Boredom Generator
How well can you cope with boredom?
In an increasingly distracted world, most of us have forgotten what it feels like to be truly bored. But boredom, and the space it creates, is essential to creativity.
Test your boredom tolerance to see if you can do nothing at all for a full 15 minutes.
No phone, no scrolling, no sneaking off to another tab — just look at the static on the screen for as long as you can bear it. And if you complete the 15 minutes, you'll earn a reward.
Predict your boredom tolerance
Before you start, drag the slider to how long you reckon you'll last. We'll compare it against how you actually do.
You'll see static for the full 15 minutes. Keep your eyes on it — or on a blank sheet of paper if you'd rather — and try not to look around at other things that keep your mind occupied.
That's the point.
Congratulations, you lasted the full 15 minutes!
That's it. Just be here — no phone, no scrolling. Only you and the static.
How did you do?
You lasted
Your boredom tolerance level
- Extremely
low - Low
- Moderate
- High
- Very
high
What did you notice?
- Did your mind wander?
- How did the experience change over time?
- What type of discomfort did you experience?
- Did you have any self-sabotaging thoughts?
- Did you have any unexpected new thoughts?
- Did you recall memories?
- Did you notice anything new about yourself?
Why does this matter?
Boredom has a bad reputation, but it's the soil that original thought grows in. When there's nothing to react to, the mind wanders inward — remembering, planning, imagining, connecting ideas that a scrolling feed would never leave room for. The discomfort you just felt is the sensation of a mind so used to constant stimulation that stillness registers as an emergency. Sitting with it, now and then, is how you get some of your thinking back.
The ability to engage in directed conscious thought is an integral part — perhaps even a defining part — of what makes us human. Unique among the species, we have the ability to sit and mentally detach ourselves from our surroundings and travel inward, recalling the past, envisioning the future, and imagining worlds that have never existed.
Where this comes from
Inspired by the study described in Overton's Garden: participants left alone in a room for up to 15 minutes, with nothing to do but think, frequently chose to give themselves a mild electric shock rather than sit with the silence.
- The “Just think” study Timothy D. Wilson et al., Science, 2014;345(6192):75–77