The Stages of Boredom and Nothingness

A phase by phase story, with a 2-by-2 ending :)

When you have much more time than you have ever had, what can you do with it? There are many options. Some which I deliberated upon were:

1. Sit at home, sleep for 14 hrs a day, and DO NOTHING – A very enticing option I must say
2. Do some part time work and earn some moolah
3. Develop a new hobby
4. Learn some life skills

All of these appear to be in order of rationality, with the last one being possibly the best option. But as is the case with many, rationality comes after learning from our mistakes.

So when I first had some free time, about 2 months ago now, all I did was follow option 1. It was a good relief to be doing nothing, sleeping a lot, and have no tensions about anything in the world. Soon, and ironically, doing nothing became tiring. The tiredness was more mental, and the brain which had been trained to appreciate challenges and love stimulation, was not rotting away. This situation was very uneasy, but only after about 2-3 weeks had passed.

Then, came the seduction phase – Do some small job for a month, mint some money, and spend it well for the remaining time period. There had been a need to be financially independent for a LOOONG time now, and an MBA meant delaying the desirable by 2 more years. I didn’t want to delay it any further, and jumped at a lucrative opportunity, not for the moolah, but for the need to DO SOMETHING.

I wasn’t anywhere near to being prepared, and hence this was a challenge. Somehow, I managed to do well, and the feedback was “ROCKING”. This meant I enjoyed my one month much more than I would have settled for, and had a new found confidence that I do have an alternative career if the mid life crisis does hit me.

After I ended this phase, I moved to another lull, with tons of free time again. This was the birth of some hobbies – art galleries, blogging, novels, movies et al. I am still in this phase, though I would be consciously trying to move out of this to the next one too. The reason for this, is very well explained by a concept I came across.

Most MBAs think 2-by-2 grids are crap, worthless ways of decorating simple facts, but they do create a lasting impression that I tend to not forget too easily. Thanks to my employer, I know one about time management by Prof. Stephen Covey. He differentiates between the normal people and the most effective ones on the basis of their patterns of spending their time.

Most of us mere mortals spend a lot of time on the urgent and the important, and some time on the unimportant. Frankly, most things that are urgent, represent only incremental benefits to us for the long term. An assignment, a cheque to be deposited, a chore to be taken care of, are all very urgent and important, but would these add anything to what I am or would be 30 years hence?



And then, there are the effective people, who spend most of their time on things that are important, but never urgent. These things include reading up on things, developing skills, volunteering, and networking. None of these are urgent, and not doing them won’t ever significantly impact us in the short term, but in the long term, these are the things that matter, and possibly, make the effective people as effective as they are.

No wonder even I am realizing that I need to move on to the 4th phase, the 4th option, and focus on developing skills I need for a lifetime. May it be cooking, or getting a PAN Card, or learning how to trade online, or appreciate art, I want to learn it all, and do it now.

If only, I knew of this 2-by-2 earlier, I would have done this a lot earlier.. neah.. I still won’t have. I guess profound thoughts and philosophy needs a lot of time, and to get to know what you want to do, requires a lot more free time, when you have nothing urgent to focus on.

The only learning I can draw is to have some time for myself, where there is nothing that’s urgent, and where I can reassess my path, and see whether it reaches my goal or not.

Was fun writing this, though its too teachery and long again.. sorry for that.
Comments are welcome again