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To me, it has to do with life habits like not going to bed too late, eating well, setting goals before starting to study and walking or jogging 15 min after 45 min of study.

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Shut out all outside noises with headphones etc. and put on music.

Ai and other online resources are helpful.

Proper resource tracking and foldering is also important.

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body doubling ( toisen ihmisen läsnäolo samassa tilassa)

virtual study group ( tunne siitä, että on osa aikaansaavaa yhteisöä, joka auttaa pitämään fokuksen kasassa)

omien ajatusten ja ongelmatilainteiden verbalisointi auttaa hahmottamaan

sisäistäminen -> opettaa toiselle sen mitä itse haluaisi sisäistää

kaaviot kokonaisuuksista, jonka jakaa pienempiin työalueisiin, joita lähtee suorittamaan. Tärkeää: suoritusten jälkeiset palkinnot! Ruokailu, sauna, ulkoilu, päiväunet

Tunnista omat  ”optimaaliset työskentelyajat ja tavat”

armollisuus itseään kohtaan

säännöllinen ruokailu!

ulkoilu! lisää vireystilaa!

keskustele asioita auki toisen kanssa, jotta saadaan liialliset rönsyt katkeamaan.

yksillöllisten tarpeiden mukainen, ärsykkeetön ja rauhallinen työksentelytila

Käytä itsellesi sopivia tekniikoita muistiinpanojen tekemiseksi kirjoitusprosessin aikana, esim. erillinen dokumentti ”rönsyjä” varten tai kirjoita työhön sisälle punaisella ns. extra-ajatukset.

gradun kirjoitusryhmät yliopistolla

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Check list riittävän pieniin osiin!

Kun vauhti kiihtyy, niin ei pidä lopettaa.

Ota aikaa oman olon mukavaksi tekemiseksi ennen töiden aloittamista.

Kirjoita punaisella asioita, mitkä pälkähtävät päähän kesken muun kirjoittamisen.  Varsinaisen tekstin kirjoittaminen ei keskeydy mutta asia ei unohdu.

Värien käyttö yleisesti kirjoitustyössä.

Aiheen parissa esim. Instagramissa.

Tekoäly antaa hyviä ehdotuksia ajatusten muotoilussa.

Itsetuntemuksen vahvistaminen.

Kalenterin käyttö.

Riittävästi taukoja.

Pieniä palkintoja tehdystä työstä.

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It's important to have a distinct space where you study, for example separate desk for studying only. When you concentrate fully on the task for short time periods, it might help you to get into flow state. Pomodoro technique or such can help achieving and maintaining concentration.

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https://www.forestapp.cc/
Prevents you from using your phone when you're working (you can set the timer for yourself) and rewards you with a little virtual tree

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Ask what is the bigger meaning of everything you do.

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Creat a clear schedule and try to follow it!

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Kalenterointi, myöskin levon ajoittaminen.

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Doing Pomodoro in a video call with other people. Increases accountability and keeps track of how long you've been staring at your computer. You can also set goals together at the beginning of the session, and sometimes it helps clear your goals (and if they're realistic).

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POMODORO!

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Visit e-art museum, listen your favorite music or watch inspiring movie/document/opera. 

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Visit e-art museum, listen your favorite music or watch inspiring movie/document/opera. 

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Flow (myös optimaalinen kokemus ja virtauskokemus) on psykologi Mihály Csíkszentmihályin mukaan tila, jossa ihmisen tietoisuuteen saapuva informaatio on tasapainossa minän tavoitteiden kanssa. Flow-kokemuksen seurauksena minän järjestys on aikaisempaa monimuotoisempi (minän kompleksisuus kasvaa). Flow'ssa psyykkinen energia käytetään ainoastaan tavoitteiden saavuttamiseen.

Flow-kokemuksessa ihminen paneutuu koko kapasiteetillaan keskittyneesti tavoitteelliseen toimintaan sulkien kaiken muun tietoisuudestaan. Flow lisää psyyken sisäistä vahvuutta ja kompleksisuutta ihmisen saadessa todellisuuskuvansa järjestykseen ja hallintaan. Optimaalinen flow-kokemus syntyy, kun ihmisen taidot vastaavat käsillä olevaa haastetta ja hän on kiinnostuneesti paneutunut ko. aktiviteettiin. Csíkszentmihályi on tutkimuksissaan todennut ihmisten olevan onnellisimmillaan juuri tällaisina hetkinä elämässään.

Csíkszentmihályi kuvaa kahdeksan osatekijää, joita flow-kokemukseen voi liittyä:

1. Tehtävällä on selvät päämäärät.

2. Yksilön keskittyminen on täydellistä.

3. Oman minän arviointi vähenee.

4. Ajantaju katoaa.

5. Tehtävän etenemisestä saa välitöntä palautetta.

6. Yksilön kyvyt ja tehtävän vaativuus ovat tasapainossa (tehtävä ei ole liian helppo eikä liian vaikea).

7. Yksilö tuntee pystyvänsä kontrolloimaan tilannetta.

8. Tehtävä on itsessään palkitseva.

Lisäksi flow-kokemus vaatii häiriöttömän ympäristön. Esimerkiksi puhelimen soiminen tai työtoverin saapuminen huoneeseen voi katkaista flow'n.

Flow-tilaan ei pääse helposti ja nopeasti. Esimerkiksi urheilutilanteissa flow-tilan saavuttaminen on vaikeaa eikä onnistu läheskään aina, sillä häiriötekijöitä on paljon.

Psyykkinen entropia on termi, joka kuvaa tietoisuuden epäjärjestystä. Psyykkinen entropia on tila, jossa tarkkaavaisuuden keräämä informaatio on ristiriidassa itse aikomusten kanssa tai se estää toteuttamasta niitä. Psyykkinen entropia johtaa minän tarkkaavaisuuden kohdistumaan minän eheyden kannalta epäolennaiseen ja psyykkistä energiaa hukkaavaan toimintaan. Psyykkisen entropian vastakohta on tietoisuuden järjestys eli flow.

Ihmisen tietoisuudessa epäjärjestys muodostaa jatkuvan uhan, koska minän keinot ymmärtää ja hallita maailmankaikkeutta ovat rajalliset. Universumi on kokemuksellisesti kaoottinen, mielivaltainen, vailla tarkoitusta ja merkitystä aiheuttaen tietoisuudessa muun muassa eksistentiaalista ahdistusta. Tätä tietoisuuden epäjärjestystä ja disorganisaatiota Csíkszentmihályi kutsuu psyykkiseksi entropiaksi.

Tarkoitus on tekijä, joka muuttaa elämän yhdeksi kokonaiseksi flow-kokemukseksi. Tarkoitus koostuu henkilökohtaisesta päämäärästä, toiminnasta niiden toteuttamiseksi ja näistä kahdesta muodostuvasta minän harmoniasta. Tarkoitus totetuu ihmisen valitsemien elämänteemojen kautta.

Flow-toiminnot ovat toimintoja, joiden päätarkoitus on tuottaa iloa. Ranskalaisen Cailloisin mukaan tällaisia toimintojaa ovat agon (kilpailu), alea (satunnaiset ilmiöt), ilinx eli vertigo (aistien hämmentäminen) ja mimiikka (erilaisten todellisuuksien luominen). Näiden toimintojen avulla ihminen voi päästä tavanomaista todellisuutta laajemman todellisuuskokemuksen piiriin. Flow-kokemus tuottaa kokijalleen aina löytämisen kokemuksen eli se muuttaa ihmisen minän aikaisempaa monimuotoisemmaksi (kompleksisuuden lisääntyminen).

Flow on mahdollista kaikissa töissä, mutta sitä on vaikeampi saavuttaa yksinkertaisessa, itseään toistavassa toimessa. Työn täytyy olla tarpeeksi haastavaa, ja siihen on mentävä innolla mukaan. Työntekijä tarvitsee myös häiriöttömän tilan. Esimies on avainasemassa turvaamassa työntekijöiden häiriötöntä työntekoa.

Csíkszentmihályi, Mihaly: Flow - elämän virta: tutkimuksia onnesta, siitä kun kaikki sujuu (englanninkielinen alkuteos Flow 1990). Suomentanut Ritva Hellsten. Helsinki: Rasalas, 2005. ISBN 952-5421-26-0.

Lehtinen, Erno, Kuusinen, Jorma & Vauras, Marja: "Luku 5.7. Flow-kokemus: minän korostuksesta minän unohtamiseen", Kasvatuspsykologia. Helsinki: WSOY Oppimateriaalit, 2007. ISBN 978-951-30930-8.

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Flow (myös optimaalinen kokemus ja virtauskokemus) on psykologi Mihály Csíkszentmihályin mukaan tila, jossa ihmisen tietoisuuteen saapuva informaatio on tasapainossa minän tavoitteiden kanssa. Flow-kokemuksen seurauksena minän järjestys on aikaisempaa monimuotoisempi (minän kompleksisuus kasvaa). Flow'ssa psyykkinen energia käytetään ainoastaan tavoitteiden saavuttamiseen. Flow-kokemuksessa ihminen paneutuu koko kapasiteetillaan keskittyneesti tavoitteelliseen toimintaan sulkien kaiken muun tietoisuudestaan.

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Stressillä tarkoitetaan tilannetta, jossa henkilöön kohdistuvat haasteet ja vaatimukset ylittävät hänen käytössä olevat voimavaransa. Ulkopuolelta tulevien vaatimusten lisäksi itselle asetetut odotukset ja vaatimukset voivat aiheuttaa stressiä. Sekä miellyttävät että epämiellyttävät asiat voidaan kokea stressaaviksi tilanteen tulkinnasta ja ihmisen yksilöllisestä paineensietokyvystä riippuen. Se, mikä stressaa yhtä, voi olla toiselle voimavara.

Usein koemme stressiä muutostilanteissa, joissa voimavarat ja sopeutumiskyky joutuvat koetukselle. Työ- ja opiskeluelämässä stressiä voivat aiheuttaa kiire, kohtuuton työmäärä, ajanhallinnan pulmat, tuen puute, huono työ- tai opiskeluilmapiiri, epävarmuus omista kyvyistä ja osaamisesta sekä työn hallinnan puute. Yksityiselämässä tyypillisiä stressinlähteitä ovat ihmissuhteissa tapahtuvat muutokset, taloudelliset ongelmat, sairaudet ja kuormittavat elintavat. Negatiivisten muutosten lisäksi myös positiiviset elämäntapahtumat, kuten uusi työ tai opiskelupaikka tai seurustelusuhteen aloittaminen, koetaan usein stressaaviksi.

Kaikki ihmiset kohtaavat elämässään stressaavia tilanteita, ja lyhytkestoinen stressi ei ole vaarallista. Tilapäinen stressi voi olla jopa positiivinen voima, joka nostaa vireystilaa ja auttaa pääsemään hyviin tuloksiin. Kun tunnet itsesi ja stressinsäätelykeinosi, voit suhtautua stressaaviinkin tilanteisiin rauhallisesti. Tiedät, että stressi on tilannesidonnaista ja ohimenevää, ja osaat toimia, jos kuormitus alkaa käydä liialliseksi. Puutteelliset stressinsäätelykeinot ja pitkittynyt kuormitus sen sijaan altistavat haitalliselle stressille, joka heikentää psyykkistä ja fyysistä hyvinvointiasi.

Mistä tunnistat stressin?

Tyypillisiä stressioireita tunne-elämän puolella ovat turhautumisen tunne, ärtyneisyys, muistivaikeudet, levottomuus, huolestuneisuus, väsymys, ahdistuneisuus, päätöksenteon vaikeudet ja unihäiriöt. Myös ruokahalun muutokset ja seksuaalinen haluttomuus saattavat olla stressin aiheuttamia. Stressi voi saada aikaan haitallisia ja stressitilaa vahvistavia muutoksia käyttäytymisessä, kuten alkoholin, muiden päihteiden ja tupakoinnin lisäämistä ja liikunnan tai muiden harrastusten vähentämistä.

Vaikka stressi onkin psyykkinen kokemus, monet sen vaikutuksista ovat fyysisiä. Stressi aktivoi sympaattista hermostoa valmistaen elimistöä sopeutumaan uhkaavaan tilanteeseen (taistele tai pakene -reaktio). Stressaantuneen ihmisen elimistö on jatkuvassa hälytystilassa, joka pitkittyessään altistaa monille ruumiillisille oireille. Tyypillisiä stressioireita ovat niska-hartiaseudun jännitys, päänsärky, huimaus, kohonnut verenpaine, sydämentykytykset, pahoinvointi, vatsavaivat, flunssakierre ja selkävaivat.

Ihmiset voidaan jakaa karkeasti kolmeen ryhmään sen mukaan, miten he reagoivat stressiin. Osa ihmisistä reagoi stressiin pääasiassa psyykkisesti eli oireina ovat esimerkiksi unihäiriöt, väsymys ja heikentyneet elintavat. Näiden henkilöiden on yleensä helppo tunnistaa stressi ja ymmärtää oireiden yhteys ylikuormitukseen. Osalla stressi näkyy puolestaan ruumiillisina oireina, esimerkiksi tuki- ja liikuntaelinten kipuina. Koska oireiden yhteyttä koettuun stressiin voi olla vaikea hahmottaa, saatetaan hoitaa vain pelkkää fyysistä vaivaa, mutta ei sen todellista syytä. Kolmas ryhmä käsittää sellaiset ihmiset, jotka eivät koe reagoivansa stressiin mitenkään erityisesti. Heidän suorituskykynsä voi kärsiä, mutta heille ei aiheudu siitä psyykkisiä eikä fyysisiä terveysongelmia.

Ota stressi haltuun!

Kiire ja stressi eivät ole asioita, joita pitää opetella sietämään enemmän vaan joihin kannattaa reagoida mahdollisimman varhaisessa vaiheessa. Stressiä voi hallita monin eri tavoin, ja jokaisen on tärkeä löytää itselleen sopivat selviytymiskeinot stressaaviin tilanteisiin.

Kiinnitä huomiota seuraaviin asioihin, jos stressi ja kuormitus elämässä lisääntyvät:

Tunnista omat rajasi sekä voimavarasi. Mikä juuri sinulle aiheuttaa stressiä? Miten stressioireet näkyvät sinussa? Mikä saa sinut rentoutumaan?

Huolehdi ihmissuhteistasi ja ota vastaan ystävien ja läheisten tarjoama tuki.

Pyri eroon murehtimisesta - vatvomisen sijaan etsi konkreettisia ratkaisuja tilanteeseen. Tunnista asiat, joihin voit vaikuttaa, ja pyri hyväksymään ne asiat, joihin et voi vaikuttaa.

Liiku itseäsi kuunnellen ja voimavarojesi rajoissa. Liikunnan vastapainona muista lepo ja rentoutuminen.

Syö terveellisesti ja säännöllisesti.

Huolehdi riittävästä levosta.

Älä hoida stressiä päihteiden avulla. Pitkällä aikavälillä päihteiden käyttö altistaa voimakkaammalle stressille ja heikentää mm. stressinsäätelyn kannalta tärkeää unen laatua.

Tarkastele itselle asettamiasi vaatimuksia ja mieti, voitko suhtautua itseesi lempeämmin.

Pyri järjestämään työ-/opiskeluolosuhteet vähemmän kuormittaviksi; suunnittele ajankäyttösi paremmin, aseta tehtävät tärkeysjärjestykseen sekä mieti, voitko luopua jostain ja pyydä tarvittaessa apua.

Usko omaan kykyysi hallita stressiä ja vaikuttaa elämääsi.

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Stressillä tarkoitetaan tilannetta, jossa henkilöön kohdistuvat haasteet ja vaatimukset ylittävät hänen käytössä olevat voimavaransa. Ulkopuolelta tulevien vaatimusten lisäksi itselle asetetut odotukset ja vaatimukset voivat aiheuttaa stressiä. Sekä miellyttävät että epämiellyttävät asiat voidaan kokea stressaaviksi tilanteen tulkinnasta ja ihmisen yksilöllisestä paineensietokyvystä riippuen. Se, mikä stressaa yhtä, voi olla toiselle voimavara.

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Ohjeita, hyvinvointia ja vinkkejä koronavuoteen (JYY)

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Ohjeita, hyvinvointia ja vinkkejä koronavuoteen (JYY)

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Koronavirus on aiheuttanyt tänä vuonna paljon mullistusta. Jyväskylän yliopiston ylioppilaskunta tukee jäsenistöään tarjoamalla tietoa, hyvinvointivinkkejä ja ohjeita korona-ajasta selviytymiseen.

HUOM! Jyväskylän yliopisto on ottanut käyttöön uusia rajoituksia 28.1.2021 alkaen. Uusilla rajoituksilla pyritään pysäyttämään opiskelijoiden parissa liikkuvat koronatartunnat. Lisää tietoa löytyy myös Jyväskylän kaupungin sivuilta.

Jos sinulla on minkäänlaisia koronaan viittaavia oireita, olet saanut hälytyksen koronavilkusta tai epäilet altistuneesi koronalle, ole tee oirekysely Omaolo-palvelussa tai soita terveydenhuollon koronanumeroon 014 266 0133.

Voimassa olevat koronarajoitteet ja -suositukset Jyväskylässä löydät täältä.

Tiedotteet

2021

2020

Ohjeita järjestöille

Hyvinvointi ja jaksaminen

Liikunta

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Ohjeita, hyvinvointia ja vinkkejä koronavuoteen - Jyväskylän yliopiston ylioppilaskunta

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Koronavirus on aiheuttanyt tänä vuonna paljon mullistusta. Jyväskylän yliopiston ylioppilaskunta tukee jäsenistöään tarjoamalla tietoa, hyvinvointivinkkejä ja ohjeita korona-ajasta selviytymiseen. HUOM! Jyväskylän yliopisto on ottanut käyttöön uusia rajoituksia 28.1.2021 alkaen. Uusilla rajoituksilla pyritään pysäyttämään opiskelijoiden parissa liikkuvat koronatartunnat. Lisää tietoa löytyy myös Jyväskylän kaupungin sivuilta.

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Regular proper pauses seem to be a good habit

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Regular proper pauses seem to be a good habit

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https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/05/your-8-hour-day-isnt-working-heres-why/

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How many people die with their best work still inside them?

We often assume that great things are done by those who were blessed with natural talent, genius, and skill. But how many great things could have been done by people who never fully realized their potential? I think many of us, myself included, are capable of much more than we typically produce - our best work is often still hiding inside of us.

How can you pull that potential out of yourself and share it with the world?

Perhaps the best way to develop better daily routines. When you look at the top performers in any field, you see something that goes much deeper than intelligence or skill. They possess an incredible willingness to do the work that needs to be done. They are masters of their daily routines.

As an example of what separates successful people from the rest of the pack, take a look at some of the daily routines of famous writers from past and present.

Before we get started, though, I wanted to let you know I researched and compiled science-backed ways to stick to good habits and stop procrastinating. Want to check out my insights? Download my free PDF guide "Transform Your Habits" here.

At the end of the article, I broke down some common themes that you can apply to your daily routines - regardless of your goals. To skip straight to those suggestions, click here.

E.B. White: "A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper."

In an interview with The Paris Review, E.B. White, the famous author of Charlotte's Web, talked about his daily writing routine...
I never listen to music when I'm working. I haven't that kind of attentiveness, and I wouldn't like it at all. On the other hand, I'm able to work fairly well among ordinary distractions. My house has a living room that is at the core of everything that goes on: it is a passageway to the cellar, to the kitchen, to the closet where the phone lives. There's a lot of traffic. But it's a bright, cheerful room, and I often use it as a room to write in, despite the carnival that is going on all around me. In consequence, the members of my household never pay the slightest attention to my being a writing man - they make all the noise and fuss they want to. If I get sick of it, I have places I can go. A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.
Haruki Murakami: "The repetition itself becomes the important thing."

In a 2004 interview, Murakami discussed his physical and mental habits...

When I'm in writing mode for a novel, I get up at four a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at nine p.m.

I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it's a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.

But to hold to such repetition for so long - six months to a year - requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.

Ernest Hemingway: "I write every morning."

In an interview with George Plimpton, Hemingway revealed his daily routine...
When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that. When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.
Henry Miller: "When you can't create you can work."

In 1932, the famous writer and painter, Henry Miller, created a work schedule that listed his "Commandments" for him to follow as part of his daily routine. This list was published in the book, Henry Miller on Writing ( Kindle).

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.

2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to "Black Spring."

3. Don't be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.

4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!

5. When you can't create you can work.

6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.

7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.

8. Don't be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.

9. Discard the Program when you feel like it-but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.

10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.

11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.

Kurt Vonnegut: "I do pushups and sit ups all the time."

In 1965, Vonnegut wrote a letter to his wife Jane about his daily writing habits, which was published in the book: Kurt Vonnegut: Letters ( Kindle).
I awake at 5:30, work until 8:00, eat breakfast at home, work until 10:00, walk a few blocks into town, do errands, go to the nearby municipal swimming pool, which I have all to myself, and swim for half an hour, return home at 11:45, read the mail, eat lunch at noon. In the afternoon I do schoolwork, either teach of prepare. When I get home from school at about 5:30, I numb my twanging intellect with several belts of Scotch and water ($5.00/fifth at the State Liquor store, the only liquor store in town. There are loads of bars, though.), cook supper, read and listen to jazz (lots of good music on the radio here), slip off to sleep at ten. I do pushups and sit ups all the time, and feel as though I am getting lean and sinewy, but maybe not.
Jodi Picoult: "You can't edit a blank page."

The last seven books Jodi Picoult has written have all hit number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In an interview with Noah Charney, she talks about her approach to writing and creating...
I don't believe in writer's block. Think about it - when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn't it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer's block is having too much time on your hands. If you have a limited amount of time to write, you just sit down and do it. You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.
Maya Angelou: "Easy reading is damn hard writing."

In a 2013 interview with The Daily Beast, the American author and poet discussed her writing career and her daily work habits...
I keep a hotel room in my hometown and pay for it by the month. I go around 6:30 in the morning. I have a bedroom, with a bed, a table, and a bath. I have Roget's Thesaurus, a dictionary, and the Bible. Usually a deck of cards and some crossword puzzles. Something to occupy my little mind. I think my grandmother taught me that. She didn't mean to, but she used to talk about her "little mind." So when I was young, from the time I was about 3 until 13, I decided that there was a Big Mind and a Little Mind. And the Big Mind would allow you to consider deep thoughts, but the Little Mind would occupy you, so you could not be distracted. It would work crossword puzzles or play Solitaire, while the Big Mind would delve deep into the subjects I wanted to write about. I have all the paintings and any decoration taken out of the room. I ask the management and housekeeping not to enter the room, just in case I've thrown a piece of paper on the floor, I don't want it discarded. About every two months I get a note slipped under the door: "Dear Ms. Angelou, please let us change the linen. We think it may be moldy!" But I've never slept there, I'm usually out of there by 2. And then I go home and I read what I've written that morning, and I try to edit then. Clean it up. Easy reading is damn hard writing. But if it's right, it's easy. It's the other way round, too. If it's slovenly written, then it's hard to read. It doesn't give the reader what the careful writer can give the reader.
Barbara Kingsolver: "I have to write hundreds of pages before I get to page one."

The Pulitzer Prize nominee has written over a dozen books, the last nine of which have all made the New York Times bestseller list. During a 2012 interview, she talked about her daily routine as a writer and a mother...
I tend to wake up very early. Too early. Four o'clock is standard. My morning begins with trying not to get up before the sun rises. But when I do, it's because my head is too full of words, and I just need to get to my desk and start dumping them into a file. I always wake with sentences pouring into my head. So getting to my desk every day feels like a long emergency. It's a funny thing: people often ask how I discipline myself to write. I can't begin to understand the question. For me, the discipline is turning off the computer and leaving my desk to do something else. I write a lot of material that I know I'll throw away. It's just part of the process. I have to write hundreds of pages before I get to page one. For the whole of my career as a novelist, I have also been a mother. I was offered my first book contract, for The Bean Trees, the day I came home from the hospital with my first child. So I became a novelist and mother on the same day. Those two important lives have always been one for me. I've always had to do both at the same time. So my writing hours were always constrained by the logistics of having my children in someone else's care. When they were little, that was difficult. I cherished every hour at my desk as a kind of prize. As time has gone by and my children entered school it became progressively easier to be a working mother. My oldest is an adult, and my youngest is 16, so both are now self-sufficient -but that's been a gradual process. For me, writing time has always been precious, something I wait for and am eager for and make the best use of. That's probably why I get up so early and have writing time in the quiet dawn hours, when no one needs me. I used to say that the school bus is my muse. When it pulled out of the driveway and left me without anyone to take care of, that was the moment my writing day began, and it ended when the school bus came back. As a working mother, my working time was constrained. On the other hand, I'm immensely grateful to my family for normalizing my life, for making it a requirement that I end my day at some point and go and make dinner. That's a healthy thing, to set work aside and make dinner and eat it. It's healthy to have these people in my life who help me to carry on a civilized routine. And also to have these people in my life who connect me to the wider world and the future. My children have taught me everything about life and about the kind of person I want to be in the world. They anchor me to the future in a concrete way. Being a mother has made me a better writer. It's also true to say that being a writer has made me a better mother.
Nathan Englander: "Turn off your cell phone."

Englander is an award-winning short story writer, and in this interview he talks about his quest to eliminate all distractions from his writing routine...
Turn off your cell phone. Honestly, if you want to get work done, you've got to learn to unplug. No texting, no email, no Facebook, no Instagram. Whatever it is you're doing, it needs to stop while you write. A lot of the time (and this is fully goofy to admit), I'll write with earplugs in - even if it's dead silent at home.
Karen Russell: "Enjoy writing badly."

Russell has only written one book ... and it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In an interview with The Daily Beast, she talks about her daily struggle to overcome distraction and write...
I know many writers who try to hit a set word count every day, but for me, time spent inside a fictional world tends to be a better measure of a productive writing day. I think I'm fairly generative as a writer, I can produce a lot of words, but volume is not the best metric for me. It's more a question of, did I write for four or five hours of focused time, when I did not leave my desk, didn't find some distraction to take me out of the world of the story? Was I able to stay put and commit to putting words down on the page, without deciding mid-sentence that it's more important to check my email, or "research" some question online, or clean out the science fair projects in the back for my freezer? I've decided that the trick is just to keep after it for several hours, regardless of your own vacillating assessment of how the writing is going. Showing up and staying present is a good writing day. I think it's bad so much of the time. The periods where writing feels effortless and intuitive are, for me, as I keep lamenting, rare. But I think that's probably the common ratio of joy to despair for most writers, and I definitely think that if you can make peace with the fact that you will likely have to throw out 90 percent of your first draft, then you can relax and even almost enjoy "writing badly."
A.J. Jacobs: "Force yourself to generate dozens of ideas."

In an interview for the series, How I Write, Jacobs talks about his daily writing routines and dishes out some advice for young writers...
My kids wake me up. I have coffee. I make my kids breakfast, take them to school, then come home and try to write. I fail at that until I force myself to turn off my Internet access so I can get a little shelter from the information storm. I am a big fan of outlining. I write an outline. Then a slightly more detailed outline. Then another with even more detail. Sentences form, punctuation is added, and eventually it all turns into a book. I write while walking on a treadmill. I started this practice when I was working on Drop Dead Healthy, and read all these studies about the dangers of the sedentary life. Sitting is alarmingly bad for you. One doctor told me that "sitting is the new smoking." So I bought a treadmill and put my computer on top of it. It took me about 1,200 miles to write my book. I kind of love it - it keeps me awake, for one thing.
Jacobs has advice for young writers, too...
Force yourself to generate dozens of ideas. A lot of those ideas will be terrible. Most of them, in fact. But there will be some sparkling gems in there too. Try to set aside 20 minutes a day just for brainstorming.
Khaled Housseni: "You have to write whether you feel like it or not."

In an interview with Noah Charney, Housseni talks about his daily writing habits and the essential things that all writers have to do...
I don't outline at all, I don't find it useful, and I don't like the way it boxes me in. I like the element of surprise and spontaneity, of letting the story find its own way. For this reason, I find that writing a first draft is very difficult and laborious. It is also often quite disappointing. It hardly ever turns out to be what I thought it was, and it usually falls quite short of the ideal I held in my mind when I began writing it. I love to rewrite, however. A first draft is really just a sketch on which I add layer and dimension and shade and nuance and color. Writing for me is largely about rewriting. It is during this process that I discover hidden meanings, connections, and possibilities that I missed the first time around. In rewriting, I hope to see the story getting closer to what my original hopes for it were. I have met so many people who say they've got a book in them, but they've never written a word. To be a writer - this may seem trite, I realize - you have to actually write. You have to write every day, and you have to write whether you feel like it or not. Perhaps most importantly, write for an audience of one - yourself. Write the story you need to tell and want to read. It's impossible to know what others want so don't waste time trying to guess. Just write about the things that get under your skin and keep you up at night.
How to Apply This to Your Life

These daily routines work well for writing, but their lessons can be applied to almost any goal you hope to achieve.

For example...

1. Pushing yourself physically prepares you to work hard mentally. Vonnegut did pushups as a break from writing. Murakami runs 10 kilometers each day. A.J. Jacobs types while walking on a treadmill. You can decide what works for you, but make sure you get out and move.

2. Do the most important thing first. Notice how many excellent writers start writing in the morning? That's no coincidence. They work on their goals before the rest of the day gets out of control. They aren't wondering when they're going to write and they aren't battling to "fit it in" amongst their daily activities because they are doing the most important thing first.

3. Embrace the struggle and do hard work. Did you see how many writers mentioned their struggle to write? Housseni said that his first drafts are "difficult" and "laborious" and "disappointing." Russell called her writing "bad." Kingsolver throws out a hundred pages before she gets to the first page of a book.

What looks like failure in the beginning is often the foundation of success. You have to grind out the hard work before you can enjoy your best work. 1

Read Next

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How many people die with their best work still inside them? We often assume that great things are done by those who were blessed with natural talent, genius, and skill. But how many great things could have been done by people who never fully realized their potential?

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See how long you can go without looking at your phone

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Remember boredom? That sensation experienced frequently before smartphones, infinite podcast libraries and seamless access to almost every movie and TV show ever made.

Intellectuals have lined up to decry it: Soren Kierkegaard called boredom the root of all evil, Bertrand Russell said the fear of boredom was responsible for half of mankind's sins, and Arthur Schopenhauer named boredom-along with pain-as an enemy of human happiness.

But perhaps we have forgotten its virtues. In March 2019, the Academy of Management published three experimental studies that manipulated boredom and identified the benefits for creativity of being bored. It found boredom could increase the productivity of individuals performing idea generation tasks.

The problem may be that we think of boredom as the epitome of lost productivity, as well as a rather unpleasant experience, so we search for something to engage us (often our phones) rather than exploring the sensation of being bored.

Many entrepreneurs attest that, if we can reimagine it, we can repurpose boredom into a highly effective tool for productivity and creativity. After all, those eureka moments normally come when doing the most mundane activities, like brushing your teeth or staring out of a train window.

Violette De Ayala doesn't distract herself with books or movies while flying, instead she makes ... [+]
FemCity

Violette De Ayala, founder of FemCity, believes boredom can have a transformative effect on a business. On a recent flight, she deliberately chose not to take a book, watch movies or connect to the WiFi.

De Ayala says: "It gave me three hours of boredom which, in turn, gave me a very productive flight to think about strategy, campaigns and business development for my organization.

"Had I brought a book or connected to the internet, I wouldn't have had the clarity and therefore the productivity to work on future plans with such focus and intent. The boredom was what I needed to remove myself and calm my mind in order to move forward with bigger business plans. I think this is why many people have great ideas while taking a shower."

For years, boredom has been a "secret weapon" for James Pollard, founder of TheAdvisorCoach, who uses it as a reliable method of idea generation.

Pollard says: "For me, it's typically tidying up. I will spend some time each week organizing my office, my house, my car, etc. and I will keep my phone in my pocket. Without fail, every five minutes or so I get another idea I can implement in my business. I pull out my phone, open my note-taking app, and jot it down. Then, I go back to tidying up. I view this as a win-win situation. My environment stays clean, and I can turn on the tap of ideas whenever I want. It's amazing."

The value of boredom can be more than just a tool for problem solving: it can be the spark that kick starts an entire business. Dale Johnson, founder of Content By Dale, recalls: "In 2016, I was lecturing at a U.K. university. I asked the students if they were going to vote in the upcoming EU referendum, and many said no. I asked why, and the majority answered, 'I don't understand it.'

Dale Johnson finds inspiration in boredom and advises others to "always look around, never at your ... [+]
Content By Dale

"At home that night, I was sitting in silence, thinking about it. On my desk, I caught sight of an old cinema ticket. Then, it hit me. Batman v Superman was in the cinema. Both that film and Brexit were highly popular search terms at the time so I fused the two, creating a comic where Superman argues for remaining and Batman argues for leaving."

The comic took Johnson two months to finish. Once launched, it went viral, with 25K Facebook likes, thousands of shares, and over 100,000 page views, inspiring him to launch his content creation and marketing agency. He warns: "Always look around you, and never at your devices."

But why does this happen? Margaret J. King, Ph.D, director of the Centre for Cultural Studies & Analysis, explains that boredom is a form of frustration that can be very productive if mindfully deployed.

King says: "If you have ever been in a boring meeting-one in which you are not productively engaged-you'll notice your mind wandering over into problem-solving mode for issues that are bothering you, both work and personal.

"When the mind can't engage productively or imaginatively, it gravitates to zones where it can grapple with real issues that have been circulating, scanning for solutions. So forcing yourself to sit with nothing to do for even 10 minutes might be a form of meditation without engagement, a mind state that yields results."

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Why You Should Test The Power Of Boredom As A Weapon For Productivity

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Remember boredom? That sensation experienced frequently before smartphones, infinite podcast libraries and seamless access to almost every movie and TV show ever made.

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found a nice post about writing a literature review the smart way.

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At a dinner party some time ago, an academic's husband pointed out that there are many similarities between being an academic and running a small, not very profitable business. I laughed, but since I briefly ran a small business the comment struck a chord with me.

After much thought, I think small business owners and academics have two key problems in common:

Problem one: There are a lot of opportunities that could turn into nothing, so it's best to say yes to everything and deal with the possible overwork problem later.

Problem two: Since (outside of a teaching schedule) no one is really telling you what to do with every minute of your time, it can be hard to choose what to do next - especially if all the tasks seem equally important.

Problem One leads to being over-committed, probably constantly. Problem Two makes individual days hard to organise, leading to decision fatigue and fractured attention states.

When Problem One, over-commitment, collides with Problem Two choosing what to do next, the trouble really starts. The freedom to choose among seemingly equally important tasks leads to what I call 'flipping'. 'Flipping' is not finishing a task properly before starting on a new one.

A good example of flipping is half reading a paper before downloading the next one, or opening your email to download a reference someone sent you and then starting to answer other emails just to 'clean up a bit'. Before long, your work days are filled with activity, but you can't see deliverables popping out the other end. It's a frustrating feeling, like you are trying to hold onto a cloud.

These problems start in the PhD, but only get worse when you graduate and work as a full time researcher and/or academic. It's not really the meetings or the teaching that are the problem for most of us, but making best use of the time in between. Flipping erodes your focus, making each task take longer than it really should, at time same time slowly eating you precious time and energy.

Every time you start flipping you are creating a technical debt that you will have to pay eventually. Technical debt is the time you must spend later because you didn't do something properly the in the first place. This is a concept from computer science that I have discussed before in relation to researching. Academic work incurs technical debt because of the inter-connected nature of most of the tasks. A simple task, such as reading a paper, relates to bigger projects which are ongoing, like a literature review. Part of finishing the task of reading the paper is processing the ideas it presented and putting them in relation to other ideas and your own. If you only half read a bunch of papers, ideas start buzzing around in no particular order. It's horribly easy for those unprocessed ideas to turn into an angry swarm, creating confusion, even panic.

You'd think taking notes would help, but in my experience it really doesn't. I bet you have heaps of notes in journals that you never look at again - I certainly do. The academic attempting to save time just writes stuff they noticed in a journal, hoping that will preserve the thoughts for their future self. We imagine our future self will have the calm thinking space that is eluding your present self, but how just realistic is this? What's more likely to happen is by the time you sit down to write your literature review you'll have to spend time interpreting your own notes, which more often than not turn out to be impenetrable.

How do we stop all the flipping? You've heard the advice before: make a good 'to do' list and commit to it. It's easy advice to dole out, but surprisingly hard advice to follow, especially in a research context. So what does a good to do list look like?

Let's take the literature review as an example. A not very useful to-do list might look like this:

Read the 140 papers I downloaded last week

Write a bunch of notes

Write the literature review section

A useful to-do list will break down these large, vague terms into discrete, actionable steps. My friend Dr Jason Downs says that to-do list items should always have verbs in them, like so (some verbs in bold type):

Set a deadline for the first draft of my literature review in consultation with your supervisors and/or co-authors. If you don't give this thing a timeline it's going to spiral out of control. You will read far, far too much and end up with an unmanageable hoard of references.

Look in your diary for stretches of uninterrupted time of at least 2 hours, but not more than four. Mark them as dedicated to your literature review. Do not fool yourself by thinking you can do reading and note taking for whole days. You need time to absorb all that academic goodness. Be kind to yourself, build in breaks and time to do other things.

Do a proper, systemmatic literature search. Download papers that look interesting, but don't get too caught up in reading them. Your purpose here is just to find things related to the topic. Start with your supervisor and then the databases in your area. Keep track of your keywords - they might end up being useful as themes later. If you don't know how to do a citation search, this might be the time to visit a librarian.

Shallow read all the 140 papers you have downloaded and jot down the key themes you notice as you whip through them - by 'shallow read' I mean quickly scan read the abstract, intro and conclusion.

Start a document with the key themes you noticed as headings. Write a word limit at the top. This document will become your literature review, give it a name and file it accordingly.

Make a short list of papers you will deep read. Be ambitious, but try to rank them in order of importance so that you do the most crucial ones first.

Deep read the most interesting looking of the papers with the timer on. By 'deep read' I mean read reasonably slowly. As you read scribble on the paper or your journal and think deeply about how this paper relates to others. Then read a second time, this time *** important *** writing notes using the Cornell template or a Literature matrix to record your thoughts. Both these tools help you to relate your ideas to other ideas as you read; effectively 'freezing' your thinking for future self.

Add up the number of hours you've got left before the deadline. Divide these in half to give you some writing and editing time. Then divide these remaining hours by the time it took you to deep read the first paper. This is your realistic estimate of how many papers you can actually read - almost inevitably this number will be a shock.

Based on your estimate of the number of papers you can read, reassess time line. Adjust accordingly. Sometimes you don't have a choice about the deadline, in these cases you will need to manage your expectations or decide to put in extra hours. I think you know what I am going to say about putting in extra hours. Studies have shown that research students who routinely do this tend to end up struggling. The toll on your health can quickly wipe out the gains in productivity. Be careful.

During the times you have set aside, deep read and take notes in the Cornell template or the literature review matrix. Try not to do anything else in those hours. If you burn a session, add in another session and change the timeline accordingly. By being honest with yourself about time lost or wasted, you can keep your supervisor and/or co-authors informed about when you are realistically able to deliver. In my experience, people care less about things being late than not being told they will be late until the very last minute. Giving people an early heads up of a delay is about being professional, not about admitting failure. Give the shame and blame a rest.

As you do your deep reading, use the key themes document as a place to jot down ideas about how everything is fitting together. These notes will form the connective tissue of your literature review, which you can fill in with specific references later. Most people find productive academic writing is more like watching a picture come into focus, than rolling out finished text like a type writer.

When it feels right, start transferring notes from the Cornell template or literature review matrix into your outline document. At this point you might switch from putting your deep reading notes in a template, to writing them straight into your literature review as you go. This is a good sign the literature review is coming together. Embrace it.

I hope my example of an realistic, actionable verb-tastic to-do list is helpful. I think you'll agree that following a list like that is good insurance against flipping, but what do you think? Do you work in a SMART fashion, or have you found another system that works for you? I'd be interested to hear about your working styles in the comments.
Related links: Turn your notes into writing with the Cornell Method Using word to make a Cornell template Managing the Sluff How to build a literature review matrix

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How to stop 'flipping' (and write a good to-do list)

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At a dinner party some time ago, an academic's husband pointed out that there are many similarities between being an academic and running a small, not very profitable business. I laughed, but since I briefly ran a small business the comment struck a chord with me.

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Have a walk?
Talk to a friend?

Why not WALK WITH A FRIEND?

Conversation (outside, in the fress air) will give you a new insight in your problems and the staff you are stuck in...

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Enjoy procrastinating - then it will feel like a proper break and you won't feel as guilty

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When you are eating, turn off your computer and just focus on eating. Focus on one thing at a time.

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Don't try to do it perfectly the first time. Perfectionism can get in the way of actually getting anything done. So write crap for a while and fix it later, just to get yourself started (which is the hardest part).

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You can do something that will boast your arousal and emotional state before starting to do a task: drink a coffee, go for a walk, talk to a friend, etc. This will create a small temporal increase in your performance :D

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You can do something that will boast your arousal and emotional state before starting to do a task: drink a coffee, go for a walk, talk to a friend, etc. This will create a small temporal increase in your performance :D

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Print out all the exams you've done this term and make origami swans out of them. Your ideas will make so much more sense after.

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Get off your computer and try something creative like doodling or colouring. For every half hour of work, do something colourful and creative for 5.

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I think the more we think about productivity the less productive we are. If you just embrace nihilism, you might start to feel how unnecessary externally-derived production pressure is and instead shift to a more internal locus of motivation.

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This is an app that basically helps you reward yourself for productivity through an RPG-style system. You can use it with others, too, which helps with accountability. It's the only app that's ever worked consistently for me (I've used it for over two years).

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Set yourself little goals and take procrastination breaks in between goals. Talk to people who are more productive than you so that you realise how rubbish you are being.

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The more you freak out over what you're not getting done, the more paralyzed you get.

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Exercise. I find it to be key to my productivity. If I can't think or focus, then if I go and "get out of my head" I will come back with more vigour and focus. 

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Exercise. I find it to be key to my productivity. If I can't think or focus, then if I go and "get out of my head" I will come back with more vigour and focus. 

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ELIZA is a computer program written to emulate the experience of speaking with a psychologist. The program repeats everything you say in the form of a question. I sometimes use this approach to clear my head and identify the reason behind my lack of productivity. http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/psych101/Eliza.htm

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The section on Boredom from today is based on an interesting radio doc on boredom I heard a few months ago.

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It's never been easier to banish the feeling of boredom -- at least for a moment. But some fear our weapons of mass distraction could lead to an epidemic of ennui and ADD. Contributor Peter Mitton examines boredom and discovers a little-understood universal state of mind. From its obvious downsides and unexpected upsides, to its evolutionary origins and the way it's shaping our future -- boredom is anything but dull.

Listen to the full episode 54:00

It's never been easier to banish the feeling of boredom - at least for a moment. But some fear our weapons of mass distraction could lead to an epidemic of ennui and ADD. Contributor Peter Mitton examines boredom and discovers a little-understood universal state of mind. From its obvious downsides and unexpected upsides, to its evolutionary origins and the way it's shaping our future - boredom is anything but dull. **This episode was originally broadcast November 22, 2016.

No one escapes boredom. Though for such a universal emotion, science is only beginning to pay attention to what's really happening inside us when we are bored, and what it means.

Boredom is really about that connection between me and the world. But when we're bored we're disengaged. That connection between us and the world breaks down. - John Eastwood

As a society, we have zero tolerance for the emotion. Possibly to our own detriment.

We are spending too much time trying to get rid of boredom, swiping and scrolling every moment of the boredom or tedium that their can possibly be, and yet, in doing so we're actually becoming more bored as a nation. -Sandi Mann

There are different ideas about just where our war on boredom may be leading us, who and what the casualties may be. Also up for debate, is whether adding little, or even a lot more boredom to our mental diet could be just the thing for our addled age.

Guests in this episode: (in order of appearance):

**This episode was produced by Nicola Luksic with support from CBC Radio's Doc Project

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It's never been easier to banish the feeling of boredom -- at least for a moment. But some fear our weapons of mass distraction could lead to an epidemic of ennui and ADD. Contributor Peter Mitton examines boredom and discovers a little-understood universal state of mind.

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A time management time based on a delicious Italian tomato

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The Pomodoro Technique® - proudly developed by Francesco Cirillo | Cirillo Consulting GmbH

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Do more and have fun with time management. The Pomodoro Technique isn't like any other time-management method on the market today.

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A little bit of boredom is good for your creativity and productivity. Here's an interesting article

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Twice a day, for a total of 19 months during the 1920s, the American vaudeville performer Edward H Gibson would get up on stage and perform a death-defying routine. The man billed as 'The Human Pincushion' would ask a member of the audience to pierce him with 50 or 60 pins that would be inserted up to their heads anywhere on his body, except his abdomen and groin.

Once, Gibson accidentally burned himself on a hot gas stove and felt nothing. It was only the malodorous scent of his burning skin that notified him of the situation. Besides headaches, he claimed never to have experienced pain. Not when he chopped his own knee with a hatchet, nor when he shot himself with a .22 hammerless pistol and the bullet passed through his left index finger, nor even when, during an episode of anger, he broke his own nose by banging it on a piano.

Gibson was no ordinary man, but he was no superman either. By most accounts, his insensitivity was congenital. Such disorders are rare but hardly unknown. Sufferers of congenital insensitivity live hard, hazardous, and often tragically short lives. The medical literature describes many individuals who have sustained serious injuries - lacerations, bruises, fractures, burns - without feeling anything. The absence of pain makes us careless. Few of us like it, but pain keeps us out of trouble.

Pain is not the only unpleasant experience that humans are subject to. What about boredom? Might it serve some useful purpose, too? It certainly has no shortage of philosophical defenders. Bertrand Russell and the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips both spoke of the importance of being able to endure it. Russell asserted that the capacity to weather boredom is 'essential to a happy life', whereas Phillips speculated on its developmental significance for children. Friedrich Nietzsche commented on the creative power of boredom and found value in its relationship to art. So did Susan Sontag, who in a brief diary entry suggested that the most interesting art of her time was boring: 'Jasper Johns is boring. Beckett is boring, Robbe-Grillet is boring. Etc. Etc. [...] Maybe art has to be boring, now.'

Martin Heidegger discussed, at length, the ontological lessons that profound boredom can teach us. And the poet Joseph Brodsky, in what might be the most famous and sustained defence of boredom, exalted its existential import. In his commencement address to the class of 1989 at Dartmouth College, he called boredom a 'window on time's infinity' and spoke of its ability to put our existence into perspective, to demonstrate to us our finitude and indeed the futility of our actions.

All of these authors are correct to value boredom. However, they miss what is most important about it. Boredom is precious, but there's nothing particularly good about being bored. Its unpleasantness is no illusion, its subjective character no taste worth acquiring. We should give thanks for it - and avoid it like the plague.

Though distressing and unpleasant, the sensation of pain is of great value. It is not just a reliable signalling mechanism, informing us of harm to our bodies. It also motivates us to change our behaviour and to take defensive measures in order to protect ourselves. Without it, we would be ignorant of our injuries, and perhaps rather indifferent to them even once we had noticed them.

Now, imagine a life that is devoid of boredom. On first glance, many of us might find such a prospect desirable, even ideal. But consider it more carefully. We are not talking about a life bereft of boring situations. Someone like Gibson is free of pain only insofar as he cannot experience it. Such a life, however, still contains dangerous and harmful things. Similarly, the life of someone who cannot experience boredom will be free of boredom - but only because the subject of this life cannot experience boredom. If we did not have the capacity for boredom, then any situation - regardless of how trivial, banal, or humdrum it might be - would fail to strike us as boring. Nothing would be boring. Not the experience of listening to the same lecture over and over again. Not the seemingly endless time spent waiting in offices. Yet some situations should bore us.

Often, boredom arises as the result of the perception of a mismatch: a gap between the need for stimulation and its availability. We want something that simply is not there. Boredom is our awareness of that absence. In monotonous activities, we are bored because we want more variety than we can find. In familiar situations, we are bored because we crave novelty, yet none is offered. And when engaged in compulsory tasks, we are bored because we want to do something other than what is demanded from us. If boredom stems from unfulfilled desire, then in order to allay boredom we would need to satisfy that desire. To escape boredom, in other words, we need to seek activities that seem congruent with our wishes.

Think of boredom as an internal alarm. When it goes off, it is telling us something. It signals the presence of an unfulfilling situation. But it is an alarm equipped with a shock. The negative and aversive experience of boredom motivates us - one might even say, pushes us - to pursue a different situation, one that seems more meaningful or interesting, just as a sharp pain motivates us not to put pins into our bodies.

When bored, the situations in which we find ourselves often appear distant or foreign - that is, removed from our interests and projects. They lack meaning for us. We feel uneasy and restless. Our minds wander. We mentally catalogue alternative goals. Even our perception of the passage of time is altered. In a state of boredom, it appears to drag. We want to escape from boredom's unpleasant grip. When the tasks with which we are currently engaged have lost their luster, boredom promotes the pursuit of alternative goals by its very character.

If boredom could be implemented in an app, we would pay money for it

Call this the motivational picture of boredom. It is supported by recent psychological theories (for example, work by John Eastwood of York University in Toronto, Shane Bench of Washington State University and Heather Lench of Texas A & M University, as well as Wijnand van Tilburg at the University of Southampton and Eric Igou of the University of Limerick). But it is also in agreement with phenomenological accounts of emotion.

Such accounts treat our affective experiences as revelations of our values. Emotions open up the world to us and show it already suffused with meaning. They are ways in which we are attuned to our already social, practical existence. They furnish us with an immediate and pre-conceptual understanding of what matters to us, and orient us towards existential possibilities - that is, ways of acting and being in the world - calling us to take action.

The internal-alarm model of boredom fits nicely within this phenomenological scheme. Boredom attunes us to features of the situation in which we find ourselves. It alerts us to how our present engagement fails to properly satisfy us. It delineates alternative courses of action. What more could one ask from an emotional experience? If the function of boredom could be implemented in an app, I venture to say that we would pay money for it.

And yet, for the most part, the Western literary and philosophical canons have painted an unflattering portrait of boredom. Such a judgment, I believe, is partly due to the fact that we talk about it in a frustratingly loose way. When one speaks of boredom, one often speaks of the commonplace, fleeting, aversive psychological state. But one can also talk about the propensity to experience boredom in a wide range of situations - what psychologists call 'boredom proneness'.

The latter is nothing trivial; it means experiencing boredom often, in numerous and differing situations, even in ones that most of us would find to be meaningful and interesting. To be bored often and almost regardless of the situation is to experience the world in an disengaged, cold and detached manner - situations, goals, projects do not attract you, they keep their distance from you, they are not really yours. Unsurprisingly, boredom-proneness is correlated with a number of serious, even life-threatening, physical, psychological and social harms, too many to list here. It deserves, and has rightly received, considerable attention. Yet, it ought to be clearly distinguished from the actual experience of boredom. Not everyone who experiences boredom is prone to boredom, just like not everyone who experiences pain suffers from chronic pain.

Let's look at that comparison one last time. If the sensation of pain is (most often) an indication of harm, then the sensation of boredom is an indication that we are engaged in something that is incongruous with our projects. Furthermore, if the sensation of pain is meant (most often) to motivate us to change our behaviour in order to protect ourselves, then likewise the sensation of boredom is meant to motivate us to find something else to do, something that is not boring. Boredom motivates us to do something else, without necessarily telling us what to do. It can transport us from one psychological place to another. Boredom isn't quite the white-sailed vessel that Madame Bovary so eagerly awaited. Yet it might be the next best thing.

So, the next time boredom overcomes you, it might be best not to ignore it. It might be best not to cover it up with your smartphone. Boredom might be trying to tell you something. After all, how often do you ignore pain? How often do you treat it with your phone?

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Life without boredom would be a nightmare - Andreas Elpidorou | Aeon Essays

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Twice a day, for a total of 19 months during the 1920s, the American vaudeville performer Edward H Gibson would get up on stage and perform a death-defying routine. The man billed as 'The Human Pincushion' would ask a member of the audience to pierce him with 50 or 60 pins that would be inserted up to their heads anywhere on his body, except his abdomen and groin.

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Flow is a state of being in which we are at our most productive. It can be defined by 8 characteristics.

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Csikszentmihalyi (sprich: Tschik-ßent-mihaji) beschreibt acht Komponenten der Flow-Erfahrung. Die ersten drei können als notwendige Voraussetzungen für ein Zustandekommen derartiger Erfahrungen bezeichnet werden, die weiteren fünf beziehen sich auf die Ebene des subjektiven Erlebens beim Handeln im Flow.

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waitbutwhy.com is an blog with epic posts about procrastination.

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Quora has excellent answers to the question: What is an efficient way to overcome procrastination?