Boredom; my coping mechanism

No matter how busy one is, there is a high possibility of experiencing boredom once in a while. I don't get bored easily, thanks to many activities that I have in my hands. I get busy daily to the point of wishing to have a day longer than 24 hours.

Once I wake up in the morning, I will plan my activities for the day. The time that I will spend at work, have a nap after work, read the online daily, and carry out my regular activities on hive is well planned at the beginning of the day. Many days, I end up not achieving everything I set out to achieve during the day 100 percent. For this reason, I rarely feel bored if everything works as planned because the time required is more than what I have to work with. However, disruptions in the execution are bound to happen some days. On such a day, I may find myself being bored.

In the instance of having my phone with me while feeling bored, music is my go-to solution. I am a lover of reggae music, and my favorite artists are the late Bob Marley and Lucky Dube. I have their songs on my phone. In addition to these two legends, I have songs of Fela Anikulapo Kuti in their numbers too. Once I play the songs of any of the aforementioned legends, I am taken over by a unique spirit of deeper reflections. The next thing you would hear from me is to be singing along. When I soak my soul in the music for quite some time, the spirit of boredom is defeated.

If I am not playing music, the next thing I would likely be doing with my phone is playing word puzzle games. The games are thought-provoking, and they get me glued to my phone when I am playing any of them. In the presence of word puzzle games, boredom has no place in my dictionary.

The big question is, What will I be doing if my phone is off and I feel bored? On occasions like this, I get myself engaged with physical activities. I don't experience this often. Anytime I experience it, my coping mechanism is either to read hardcopy books or take a rare street walk.

About ten months ago, I started my master's degree program. I have been spending time on the work by reading printed journal articles in preparation for my thesis. In fact, this endeavor has affected my activities on hive lately. The time is rarely enough to read all the journal articles that I lined up to read. By the time I finish doing this, it will be time to sleep. This is another aspect of my life that I don't joke with. I derive a lot of energy from having quality sleep.

Once my body needs sleep, I fall for it easily. If I am bored, I can lie down for a few minutes to take a nap and energize my body. If, after 15 minutes, I am not asleep, that means my body is not in need of it. I will stand up and get myself engaged with something else to conquer boredom. This and the earlier discussed mechanisms help me cope with boredom.