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Humans are creatures of habit. We love to set up routines in order to facilitate everything from school to work, sleep, and even our time off. However, even the most optimized class schedule can eventually grow dull.

 

When your day-to-day routine starts to feel lackluster, it can be a good idea to shake things up, rearrange schedules, and find activities that can help reignite your passions and keep you going as you work your way through school. Let’s go over a few creative ways to kick that boredom and get those creative juices flowing again.

Pick Up an Instrument

The power of music is a well-documented phenomenon. There’s nothing like an instrument to help you slip out of the thoughts, worries, and concerns of everyday college life. It can help keep your mind sharp, lower your stress levels, and bring you to a place of creativity that is extremely hard to replicate in other scenarios.

 

The best part is, you don’t need to be a classically trained concert pianist that has been playing for years in order to enjoy these benefits. Music is accessible to people of all ages from the second you strum on a set of strings or pound on a drum.

 

If you’re an experienced musician, you’re probably already well aware of the benefits of playing music on a regular basis. But even if you’ve never touched an instrument in your life, it’s well worth taking the time to pick up something musical and start learning how to play between those homework assignments. Taking the time to explore interactive music platforms can be a great step in the right direction.

 

Facilitate “Deep Working” Time

If you’re struggling with finding ways to kickstart that creativity, one solution is setting aside time specifically for “deep working.” This rather intimidating-sounding term can be as simple as avoiding multitasking and creating purposeful schedules and rituals for your studies.

 

The important thing is that you differentiate between taking breaks from deep work time and simply being distracted. Spending copious amounts of time on social media is a surefire way to fritter away your time and ultimately end up bored. However, if you turn off notifications and avoid social media while you’re in “deep work mode,” you’re much more likely to be creative and effective.

 

Avoiding distractions doesn’t mean that you should ignore the importance of taking breaks, either. By all means, schedule in breaks. But don’t use them to do things like peruse Facebook or other mindless activities that can distract you from the task at hand.

Invest in Sports

One way to get your thoughts going is to get your body moving first. If you’re a jogger, take the time to get out of your dorm and go for a run. If you’re a gym rat by nature, make an effort to visit the school gym on a regular basis.

 

Another option that combines exercise with stimulating your mind is to get involved in sports. There are numerous different sports and levels of competition to choose from. If you like to compete against yourself at a relaxed pace, you may want to consider taking up golf. The pro sport has been shown to help develop patience and focus while simultaneously reducing stress. Some studies even suggest that golfing actually helps you live as much as five years longer.

 

Another slow and steady sport with a number of surprising benefits is bowling. It’s common to see bowling as a family fun event, but when treated as a sport, with rules and terms to learn, it can quickly become beneficial as more than just a social event. Bowlers tend to have less stress, better hearts, and excellent hand-eye coordination. In addition, this option is one of the most accessible ways to get active without needing to invest heavily in gear or training.

 

If you’re up for a more intense challenge, you may want to consider looking for a local recreational soccer league near your campus. Soccer is easy to understand, cost-effective to play, and involves intense cardiovascular exercise. The teamwork dynamic also ensures that you’ll remain mentally sharp and socially interactive with others.

Learn to Manage Your Stress

Stress is a common factor that leads to creative burnout, even in college. If you’re preoccupied with a thousand other concerns, it can make it very difficult to focus. However, one of the most important things to understand about stress is that it’s a perfectly natural thing to deal with. It’s also something that you can never truly “get rid of.”  And that’s okay.

 

Instead, it’s critical to take the time to learn how to manage stress. Many simple tactics— like effective time management, self-care, learning how to say “no,” and other coping mechanisms — can do wonders in minimizing stress and, consequently, breathe new life into our creative endeavors.

 

Taking the Reins

While there are many different ways to bust your way out of creative slumps or cycles of boredom as you attend college, the most important thing of all is that you take the initiative in the first place. After all, you’ll never be productive if you don’t actually want to be. The first step always has to start with your own motivation.

 

As you go about implementing various ways to increase your productivity and creativity throughout your studies, make sure that you go into the process determined to find results. If you can do this, you’ll find yourself both working and creating at peak efficiency before you know it.