A writer at Fast Company conducted a personal experiment to combat doomscrolling and information overload by intentionally engineering more boredom into daily life. The goal was to reduce internet consumption to only research purposes for one week, replacing screen time with activities like reading print books and simply letting the mind be still.
The experiment was born from a struggle with distractions during mundane moments—waiting in line, commuting, or exercising—where the writer would reflexively reach for a phone. Constant content consumption, from rage-bait rabbit holes to podcast queues, left the mind feeling crowded and made creative idea generation feel like “pushing a boulder up a hill.”
By committing to offline reading—nonfiction in the morning and fiction at night—the writer found that mornings no longer began with a phone screen. More notably, the forced downtime during commutes and gym sessions initially felt uncomfortable but soon opened space for unexpected creative connections and story concepts.
The outcome suggests that boredom can be a valuable creative tool rather than something to immediately escape. For knowledge workers whose livelihood depends on original thinking, carving out deliberate gaps in information intake may enhance productivity and mental clarity.
Of course, this is a single n-of-1 experiment, not a controlled study. Individual results will vary widely, and what works for one person may not generalize to others with different work demands or personality types.