fear, and it's the title of the book. Take the fill away and you'd be bored, and bored is a bad thing to be. John Eastwood and…2 min
8"Boredom is a waste of time"Even granting that boredom has a job, there's a belief that a bored minute is an empty one. Nothing happens in it. It's time subtracted from the day.…2 min
9"I don't have time to do nothing"The efficiency argument is the one that sounds most adult. You're busy. The walk to the car is four minutes and the queue is ten, and those minutes were…2 min
10"The phone's the problem, not the podcast"Some readers will feel that this book has the wrong target. The phone is the problem, everyone knows that, and there's an earlier book in this series…2 min
11"I need it to fall asleep"The last fill of the day is the one people defend hardest. The audiobook, the podcast, the radio on low. Without it the mind races and sleep won't come…2 min
12"I can't concentrate without background noise"Here's an objection from people who work with music on, or in cafes, or with the radio in the next room. Silence is where their attention falls apart.…2 min
13"It calms me down"Some readers put the fill on for a reason that isn't boredom or company. It's nerves. The podcast on the walk to work keeps the dread about the day at…2 min
14"It's company"The voice in the ear is company. Alone in the house, the radio is people. On the walk, the podcast host is a friend who talks about interesting things and…2 min
15"Everyone's got headphones in"Look down any street and the fill is what a head has in it. Headphones on the walk, screens in the queue, radio in every kitchen. It's normal, and normal…2 min
16"I've tried it and it was awful"You may have tried this already. A walk with nothing on, a shower without the speaker, and it was every bit as unpleasant as chapter 3 said. Restless…2 min
17What the fill costs youI've argued the mechanism. This chapter is the bill, and it's paid in a currency that doesn't show up anywhere, which is why it's gone unnoticed. The…2 min
18What goes missingThe subtitle of this book promises a list, and this is it. These are the things that only happen in a mind with nothing put into it, and they're the…2 min
19One quiet stretch a dayThe next three chapters are the method, and the method is small, because it asks for one thing to be taken out of the day rather than anything put in.…2 min
20Leave the small ones emptyOnce the one stretch is working, there are the small ones. The queue, the wait for the lift, the two minutes for the kettle, the car park, the platform.…2 min
21Choose the fillThe book has spent a long time on what to take out. This chapter is about what to keep, and the answer is most of it, on one condition. A chosen listen. A…2 min
22The decisionYou've got the argument and the method. What's left is to decide, and I'd like the decision to fit in one sentence. One stretch of my day is quiet, gaps…2 min
23Commutes, running, chores, children, sleep and when quiet is more than uncomfortableThe rule holds for every quiet minute. Some need their own paragraph. Commutes. A forty-minute train journey is long enough for a chosen listen and long…3 min
24When you filled it againIt'll happen. A tired morning, a new episode, headphones in the coat pocket where they used to live, and the walk to the car will have a podcast in it…2 min
25The headphones stay in the bagYou leave the house at ten past eight, some months on. The headphones are in the bag, where they live now, and the walk to the car is four minutes of the…2 min
·NotesThis book gives general information about an everyday habit. It isn't medical or psychological advice, and it's no substitute for a GP or a therapist who…4 min