Here’s a story from Fast Company on the role of boredom in creativity.
Martin Lindstrom writes, “According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, young people cram an average of more than 10 hours of media content into each and every day—close to 10 times the amount of time they spend with their parents.
“Recently, the International Center for Media and Public Agenda asked 1,000 students to live without any electronic devices for 24 hours. Not such a monumental task, you’d think? But more than half had given up within two hours, and the ‘survivors’ reported an overwhelming sense of emptiness and boredom. …
“While boredom may threaten your ability to work quickly and efficiently, it may be essential to working well. As writer and philosopher Robert Pirsig claimed, ‘Boredom always precedes a period of great creativity.’ Even if that isn’t always the case for you, chances are you need to be a little bored in order to generate your most inventive ideas and produce your highest-quality work. …
“Some of the most talented and successful people all share the ability to combine two or more ordinary things in an completely novel way. That kind of creative thinking doesn’t happen as a result of brute-force cogitation. In my experience, and in the experiences of the many creatives I’ve interviewed about this process, it happens during those transition zones, the moments of unforced boredom that they’ve each made an intentional effort to restore to their lives. …
“The transition zones that work for you … might be taking a leisurely walk around the neighborhood. Or it might mean a 10-mile run. It might be in the car. It might involve a glass of iced tea in an Adirondack chair on your patio. Whatever it is for you, it’s a time when you give yourself permission to put the electronics away, stop forcing your thought process forward at a frantic clip, and allow your thoughts to take their own meandering course.” More here.
It’s worth acknowledging that long-term boredom can be debilitating. But I agree it’s important to give yourself plenty of spaces to do nothing, to think. Plenty of spaces every day, I’d say.
Photo: Annabel Fitzsimmons
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I could not agree more. Remember when we were kids and complained about being bored? I know I got NO sympathy from my parents and was expected to go find my own fun–and it all came from my imagination. (Boy, I sound so OLD!)
Yeah. I sometimes find myself trying to show a kid how it might be possible to make up imaginary adventures with a toy rather than just operate the features that were designed into it.