I love listening to music. I also love listening to podcasts. And audiobooks. And game broadcasts. I love listening to things. Several years ago a friend of mine asked me “when do you allow your mind to think?” I didn’t know what she meant. She explained. I’ve got music going at work. I listen to something when I’m working out and then when I go for a walk or bike ride. Then if I’m mowing the yard I’ve got noise cancelling headphones in as well.

At that time in my life I shrugged it off as nothing of importance. It was something I did because I was learning or it was educational. That’s the excuse I told myself at least. Truth is I didn’t like certain things about my life and I didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts because I was worried what might come out if I was.

For those of you who have been following along (all two of you…my parents probably) 2023 has turned into something interesting for me. This year was labeled (by me) as the year of intentionality. I wasn’t sure what would come of that. I wasn’t sure what that meant for me or what it was going to turn into. Eight months in and it’s starting to take some shape. I’ve put down the digital calendar, the digital todo list. I do not have a digital project management system any more. I have put down social media for the most part. I am now journaling every day in a physical notebook as opposed to trying to use Day One. All of this in an effort to get away from spending so much time on my phone. Instead, I carry a Field Notes book with me everywhere and that has become my note taking system as well as my calendar and task management system. I do have a planner I use as well.

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been thinking about what my friend said to me. “When do you allow your mind to think?” Keeping in context with the year I started pondering this. So I decided to do something. I decided to put down the headphones when I workout this week. I went on six different workouts and did not take my headphones at all. Full disclosure some of those were with my wife and I wouldn’t have taken them with me anyways. The other times, though, I could have and didn’t.

To make things better, I left the phone at the house and didn’t even have it with me. One of the walks I went on, I took a digital camera instead of my phone. What I learned is this: It’s amazing what you can learn when you allow your mind to be bored. When you allow it time to think and process.

I’m a firm believer that one of the problems we have today is the constant need for attention. And I don’t mean for us to get attention. I mean we want something to hold our attention. Remember back in the day when you stood in line at the grocery store and read the headlines on all the magazines at the checkout stands? That’s where you saw which celebrity had been abducted by aliens and who was supposedly cheating on who. Now, you don’t have that. If someone is line for more than thirty seconds, they take out their phone and start scrolling through social media.

Or parents will put a phone or tablet in front of a kid while they sit at a restaurant table to keep the kid occupied. When I was younger we colored or talked or look around the restaurant. Now, we didn’t have these devices when I was younger and I’m not saying my parents wouldn’t haven done the same thing if they had the chance. I don’t think they would have but I can’t say that for certain. What I can say is that I had time to get bored as a kid and it didn’t cause me any harm.

We are constantly feeding information into our brains. Whether it’s television, books, social media feeds, YouTube videos, TikTok, or anything else that comes our way. We are constantly filling our brains up. From sunup to sundown every single day. We are in information overload. The problem with this is if we are constantly taking in information and never allowing ourselves the opportunity to process that information, we can become burned out or start feeling anxious. We can also feel like something is missing because we are not allowing ourselves to work the creative side of our brain.

Boredom does this. It allows our brain to think. It allows us to process information and it allows us to come up with creative ideas. That could be writing a book or a blog post. It could be something fun to do with your spouse or family. We were made to be creative. Look around you. Look at nature and tell me that God didn’t want you to be creative with what you do.

So, my experiment is only a week old but I can already tell you that I like where this is going. I can see more phone-less ventures in my future. Whether that’s a walk or a bike ride, I can see the importance of allowing myself the time to be creative. So contrary to popular belief, it’s ok to allow yourself to be bored. Who knows, the next New York Times Best Seller may come from it.