In 2017, author and podcaster Manoush Zomorodi wrote this beautiful book called Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self. In it, she asks the question, “Could your lack of ideas be correlated to your lack of boredom?”

Think about it, when you’re waiting at the doctor’s office, or standing in line at the grocery store, are you ever truly bored? No, it’s more likely that you’ve got your phone out and you’re getting those constant little shots of dopamine, letting that little screen tell you what’s going on and what you should be thinking about. You’re not letting your mind wander, free to come up with thoughts and ideas of its own.

Bored and Brilliant explores why daydreaming and generally “doing nothing” are so important in an age of constant notifications and digital distractions. In the book, Zomorodi speaks with neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists about what our brains actually do when we’re doing nothing at all, and the link between boredom and creativity:

In 2015 Manoush Zomorodi, creator of WNYC’s popular podcast and radio show Note to Self, led tens of thousands of listeners through an experiment to help them unplug from their devices, get bored, jump-start their creativity, and change their lives. Bored and Brilliant builds on that experiment to show us how to rethink our gadget use to live better and smarter in this new digital ecosystem.

Manoush explains the connection between boredom and original thinking, exploring how we can harness boredom’s hidden benefits to become our most productive and creative selves without totally abandoning our gadgets in the process.

This is highly recommended reading, and I do hope you gain something from it, dear reader.

Get the book in these formats:

• Kindle ($10)
• Apple Books ($10)
• Hardcover ($15)
• Paperback ($13)
• Audible audiobook ($18)
• Audio CD ($22)