Embracing boredom

In this high B1-B2 ESL lesson on boredom and phone habits, students explore why modern life leaves little room for boredom and how constant phone use affects attention, creativity, and well-being. Learners discuss everyday behaviors related to technology, examine how moments without stimulation can lead to creativity, reflection, and deeper thinking, and learn -ed and -ing adjectives. Other lessons you might like are “Detox from social media“, “Making boring tasks fun“, “Can limits boost creativity“, and “Meditation and the brain“.

Activities overview

Speaking – Lead-in Discussion:
Students begin by discussing when people usually feel bored, how people react to boredom today, and whether boredom is always a negative feeling. Then, tney rank everyday activities (such as waiting without a phone, meditating, or staring out a train window) from most boring to least boring.

Self-Assessment – Phone Habits Checklist:
Learners complete a checklist about how they fill “empty moments” during the day, including waiting, commuting, eating alone, or experiencing silence. This activity encourages reflection on technology use and prepares students to discuss modern attention habits.

Vocabulary – Mind-Wandering and Attention:
Learners match expressions such as wander, daydream, pass the time, be idle, and resist the urge with their definitions and rewrite sentences using these expressions in context. The activity helps students describe how people deal with boredom and distraction.

Listening – Video on Boredom and Creativity:
Students watch the video “You Need to Be Bored. Here Is Why” in several short segments. They answer comprehension questions, take notes, and identify key ideas about boredom, creativity, and the brain’s default mode network.

Speaking – Post-Listening Discussion:
Students discuss whether the speaker’s ideas about boredom changed their perspective. They evaluate which habits would be hardest to adopt and consider how reducing phone use might affect creativity, relationships, and everyday experiences.

Grammar – -ed vs. -ing Adjectives:
Students review the difference between -ed and -ing adjectives (e.g., bored vs. boring, interested vs. interesting). They analyze examples and apply the rule while completing short personal stories about boredom and attention.

Practice – Real-Life Rules for Reducing Phone Use:
Students complete short texts describing personal rules people use to create moments of boredom, such as commuting without a phone, waiting without checking notifications, or taking breaks from social media.

For more speaking practice, you can use the printable conversation cards.