How “Boring Sessions” Changed My Life

Most of my life, my mind acted like a housecat, for times, it would be bored, under stimulated, and sleepy.

When I sat in class, my mind would wander often, I couldn’t stand the crippling boredom of listening to words slowly crawling into my mind, it was a torture, that’s how I imagined living in slow motion (Except of Physics and Math, that was a pleasure).

It bothered me that I could read the same thing in half the time, minus the class and understand it better, but it was mandatory to sit in class, so wandering it is.

A constant state of Idleness.

At other times, my mind acted like a cat at 2AM, running around the house, bumping, scratching, dropping stuff and waking you up with a Paw-Smack to the face.

Evoking Chaos just to see something interesting happens.

I would grab anything that excites the slightest interest for my mind, consume it to the very end, and repeat with the next thing.

All with working on 3 different projects at the same time (and TV in the background, for the white noise).

It was a state of hyperfocus, with immense crave for stimulation, and super high energy levels.

On those times, after school hours I was a ghost, friends had to come and knock on my door in order to get some life signal from me.

My parents had to get me off the computer and force me to sleep, otherwise I would stay up until 4AM (As a school student it was somewhat a problem).

And that Seesaw of states kept going for a long time, Even after high school. Periods of crippling boredom and total Idleness, periods of hyper focus and being ON for long hours.

As a high school student, it wasn’t that of a problem, I did my homework, prepared for tests and got decent grades.

There was some notorious balance between daily 7 hours of school boredom and the rest of the day being in my zone.

The real problem rose after my discharge from the Israeli Army, at the age of 21.

**In Israel, there is a mandatory 3-years service starting at 18, So basically, I finished High school and joined the army (That is a long Arc, a lot of stories for other letters).

So here I am, 21, just finished my service, and for the first time in life, no one’s telling me what to do.

zero obligations to others, just me and the unlimited potential.

I fucking loved that.

All I thought about was starting an online business, getting super productive, devouring every single piece of knowledge I can get my hands on and working my way up to success.

All with the knowledge that I can be hyper productive, with real-life proof from those school periods.

But then I faced life.

The reality was indeed periods of hyper productivity, I completed books like madman, did a fitness coach certification and in the background, there was a mundane 9-5 job (And Gym sessions, which were in the routine for years at that point).

But in between those peak periods, there were crashes, the same state of idleness and doing nothing, but now there is no one to blame.

Nobody forced me to sit in class, nobody told me what to do, and still, I find myself lying in bed wide awake for hours, staring blankly at the vast void of reality.

That was frustrating, I felt like shit holding a bag of shit, just to magnify the image of his own Shitness.

Those seesaw waves kept going for years, and those contrasted states balanced themselves, keeping me stuck.

Constant lift offs and crashes, keeping me on the ground. That was a tough blow to my motivation.

I loved the Peaks, but despised the lows.

I would hate myself for reaching lows, angry about why I couldn’t operate as I did in the past.

Trying to fight those lows, I searched for productivity hacks, new time management methods, and read self-help books, but it didn’t do shit, still crashing, still on the ground.

And here we’re reaching the turning point.

I analyzed the situation from every possible angle, searching for ways to eliminate the Idleness, shooting every arrow I got toward that enemy.

The only thing I didn’t try is to lean towards the Idleness.

To change my perspective and not see it as a problem needs to be eliminated.

Not an enemy, but a byproduct rooted in a deeper source.

It reminds me of the saying on how the nose is always just in front of our eyes but we take it as granted and ignore it.

When it struck me, my coach-self was ashamed.

I focused too much on the load, on trying to tweak the weight I lift.

“Maybe try to lift it in another way? Maybe change the training program?”

The only thing I didn’t do was to pay attention to my recovery.

In Training, the Rule is: “The heavier the load, the heavier the recovery”.

I tried to operate with maximal effort on a daily basis, without proper recovery, wondering why I get burnt out so often and so hard.

Foolish me.

From that point of realization things started to click, I examined the same school situation but with shading a different light on it.

Previously, I looked only at the peaks, trying so desperately to restore them.

I blindly ignored the deep rest that occurred on a daily basis, sitting in class for 7 hours, wandering in my mind doing nothing.

That’s one hell of a mind recovery.

With looking on that school time as a rest, everything fell into place.

The Rule of “Heavy Load, Heavy Recovery” fits just right.

From here I researched and integrated Mind-Recovery activities into my routine.

On a daily basis, it came in the form of Small 10-20 minute breaks, doing either Meditation, Breath Work or Naps (I explain each of them below).

On a weekly basis, it came in the form of “Boring Sessions.”

Those weekly “Boring Sessions” changed my life.

Resetting my interest baseline, creating a hunger for stimulation and increasing my drive to work.

End result:

• No more crashes.

• Therefore, no more frustration from Mental Crashes.

• New, upgraded interpretation of the same physical signals (looking on burn outs as a lack of load-recovery balance).

• Better reaction to those signals, leading to better energy maintenance.

Now, Let’s talk practice.

The Best Mind-Recovery Activities to integrate into your routine (Easy to do & Immediate Results):

Meditation-

Meditation comes in various ways, differing in the initial goal and the physical practicality.

There are kinds where you try to concentrate, others where you are not. Repeating a mantra, focusing on your breath, focusing on your thoughts and the list goes on.

For releasing mind tension, and restoring brain power fast, I like to do the following:

• Sitting or lying down comfortably (if possible, outside).

• Setting Timer for 10-15 minutes (for time tracking and not falling asleep).

• Closing my eyes, taking deep breaths and focusing on the sounds I hear.

• With every sound, I try to imagine a picture fitting that sound.

Easy as that.

The objective here is to let the mind focus on a low-effort task with the taste of being present.

Give it a try and remember that the big goal is to decompress your mind, and not force a certain way on yourself.

If you see that you are drawn to a different practice that fits you better and serves that goal, go for it.

The only way to find out is to try.

Breath Work-

The rationale behind breath work is to harness the physical aspects of our breath to manipulate our mind state.

With breathing in a deep, slow manner, we activate the Parasympathetic nervous system, which is characterized with calmness and relaxation (also called Rest & Digest system).

We control the mind with our body, here’s the how to:

• Sit or lie down comfortably.

• You can close your eyes or keep them open (up to you).

• Set the timer for 5-10 minutes (you can go longer, that range is a sweet spot).

• Inhale deeply through your nose, try to fill your belly with as much air as possible (Diaphragm Breathing).

• Let the air flow out naturally, without trying to push it out or squeeze (like releasing air from a balloon).

• Repeat.

You can also practice conscious breathing while doing other stuff, like washing dishes or while working on the computer (boost ability to retain focus).

Naps-

Well, I think that’s self explanatory. Waking up from a good nap is like respawning back to life after visiting another dimension.

The important thing with mid-day naps are to keep them in a certain time range in order to wake up fresh and not groggy:

• For short naps, go for 7-25 minutes, keeping the sleep light (N1 or N2 stages) and easy to wake from.

• For longer naps, go for 1.5 hours, completing a full sleep cycle.

  (It will be a hard task to estimate accurately when the Deep Sleep stage ends. trying to wake up during that stage will cause grogginess and you will feel tired, so the best go-to is to complete a full sleep cycle, which will take around 1.5 hours)

Weekly “Boring Session”-

Now, that’s the heavy artillery.

Once a week, at the end of it, I take a few hours to get myself bored to death.

I sit outside, silent, with no phone, no books, no people.

Just me and good old reality.

The purpose of those Boring Sessions is to get myself to an extreme state of under-stimulation.

This state gives me contrast to the state of hyper focus, and by deliberately creating under-stimulation, I gain control over my focus state.

It’s like fasting, everything is tastier after not eating for a while.

The same goes with the boring session, everything becomes more interesting.

In order to make the most of it, the important element here is to direct that new energy in a productive way.

Sure, you can get yourself bored and then go and scroll on TikTok, but what gain comes with it?

Prepare an inventory of productive activities to engage with.

The preparation alone will prime your mind to gravitate towards that inventory.

Also, having an activity inventory will keep your energy investment laser focused.

To harness the power of boredom even further-

make a list of the most boring things you know you need to do but keep avoiding.

When you finish the session, immediately attack that list and eliminate it one by one.

How long a Boring Session should take?

Get at least to a point where the boredom starts to irritate.

From that point, I will try to last as long as I can (Usually it takes me around 2-3 hours).

The big goal is to stimulate hunger, and as with food hunger, it depends.

Depends on the individual, on the timing, and how full you come to the session.

Be flexible with the times and try to be aware of your inner stimulation hunger.

The theory here is not complicated, you sit, you get bored, and by law of contrast every other activity seems attractive and stimulating.

Push yourself to that point, where every other “boring” activity will be preferable.

As with every other thing, start small, and the important part is to be aware of your inner state of interest (or lack of interest) and crave for stimulation.

Being aware of my energy levels and recovery changed the way I perceive productivity and helped me increase it dramatically.

• Start with adding one of the Mind-Recovery Activities to your routine.

• Be aware of your energy levels before and after each activity.

• Try them all in order to know what suits you the best.

That’s it for the first Golden Nugget!

Have a wonderful weekend, all.

Much love to you and yours,

Yuval.

P.S,
I would be more than happy to hear your thoughts on that Golden Nugget👇🏽