Let yourself be bored while waiting

When you are waiting — for coffee, in a queue, at a red light — leave your phone in your pocket and let your mind wander.

Why it works

Waiting is one of the few natural opportunities for the default-mode network to activate during a busy day. When people immediately fill the waiting gap with a phone, they suppress DMN activation and replace it with stimulus-driven attention (social media, news, video). Allowing waiting-state boredom permits the mental associations, future simulations, and self-reflective processing that DMN activity produces — the substrate from which creative and planning insights emerge.

How to do it

1. For one week, commit to leaving your phone in your pocket or bag during all waiting periods.
2. Resist any urge to check — observe the discomfort of boredom rather than suppressing it.
3. Notice what thoughts, memories, or ideas arise spontaneously.
4. Keep a small notebook to capture any insights that surface during these waiting periods.

Evidence

Default-mode network research documents its activation during mind-wandering and rest, with associations to autobiographical memory, future simulation, and creative insight. Mind-wandering has been linked to insight problem-solving in controlled lab settings. (observational)

DMN research is strong on activation patterns but the causal path from boredom → DMN → creative output is supported directionally rather than robustly established for practical applications.

Sources

• Christoff et al. (2009), experience sampling during fMRI reveals default network and executive system contributions to mind wandering, PNAS

Common mistake

Substituting one phone activity for another ("I’ll listen to a podcast instead") — audio consumption also suppresses DMN and prevents the unstimulated state that productive mind-wandering requires.