My daughter looked up at me last weekend with that expression every parent knows too well.

“Papa, I’m bored.”

She said it like it was a medical emergency. Like being bored for 10 minutes might actually kill her.

And here’s the thing — I almost reached for my phone to fix it. Almost pulled up YouTube Kids or handed her the iPad. Almost solved the “problem” of boredom like it was something dangerous.

But then I stopped.

Because I remembered what boredom used to mean when I was her age. It meant you were either boring yourself, or you needed to go find something to do. Read a book. Go outside. Build something. Use your damn imagination.

Boredom wasn’t a problem to solve. It was a space to fill.

And somewhere between then and now, we forgot that. We turned boredom into an enemy. Something to eliminate. Something to fear.

The philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote that “all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

He wrote that in 1670.

Imagine what he’d say about us now — when we can’t even stand in line at the supermarket without pulling out our phones.

How Lin-Manuel Miranda Used Boredom to Create Hamilton

Lin-Manuel Miranda was stuck.

Not creatively blocked, exactly. Just… busy. Saying yes to everything. Grinding through projects. Doing what successful people do — hustling harder, sleeping less, staying connected.

His career was moving. But his creativity? That felt as if it was standing still.

Then he went on vacation to Mexico.

He brought one book — Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton. No plan to write anything. No agenda. Just a week on the beach with his girlfriend (now wife) and nothing to do.

He started reading about this immigrant kid who wrote his way into history. About ambition and legacy and how one person’s story can change everything.

“When I picked up Ron Chernow’s biography, I was at a resort in Mexico on my first vacation from ‘In The Heights,’ which I had been working seven years to bring to Broadway,” he continued. “The moment my brain got a moment’s rest, ‘Hamilton’ walked into it.”

And because he had nothing else to do — no emails to check, no meetings to prep for, no social media to scroll — his brain did what it’s designed to do when you stop forcing it.

It made connections.

It saw patterns.

It created.

That “bored” week on the beach became Hamilton. Eleven Tony Awards. A Pulitzer Prize for dram. A cultural phenomenon that changed American theater forever.

All because Lin-Manuel Miranda gave his brain permission to be bored.

It’s no accident that I read Alexander Hamilton while I was on vacation from In the Heights, and that most of the writing was also on vacations. That makes me double down on making room for myself.
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (Rolling Stone)

Why Modern Professionals Never Experience Real Boredom

We’ve engineered boredom out of existence.

And we’re paying for it.

Think about your last week. How many times did you experience actual, uncomfortable, nothing-to-do boredom?

Not “waiting in line while scrolling your phone” boredom. Real boredom. The kind where you’re alone with your thoughts and there’s nothing to distract you.

If you’re like most people, the answer is zero.

We’ve become so efficient at eliminating empty space that we’ve forgotten why it matters. We fill every gap with input:

• Waiting for coffee? Check your phone.
• Commuting to work? Podcast.
• Working out? Music or audiobook.
• Walking the dog? Return emails.
• Lying in bed? Scroll until you pass out.

All in the name of productivity and efficiency.

We’re drowning in information but starving for insight.

Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman explains why this is killing us. When we’re constantly stimulated by phones, notifications, entertainment, news, you name it, we never activate what he calls the default mode network.

“The default mode network is activated when we’re not focused on the outside world,” Huberman says. “It’s when we daydream, when we’re bored, when we reflect. And that’s when the brain does some of its most important work.”

Translation: Your brain needs boredom to think clearly.

When you’re constantly consuming input, your brain is in reactive mode. It’s processing, responding, reacting. But it’s not creating. It’s not connecting. It’s not solving the deeper problems you’re facing.

The default mode network is where breakthrough ideas happen. Where you connect dots you didn’t know existed. Where you process emotions and experiences and figure out what actually matters.

But you can’t access it if you never give yourself space to be bored.

You need to be bored. You will have less meaning and you will be more depressed if you never are bored.
— Arthur Brooks

Maybe you’ve felt this. That nagging sense that you’re busy but not productive. Moving but not progressing. Consuming but not creating.

You know you should be thinking more strategically about your career. You know you need to figure out your next move. You know there’s a creative project or business idea buried somewhere in your brain.

But you never find it. Because you never create the space for it to emerge.

This is the trap most modern professionals fall into. We optimize for efficiency at the expense of clarity. We stay so busy that we never stop to ask if we’re busy with the right things.

And then we wonder why we feel stuck.

The Neuroscience Behind Why Boredom Unlocks Creativity

Here’s what Lin-Manuel Miranda understood that most of us miss:

Boredom isn’t the absence of productivity. It’s a different kind of work.

When Miranda was on that beach, his brain wasn’t idle. It was doing exactly what human brains evolved to do — making sense of information, finding patterns, solving problems, creating meaning.

He wasn’t forcing creativity. He was creating the conditions for it to emerge.

The neuroscience backs this up. Studies show that when you’re “bored,” your brain increases activity in regions responsible for:

• Autobiographical planning (thinking about your future)
• Problem-solving (working through complex challenges)
• Creative thinking (making unexpected connections)
• Emotional processing (making sense of experiences)

This is why your best ideas come in the shower. Not because water is magical (let’s be honest, it really is 🤫), but because it’s one of the few places you can’t bring your phone.

Miranda’s beach breakthrough wasn’t luck. It was the inevitable result of giving his brain what it needed most: nothing to do.

And here’s the proof: Hamilton went on to win 11 Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and became one of the most successful productions in Broadway history. It revolutionized American theater. It changed how we think about history, diversity, and storytelling.

All because one guy got bored on a beach.

Now Miranda intentionally builds boredom into his creative process. He protects empty space like it’s his most valuable resource. Because he knows that’s where the magic happens.

This is possible for you too. You don’t need a week in Mexico. You don’t need to quit your job and become a monk. You just need to understand what boredom actually is — and how to use it.

Here’s what Miranda did differently — and what you can do too:

5 Ways to Use Boredom for Creative Breakthroughs

1. Schedule Sacred Boredom (20 Minutes, 3x Per Week)

Boredom won’t happen by accident. You have to create it intentionally.

Start with three 20-minute walks per week. No phone. No music. No podcasts. Just you and your thoughts. Bill Gates built his career on “Think Weeks” — seven days alone in a cabin with nothing but books and ideas. His “Internet Tidal Wave” memo that changed Microsoft’s entire strategy? Written during a Think Week.

Do this in 5 minutes: Block three 20-minute walks on your calendar for next week. Label them “Think Time.” Treat them like meetings you can’t miss.

2. Break Your Phone Reflex (The 30-Second Rule)

Notice how fast you reach for your phone when you have 30 seconds of nothing to do. That reflex is destroying your ability to think clearly.

Train yourself to sit with discomfort. When you’re waiting in line, at a stoplight, between meetings, don’t grab your phone. Just wait. Let your mind wander. Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert ran an experiment where people sat in a room for 15 minutes with nothing to do. They could push a button to give themselves a painful electric shock. The majority chose the shock over boredom. Don’t be that person.

Do this in 5 minutes: Put your phone in another room for the next hour. Just sit. Notice the urge to check it. Don’t act on it. Build the muscle of doing nothing.

3. Protect Your Morning Mind (No Phone for 60 Minutes)

The first 60-90 minutes after you wake up are when your brain is most capable of creative thinking. Your default mode network is still active from sleep. This is gold for problem-solving and big-picture thinking.

Don’t check your phone first thing. Don’t scroll. Don’t consume. Just think. Write. Walk. Let your brain process before you fill it with other people’s agendas.

Do this in 5 minutes: Set a rule—no phone for the first hour after waking up. Keep it in another room overnight. Get a regular alarm clock if you have to.

4. Single-Task Your Movement (Walk Without Podcasts)

Every time you exercise, commute, or move your body, you have a choice: consume input or create space.

Stop listening to podcasts on every run. Stop checking emails on every walk. Let your body move and your mind wander. This is when your brain solves problems you didn’t even know you were working on. Some of my best content ideas don’t come from reading or research—they come from running without headphones.

Do this in 5 minutes: Pick one physical activity this week—a run, a walk, a gym session—and do it in complete silence. No music. No podcasts. Just movement and thought.

5. Cut Your Information Diet in Half (Audit Exercise)

You don’t need more input. You need more processing time.

Look at what you’re consuming. Newsletters. Podcasts. Social media. YouTube. News. All of it is someone else’s agenda filling your brain. Cut 50% of it and watch what happens. You’ll start having your own ideas instead of recycling everyone else’s.

Do this in 5 minutes: List every newsletter, podcast, and social media account you follow. Cross off half. Unsubscribe immediately. Protect your attention like your career depends on it—because it does.

Where to Start

Lin-Manuel Miranda created one of the most influential works of art in modern history because he gave himself permission to be bored.

Isaac Newton developed calculus, the laws of motion, and theories of gravity during 18 months of forced isolation during the plague. Not because he worked harder, but because he had nothing else to do.

J.K. Rowling conceived the entire Harry Potter universe during a four-hour delayed train ride with no pen, no paper, and no phone.

Your best ideas aren’t hiding. They’re just waiting for you to create the space for them to emerge.

So here’s my challenge:

This week, give yourself one hour of real boredom. No phone. No input. No agenda. Just space. Walk. Sit. Stare at the ceiling. Let your mind do what it’s designed to do.

You might feel uncomfortable. That’s the point. Sit with it. The discomfort is your brain adjusting to the absence of constant stimulation.

And on the other side? Clarity you’ve been missing.

Don’t wait for permission. Don’t wait for a vacation. Don’t wait until your life forces you into boredom like a layoff or a pandemic.

Start now. Be bored on purpose. Your best work is waiting on the other side.

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