{"slug":"boredom-therapy-626-minutes-of-doing-nothing","author":{"name":"Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz","handle":"mfurkanyilmazzz","url":"https://furkanmind.com/about"},"language":"en","url":"https://furkanmind.com/en/mind/boredom-therapy-626-minutes-of-doing-nothing","canonical":"https://furkanmind.com/mind/sikilma-terapisi-626-dakika-hicbir-sey-yapmamak","alternates":{"tr":"https://furkanmind.com/mind/sikilma-terapisi-626-dakika-hicbir-sey-yapmamak","en":"https://furkanmind.com/en/mind/boredom-therapy-626-minutes-of-doing-nothing"},"markdown_url":"https://furkanmind.com/en/mind/boredom-therapy-626-minutes-of-doing-nothing.md","title":"Boredom therapy: 626 minutes of doing nothing","thesis":"When I sit long enough to get bored, with no outside input at all, my mind first cleans up, then it produces.","summary_markdown":"A method my therapist suggested: sit on your own, with no outside input, long enough to get bored. No screen, no music, no cigarette, no coffee. I didn't invent the idea, I'm the one trying it out.\n\nWhile working on the open tab problem, I noticed I hadn't truly been bored in months. On 7 September I started with 10 minutes and increased the time every day. Two seasons, 16 sessions, **626 minutes** in total. I started with 10 minutes and finished with 60. I filmed every session and wrote about it day by day on Threads.\n\nIt isn't meditation. In meditation you manage your attention. I do the opposite, I don't manage it at all. What happens when the mind gets bored: that's the experiment.\n\n## 10 things I learned\n\n1. **Time stretches.** On day one the last 28 seconds wouldn't end. On day 15 I sat for 55 minutes and didn't even notice.\n2. **The mind cleans up first, then produces.** Tired days went to cleaning, rested days rained ideas. The order never changed.\n3. **Ideas don't come when called, they come when there's room.** On the days I forced it, nothing came. An idea from a session I left empty is now a working product: Threads Studio.\n4. **An empty mind switches to detail mode.** The thread on the armchair, the dust on the floor, the cars on the hill. They were always there, I just didn't see them.\n5. **The body relaxes before the mind.** First days: leaning forward, hands clasped. Last days: leaning back. The camera saw it, not me.\n6. **After 40 minutes, sleep and dream-like images arrive.** Duration isn't the only factor, tiredness and starting state decide it.\n7. **The sense of time depends on the place.** At the office I could tell the last minute without looking at a clock. At home I thought it was over with 9 minutes left.\n8. **My boredom threshold changed.** Plane, hotel, wedding, airport queue, 40 minutes in traffic. I didn't get bored in any of them. My sleep settled. It helped my patience most.\n9. **Focus came back.** I can sit with one topic for an hour.\n10. **The ideal duration is 20-30 minutes.** 60 is a nice symbol but needlessly long. Above 40 it turns into something else.\n\n## What it didn't fix\n\nI thought my screen time had dropped. According to my phone, it hadn't: around 5 hours a day, almost unchanged through the experiment. What changed is the need to reach for the phone. In a queue or in traffic I don't reach for it anymore. But when I do, I still scroll. The experiment didn't fix that, it only changed how it feels.\n\n## The dose isn't for everyone\n\nThe most common objection: \"If you were a mother, married, working, you wouldn't find the time.\" 40-50 minutes isn't for everyone, that dose is my own invention. My therapist starts clients on the same method at 5 minutes and adds a minute or two as they get used to it. We tried 5 minutes as a family.\n\nStart with 5 minutes. The rest follows.\n\n## I didn't do it alone\n\nI ran 6 polls, and twice the followers set the direction. The rules of not looking at the timer and setting an alarm came from the comments, and the second season grew out of a follower's block suggestion. A follower also wrote its scientific name: the Default Mode Network.\n\nThe experiment is over, the habit stays: 20-30 minutes every day.","summary_html":"

A method my therapist suggested: sit on your own, with no outside input, long enough to get bored. No screen, no music, no cigarette, no coffee. I didn’t invent the idea, I’m the one trying it out.

\n

While working on the open tab problem, I noticed I hadn’t truly been bored in months. On 7 September I started with 10 minutes and increased the time every day. Two seasons, 16 sessions, 626 minutes in total. I started with 10 minutes and finished with 60. I filmed every session and wrote about it day by day on Threads.

\n

It isn’t meditation. In meditation you manage your attention. I do the opposite, I don’t manage it at all. What happens when the mind gets bored: that’s the experiment.

\n

10 things I learned

\n
    \n
  1. Time stretches. On day one the last 28 seconds wouldn’t end. On day 15 I sat for 55 minutes and didn’t even notice.
    2. \n
  2. The mind cleans up first, then produces. Tired days went to cleaning, rested days rained ideas. The order never changed.
    3. \n
  3. Ideas don’t come when called, they come when there’s room. On the days I forced it, nothing came. An idea from a session I left empty is now a working product: Threads Studio.
    4. \n
  4. An empty mind switches to detail mode. The thread on the armchair, the dust on the floor, the cars on the hill. They were always there, I just didn’t see them.
    5. \n
  5. The body relaxes before the mind. First days: leaning forward, hands clasped. Last days: leaning back. The camera saw it, not me.
    6. \n
  6. After 40 minutes, sleep and dream-like images arrive. Duration isn’t the only factor, tiredness and starting state decide it.
    7. \n
  7. The sense of time depends on the place. At the office I could tell the last minute without looking at a clock. At home I thought it was over with 9 minutes left.
    8. \n
  8. My boredom threshold changed. Plane, hotel, wedding, airport queue, 40 minutes in traffic. I didn’t get bored in any of them. My sleep settled. It helped my patience most.
    9. \n
  9. Focus came back. I can sit with one topic for an hour.
    10. \n
  10. The ideal duration is 20-30 minutes. 60 is a nice symbol but needlessly long. Above 40 it turns into something else.
    11. \n
\n

What it didn’t fix

\n

I thought my screen time had dropped. According to my phone, it hadn’t: around 5 hours a day, almost unchanged through the experiment. What changed is the need to reach for the phone. In a queue or in traffic I don’t reach for it anymore. But when I do, I still scroll. The experiment didn’t fix that, it only changed how it feels.

\n

The dose isn’t for everyone

\n

The most common objection: “If you were a mother, married, working, you wouldn’t find the time.” 40-50 minutes isn’t for everyone, that dose is my own invention. My therapist starts clients on the same method at 5 minutes and adds a minute or two as they get used to it. We tried 5 minutes as a family.

\n

Start with 5 minutes. The rest follows.

\n

I didn’t do it alone

\n

I ran 6 polls, and twice the followers set the direction. The rules of not looking at the timer and setting an alarm came from the comments, and the second season grew out of a follower’s block suggestion. A follower also wrote its scientific name: the Default Mode Network.

\n

The experiment is over, the habit stays: 20-30 minutes every day.

\n","status":"testing","translation":{"status":"machine","notice":"AI translation of Furkan's Turkish original (Claude via MCP) — not yet reviewed."},"topic":null,"published_at":"2026-10-05T17:20:14+00:00","updated_at":"2026-10-06T04:37:29+00:00","metrics":{"views":0,"likes":0,"replies":0,"reposts":0,"shares":0},"distributions":[{"platform":"linkedin","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/posts/muhammed-furkan-yilmaz_day-2-of-the-boredom-experiment-15-minutes-activity-7502974943731609601-y1IQ","account":"muhammed-furkan-yilmaz","published_at":"2026-10-05T18:37:02+00:00","metrics":{"views":0,"likes":0,"replies":0,"reposts":0,"shares":0,"captured_at":"2026-10-06T08:00:02+00:00"}},{"platform":"linkedin","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/posts/muhammed-furkan-yilmaz_last-week-i-closed-18-windows-on-my-mac-activity-7502732428697042945-4O5h","account":"muhammed-furkan-yilmaz","published_at":"2026-10-05T18:37:00+00:00","metrics":{"views":0,"likes":0,"replies":0,"reposts":0,"shares":0,"captured_at":"2026-10-06T08:00:02+00:00"}},{"platform":"linkedin","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7511658935548968960/","account":null,"published_at":"2026-10-05T18:36:59+00:00","metrics":{"views":0,"likes":0,"replies":0,"reposts":0,"shares":0,"captured_at":"2026-10-06T08:00:02+00:00"}},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Dd69I1WkZO1","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:53+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Dd4YcQPgApb","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:52+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Dd0pubHDTcR","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:51+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdrgXIDjO2-","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:50+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdmUPbAD97N","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:49+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Ddo7j-bDHjc","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:49+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdjwsmvD1lP","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:48+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdW6FKtEqP1","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:47+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdRwZgTgit9","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:46+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdKCE-ygTsw","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:45+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdHdRyJAS9t","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:44+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdE4g6rCaTe","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:43+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdCTocUEwz0","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:42+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Dc_u0W2AZzg","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:41+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdUVL6JE1Ub","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:37+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdZe3ghE0zi","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:36+00:00","metrics":null},{"platform":"threads","url":"https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Dd9h62zD9Qb","account":"mfurkanyilmazzz","published_at":"2026-10-05T17:19:35+00:00","metrics":null}],"links":[{"type":"extends","direction":"out","label":"extends","slug":"acik-sekmeler-yapay-zeka-caginin-odak-hastaligi","title":"Open tabs: the focus disease of the AI era","thesis":"Running five or six jobs at once with AI feels like power, but it turns into being inside none of them, while the thing that actually adds value is depth.","url":"https://furkanmind.com/en/mind/open-tabs-the-focus-disease-of-the-ai-era"}],"previous_theses":[],"license":"CC BY 4.0"}