Oh, So (yawn) Bored?

Winter can be boring, but inspiration can liven things up

A personal note: Health Wise Friday is taking next week off. I’ll be back the week of 2/24/25

Is it just me or is February incredibly boring? Longtime HWF readers might recall my February complaints from before—indeed, I have done so for three Februarys running. I admit it—I do not like the second month.

While sitting on my couch on another cold … grey … dreary … day, I perked up a bit thinking about boredom in general. It got me wondering, how common is boredom? I found some interesting statistics on the matter (boredom has become a hot research topic), but my favorite by far is from a 2019 study with 2000 respondents.

The report informs us that “average Americans experience boredom 131 days every year.” That has breathtaking specificity—people so bored they keep track of the days they feel that way! (I know, algorithms, coding, percentages, forms, blah blah, but don’t you love the visual of bored people tracking the days?)

What the research overall makes clear, though, is that the issue of boredom is worth addressing given how it wastes precious time and is, well, very boring. An extreme statement about boredom (for sure not to be replicated) was made by the sixty’s movie star, George Sanders. He left a suicide note explaining, “I am leaving because I am bored.” And he left. We can definitely find better ways to deal with—and hopefully conquer—our boredom.

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