Inverse: 9 ways to be more strategic in 2019: our favorite advice from the last year

Originally found at Inverse by James Dennin

The holidays can feel like a full-time job. There’s the shopping, which is stressful and often super sweaty, and probably some travel (may your flights be on time and your train terminals be relatively urine free). If you’re hosting, there’s an intense meal to plan for a group that inevitably includes at least one vegan or gluten intolerant; towels to clean and pillows to fluff; and probably a temper tantrum or two.

I’m laying it on thick in the name of making a point, perhaps, but only because I want to use my last Strategy column of 2018 to remind you all to take some time for yourselves. Specifically, take some time to be bored.

People hate being bored. In fact, nearly half of people who have the choice between being bored and taking an electric shock will take the shock. It’s why we tend to over-schedule ourselves and why we pick up our phone every few minutes when we’re not being immediately distracted by something that’s super urgent.

The mind is hardwired to seek out novelty (this, incidentally, is also why you’ve probably pictured your favorite cartoon character naked). But, particularly in our less-than-contemplative age, we may have taken this novelty-seeking impulse too far. And this isn’t just about annoying kids in the backseat going apoplectic when their Switch battery dies. We all should maybe be spending a little more time doing boring stuff, according to an upcoming paper from the Academy of Management Discoveries, a journal published by the Academy of Management, an industry non-profit.

Continue reading original article at Inverse.

Learn more about the AOM Scholars and explore their work:

• Guihyun Park, Australian National University
• Beng-Chong Lim, Nanyang Technological University Singapore
• Hui Si Oh, Singapore Management University