How will our hero stave off this eternal foe? With the work day just beginning, can he withstand such an onslaught of tedium for so long?
The Boredom Fairy has yet to realise however, that with the combination of her dastardly powers and the requirement and necessity of the employee workload, a new force is born. Inspired Procrastination!
This is something I've noticed or a while now. For all my love of writing and doodling/drawing, I can only ever bring myself to do either when I'm at work as a way to put off the tedium that a job can sometimes bring. At home I'll very rarely engage in either without some circumstances such as a power-cut or sleeplessness. I'm fairly certain this is because of three factors:
- At home I have free time to do as I please. Read, watch or play.
- I'm very impatient when it comes to acquiring skills and without an obvious improvement in any of my creations, I'll swiftly give up.
- Finally, I am one hell of a lazy creature at times.
The doodling suffers the most, with the only amount done being on scrap paper at my office desk. That combined with my inability to try new things out of a fear of failing, means I have stacks and stacks of paper all with cartoon heads on; the one main doodle I'm happy with. As for the writing? That comes in fits and starts as evidenced by this very blog (all of which I think I did do at work. I do do actual work, honest!). It was getting much more frequent at one point when I had the pleasure of essentially writing a letter once a day via e-mail, to what I can only describe as a pen-pal. As informal as that was it did focus me a lot more by giving me an achievable target: write a letter for your friend on the other side of the internet. That has come to an end now and as such my urge to put letter to page has dwindled to its former dim glow. In that time my mind was challenged, my imagination given an outlet and I created a handful of ideas I'm proud of. So is that the solution? The answer as to why I do this when at work? I am faced with a problem (boredom) and I overcome it with the chosen answer (procrastination).
Do I unknowingly yearn for an obstacle to test my creativity against?
Yes. I think most people desire there to be an obstacle in life to overthrow. It is the reason that we, as a culture, and you, as an individual, have become so obsessed by the notion of the comic book hero. But beyond that, it is a notion which reaches back into the great darkness and light of Greek myth. Creativity is, perhaps, the most intangible of targets, but never fear. It has been some of the greatest of writer who have battled, won out against, and eventually triumphed by writing about enui! Fight the good fight -- the fastest way to join the canon is by being down right bored and miserable!
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