# Boredom therapy: 626 minutes of doing nothing - Author: Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz (@mfurkanyilmazzz) - Canonical: https://furkanmind.com/en/mind/boredom-therapy-626-minutes-of-doing-nothing - Status: Testing (testing) - Published: 2026-10-05 - Updated: 2026-10-06 - Language: en (translated from tr) - License: CC BY 4.0 - Note: AI translation of Furkan's Turkish original (Claude via MCP) — not yet reviewed. ## Thesis When I sit long enough to get bored, with no outside input at all, my mind first cleans up, then it produces. ## Summary 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. 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. 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. ## 10 things I learned 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. **The mind cleans up first, then produces.** Tired days went to cleaning, rested days rained ideas. The order never changed. 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. **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. **The body relaxes before the mind.** First days: leaning forward, hands clasped. Last days: leaning back. The camera saw it, not me. 6. **After 40 minutes, sleep and dream-like images arrive.** Duration isn't the only factor, tiredness and starting state decide it. 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. **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. **Focus came back.** I can sit with one topic for an hour. 10. **The ideal duration is 20-30 minutes.** 60 is a nice symbol but needlessly long. Above 40 it turns into something else. ## What it didn't fix 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. ## The dose isn't for everyone 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. Start with 5 minutes. The rest follows. ## I didn't do it alone 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. The experiment is over, the habit stays: 20-30 minutes every day. ## Distributions - LinkedIn @muhammed-furkan-yilmaz: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/muhammed-furkan-yilmaz_day-2-of-the-boredom-experiment-15-minutes-activity-7502974943731609601-y1IQ — views 0, likes 0, replies 0 - LinkedIn @muhammed-furkan-yilmaz: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/muhammed-furkan-yilmaz_last-week-i-closed-18-windows-on-my-mac-activity-7502732428697042945-4O5h — views 0, likes 0, replies 0 - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7511658935548968960/ — views 0, likes 0, replies 0 - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Dd69I1WkZO1 - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Dd4YcQPgApb - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Dd0pubHDTcR - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdrgXIDjO2- - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdmUPbAD97N - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Ddo7j-bDHjc - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdjwsmvD1lP - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdW6FKtEqP1 - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdRwZgTgit9 - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdKCE-ygTsw - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdHdRyJAS9t - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdE4g6rCaTe - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdCTocUEwz0 - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Dc_u0W2AZzg - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdUVL6JE1Ub - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/DdZe3ghE0zi - Threads @mfurkanyilmazzz: https://www.threads.com/@mfurkanyilmazzz/post/Dd9h62zD9Qb ## Linked nodes - → extends → Open tabs: the focus disease of the AI era (acik-sekmeler-yapay-zeka-caginin-odak-hastaligi): 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. — https://furkanmind.com/en/mind/open-tabs-the-focus-disease-of-the-ai-era