5 Ways to Beat Boredom When You Don't Know What to Do

Boredom rarely arrives with a warning. One moment you're scrolling, refreshing, opening the fridge for the third time, and the next you realise you've spent an hour doing nothing in particular and feeling slightly worse for it. The instinct is usually to reach for another distraction. The research, however, suggests we have it backwards.

A 2019 review published in Frontiers in Psychology by Danckert and colleagues describes boredom not as a flaw in the day, but as a signal: the mind asking for meaningful engagement rather than more stimulation. Knowing what to do when you don't know what to do is less about finding the perfect activity and more about understanding what your brain is actually requesting. Below are five evidence-informed ways to respond.

Why Boredom Deserves a Better Response Than Scrolling

The World Health Organization and the Lancet's landmark 2019 scoping review (Fancourt and Finn, What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being?) found that engagement in creative and cultural activities is associated with measurable benefits across mental health, cognition and stress regulation. The review synthesised over 900 publications, making it one of the most comprehensive arts-and-health evidence summaries to date.

Yet the default response to under-stimulation is rarely creative. According to Ofcom's 2023 Online Nation report, UK adults spend an average of just under four hours a day on their smartphones, with passive scrolling forming a significant share. Research published in JAMA Network Open (Twenge et al., 2018) and subsequent work from the American Psychological Association has linked heavy passive screen use with lower wellbeing scores, particularly when it replaces active or social engagement.

So when boredom strikes, the question is not simply how to fill the time, but how to fill it in a way that actually leaves you feeling better afterwards.

1. Let Boredom Sit Long Enough to Become Useful

One of the most counter-intuitive findings in boredom research comes from Dr Sandi Mann at the University of Central Lancashire. In a 2014 study published in the Creativity Research Journal, Mann and Cadman found that participants who completed a deliberately boring task before a creative exercise produced more original ideas than those who did not. Mild boredom, in other words, appears to act as a runway for divergent thinking.

The practical takeaway is small but powerful: before reaching for a screen, allow ten quiet minutes of nothing. Wash dishes by hand. Look out of a window. Walk without headphones. The discomfort is the point. Researchers at York University (Eastwood et al., Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2012) describe boredom as a state of unmet attention, and the only way to redirect that attention productively is to first feel it.

2. Move Your Hands Before You Move Your Mind

If thinking your way out of boredom feels impossible, that is because attention often follows the body rather than the other way around. A 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association by Kaimal, Ray and Muniz found that 45 minutes of art-making significantly lowered cortisol levels in 75% of participants, regardless of prior artistic experience or skill.

The relevant phrase there is regardless of skill. The benefit comes from the act, not the outcome. Tactile, repetitive, low-pressure activity gives the nervous system something concrete to organise around. This is partly why occupational therapists in NHS mental health services often recommend hands-on creative work alongside conventional treatment, as outlined in NHS guidance on stress and low mood.

Useful low-friction options include:

• Sketching shapes without aiming for realism
• Painting with watercolour, where the medium does much of the work
• Working with simple materials that have a defined start and end
• Following a thoughtfully prepared creative kit so the decision-making is already done for you

The last point matters more than it sounds. A 2000 study by Iyengar and Lepper at Columbia and Stanford, often cited in behavioural economics, demonstrated that excessive choice reduces the likelihood of action. When boredom is paired with overwhelm, removing decisions is often the difference between starting and not starting.

3. Borrow the Mindset of an Artist Who Loved Boredom

The Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, whose work is held by Tate, the Guggenheim and the Centre Pompidou, spoke openly about long stretches of unstructured time as essential to his process. He associated specific colours with sounds and emotions, a phenomenon now studied as synesthesia (Cytowic, Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses, MIT Press). His circles, squares and abstract compositions were not attempts to depict the world accurately. They were attempts to depict feeling.

This offers a useful mental shift. When you don't know what to do, you do not need a plan, an output, or even a recognisable result. You need permission to make something that does not have to be good. Claude Monet, similarly, painted his water lily pond more than 250 times across three decades, according to the Musée Marmottan Monet. Repetition without pressure was the practice.

Children grasp this intuitively. Adults usually need to relearn it.

4. Replace Passive Input With a Sensory Reset

Boredom is often misdiagnosed overstimulation. A 2021 study in Behavioural Brain Research found that brief exposure to natural environments reduced markers of mental fatigue and improved attention, supporting earlier work by Kaplan (1995) on Attention Restoration Theory at the University of Michigan. Public Health England's guidance on green spaces echoes this, citing reduced stress and improved mood as consistent outcomes.

You do not need a forest. A 15-minute walk, a window with a view, or even a small change in physical environment can interrupt the loop. Pair it with something gently sensory, such as making tea slowly, listening to a single album rather than a playlist, or arranging flowers, and the brain receives a clearer signal: the day is being attended to.

5. Make Something With Someone Else

The Harvard Study of Adult Development, now in its ninth decade and led most recently by Dr Robert Waldinger, has consistently found that quality of relationships is the strongest predictor of long-term wellbeing, ahead of income, fame or even physical health markers. Boredom, in many cases, is a quiet form of disconnection.

Shared creative activity is one of the lower-effort ways to address this. Research from UCL's Marquee Lab (Fancourt et al.) has documented how group creative engagement can reduce loneliness and improve mood, even in short sessions. Painting alongside a partner, friend, sibling or child, without conversation as the focus, removes the social pressure that often makes connection feel like work.

If a blank canvas feels like too much, a ready-to-use art experience that comes with everything prepared can lower the activation cost considerably. The aim is to begin, not to perform.

An Actionable Takeaway: The 10-30-0 Framework

When you don't know what to do, try this evidence-informed sequence:

• 10 minutes of nothing — let boredom build, no phone, no input. This is the runway Mann's research describes.
• 30 minutes of hands-on activity — drawing, painting, mindful repetition. Kaimal's cortisol findings suggest this is the sweet spot for stress reduction.
• 0 expectations of output — the goal is engagement, not a finished product.

This is deliberately simple. The point is to lower the threshold for starting, because the hardest part is almost always the first step.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is feeling bored actually bad for you?

Not inherently. Researchers at York University describe chronic boredom as problematic, particularly when paired with low agency, but occasional boredom is associated with creative thinking and self-reflection (Mann and Cadman, 2014). The issue is not boredom itself, but how it is responded to.

Why does scrolling make boredom worse?

Passive scrolling provides stimulation without engagement, leaving the underlying need for meaningful attention unmet. Studies summarised by the American Psychological Association suggest this can leave users feeling more depleted rather than refreshed.

Do I need to be artistic to benefit from creative activity?

No. The 2017 art therapy study by Kaimal and colleagues specifically found stress reduction across participants regardless of prior experience. The benefit comes from doing, not from skill level.

A Gentle Closing Thought

When you don't know what to do, you usually don't need a better idea. You need a smaller one. A short walk, a quiet hour, a single sheet of paper, a curated art kit waiting on the table. The evidence is consistent: meaningful engagement, even briefly, tends to leave us feeling more like ourselves. If you'd like a softer place to start, you can browse our full collection of creative experiences designed to make beginning the easy part.

Sources & References

• Fancourt, D. and Finn, S. — What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? WHO Regional Office for Europe (2019)
• Mann, S. and Cadman, R. — Does Being Bored Make Us More Creative? Creativity Research Journal (2014)
• Eastwood, J. D. et al. — The Unengaged Mind: Defining Boredom in Terms of Attention, Perspectives on Psychological Science (2012)
• Kaimal, G., Ray, K. and Muniz, J. — Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making, Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association (2017)
• Iyengar, S. S. and Lepper, M. R. — When Choice is Demotivating, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2000)
• Kaplan, S. — The Restorative Benefits of Nature: Toward an Integrative Framework, Journal of Environmental Psychology (1995)
• Twenge, J. M. et al. — Associations Between Screen Time and Lower Psychological Well-being, JAMA Network Open / Preventive Medicine Reports (2018)
• Ofcom — Online Nation Report (2023)
• Harvard Study of Adult Development — Waldinger, R. and Schulz, M., ongoing publications
• NHS — Guidance on stress, low mood and creative activity
• Tate and Guggenheim Museum — curatorial notes on Wassily Kandinsky
• Musée Marmottan Monet — archival information on Claude Monet's water lily series
• American Psychological Association — publications on screen use and wellbeing