Sometimes it's the boring things that count.

No, boredly scrolling through social media on a random Tuesday evening when you have nothing else to do is probably not the type of boredom that is going to change your life… at least, not in a good way.

Life is full of “boring” things: those school assignments you don’t want to touch, that chore you’ve already done a thousand times before, that meeting you feel you could sleep through. 

Those things that, while you would rather avoid them and save yourself the rather large amount of eye rolls and loose mutters of complaints, add something of value to your life that you simply can’t ignore.

Being bored can lead to great things when you are ready and willing to use it right. Choose to spend your time half-watching a movie you have seen a thousand times and you might find yourself loathing the idea of “boredom” much more than someone who allows themselves to be bored just long enough to find something genuinely exciting to do rather than just to the first mildly entertaining idea that popped in their minds. 

Sometimes that can end up being something fun like trying out rollerblades for the first time, going to a thrift store, or meeting up with a friend who also happened to be bored out of their mind and sometimes it can be something productive like organizing a desk drawer or becoming interested in a new skill.

The trick is to embrace the boredom for long enough to find something that sounds actually fun rather than just something to keep you busy until something else comes along to entertain you.

And while in the moment that idea may seem mind numbingly without any engaging quality whatsoever, it may end up making some massive differences in your life.

You’ll find yourself living just a little bit more, doing more, and probably scrolling a lot less.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that all boredom in our lives can be dismissed. There are simply some things in the mundane category of your schedule that probably can’t be avoided.

We all wish we could spend every day doing whatever we wanted. To some that means going out on adventures and for others that means watching a movie in bed. But no matter what ways you find life most entertaining, they usually can’t last forever. 

Eventually the road trip has to end. 

Eventually you have to stop bed rotting and actually rejoin society.

And while the mundane can occasionally sound like one of the worst parts of your life, what you might not realize is just how much of a positive impact those tiny little boring things you do each day can add up to a greater life in general.

There is joy to be found in completing those minor tasks like doing the laundry or the dishes because in the back of your head, even as you are actively complaining about doing the laundry or the dishes, you know you are making your space a better one to live in.

It's not just the menial, repetitive tasks either… 

Working toward something you want in life isn’t always glamorous and it certainly isn’t always exciting.

You’ll have to sit through boring conversations, brainstorm when you feel your brain is as empty of creative thought as that of a pile of stock photo cliches, and do tasks so lame, they’ll make you want to quit. And yet it is those, not the team bonding trips you take with your co-workers, or adding decorations to your pretty new financial planner, or sitting around daydreaming about your goals being met, that actually make the difference.

In the end, it is stagnant boredom that we want to avoid. The boredom you feel when you quite literally are not moving or doing something with your mind. Boredom can be the mother of good ideas but without the desire to do something about it, those ideas become useless. 

As for the boring activities we just need to do, keep in mind that sometimes it is those that count. It's those menial, repetitive, tiresome, mundane tasks that are the worst in the moment but pay off the greatest in a given time.