Latest / The Burnout Podcast with Fexingo: Workplace Exhaustion, Recovery, and Sustainable Careers / How Career Burnout Reshapes Your Relationship with Boredom
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this number that's been stuck in my head for weeks. Microsoft published a study back in 2024 — they tracked how long people could stay focused on a single task before switching. The average? Forty-seven seconds. Luna: Wow. That's less than a minute. Lucas: Yeah. And what's wild is that number was already dropping from earlier studies. But here's the thing — when I read that, I didn't think about productivity or corporate efficiency. I thought about burnout. Because one of the quietest, least talked about symptoms of burnout is that you lose your ability to be bored. Luna: That's such a good point. I remember during my worst burnout phase, I could not sit still for a single moment. If I had to wait in line at the grocery store, I'd be pulling out my phone, checking email, scrolling — anything to avoid having to just stand there. Lucas: Exactly. Boredom becomes intolerable. And I think that's partly because burnout depletes your cognitive and emotional reserves. So your brain starts chasing small hits of dopamine — a notification, a new tab, a refresh — just to keep going. But the problem is, that actually makes the exhaustion worse. You never get real rest. Luna: It's like you're constantly in low-grade fight or flight, but instead of running from a tiger, you're running from silence. Lucas: Right. And the irony is, boredom is actually a really valuable state. There's research from psychologist Sandi Mann at the University of Central Lancashire — she's written a lot about how boredom is a gateway to creativity. When you let your mind wander, you make connections you wouldn't otherwise. But if you can't tolerate boredom, you never get there. Luna: So burnout basically short-circuits the very thing that could help you recover — the ability to just be, without doing. Lucas: Yeah. And I think it's worth digging into what happens to the brain when you're burned out and constantly seeking stimulation. There's a concept called 'attentional fatigue' — it's when your directed attention, the kind you use to focus on work or a conversation, gets worn out. The natural remedy is something called 'involuntary attention' — letting your mind be captured by gentle stimuli, like a breeze or leaves rustling. That's restorative. But when you're burned out, you don't allow that. You reach for your phone, which demands directed attention again. So you never recover. Luna: That explains why after a full day of work, even if I just sit on the couch scrolling, I still feel drained. It's not rest. Lucas: Exactly. The scrolling is still work for your brain. And I think a lot of us have normalized this. We think we're relaxing, but we're actually just switching to a different kind of cognitive demand. And over time, your tolerance for genuine boredom — for doing nothing — just atrophies. Luna: I remember reading something from Mann about how boredom can actually be a signal. It tells you that your current situation isn't engaging you in a meaningful way. So maybe the problem isn't boredom itself — it's that we've lost the ability to sit with that signal and interpret it. Lucas: That's a really important reframe. Because if you immediately kill the boredom with a distraction, you never ask yourself: why am I bored? Is this task meaningless? Am I overstimulated? Do I actually need a break? The boredom is data. And burnout makes you throw that data away. Luna: So what do we do about it? I mean, I can't just tell my brain to stop craving stimulation. Lucas: No, you can't. But you can practice boredom in small doses. Like, deliberately leave your phone in another room when you're making coffee. Or when you're waiting for a meeting to start, just sit and look out the window for thirty seconds. It feels uncomfortable at first — your brain will scream for a hit — but that discomfort is the withdrawal. And it passes. Luna: I've actually started doing something similar. I have a rule now — when I'm walking from my car to the office, no headphones, no phone. Just walking. And at first it felt so weird. Like, what do I do with my eyes? But after a few weeks, I started noticing things — the light on a building, a bird. And I felt my shoulders drop. Lucas: That's exactly the kind of micro-recovery that rebuilds attentional capacity. And there's actually a term for it — 'awe walks.' Researchers at UC Berkeley found that people who took weekly 'awe walks' — where they intentionally looked for things that inspired wonder — reported lower stress and greater well-being. But the key is that you have to be willing to be bored first, to get to the awe. Luna: So boredom is almost like a gateway drug to awe. Lucas: Ha, I love that. And I think it's also worth naming the structural side of this. Because it's not just individual willpower. Our workplaces are designed to destroy boredom tolerance. Constant Slack pings, email notifications, open-plan offices. The average knowledge worker switches tasks every three minutes, not because they want to, but because their environment forces it. So part of recovery is building an environment that allows for boredom. Luna: Right — like blocking off focus time, turning off notifications, having a physical space where you can just sit. That's hard if you work in a noisy open office, but even small boundaries help. Lucas: Absolutely. And the last thing I'd mention is that rebuilding boredom tolerance is not about being unproductive. It's about recognizing that constant productivity is a myth. Your brain needs downtime to consolidate memories, solve problems, and regulate emotions. That's not laziness. That's biology. Luna: So if someone listening is burned out and feels like they can't stop moving, what's one thing they could try today? Lucas: I'd say: pick one transition moment today — maybe after you finish a task, or when you sit down to eat lunch — and just do nothing for sixty seconds. No phone, no book, no podcast. Just sit. Set a timer if you have to. And notice how it feels. The goal isn't to enjoy it. The goal is to survive it. Because every time you survive the discomfort, you're retraining your brain that boredom is safe. Luna: I like that. It's almost like exposure therapy for your attention span. Lucas: Exactly. And honestly, if today's episode helped you think about your own relationship with boredom, and if it was worth the price of a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small way to keep this show ad-free and focused on the things that actually help. Luna: Yeah, listener support is what keeps us independent. And we really appreciate it. Lucas: So back to that sixty-second experiment — I actually did it this morning. I sat on my porch for one minute before starting work. No phone. And at first I thought, I should be reviewing my notes. But after about forty seconds, I just... breathed. And that one minute set a different tone for the whole day. Luna: That's the kind of small shift that can actually build into something bigger. Not overnight, but over time. Lucas: Right. And that's the recovery journey — not a dramatic transformation, but a series of tiny rebellions against the culture of constant stimulation. Starting with one boring minute.