{"id":47713,"date":"2025-11-24T13:41:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=47713"},"modified":"2025-11-24T13:41:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:41:48","slug":"embrace-the-boredom-folks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/embrace-the-boredom-folks\/","title":{"rendered":"Embrace the Boredom Folks!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We’re 53 and have been retired for a decade. Do we ever get bored? Oh yes. We went from 50+ hours of working and commuting to zero. That’s a lot of hours to fill with, erm, something?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some folks slip into retirement effortlessly. They’ve no fear of boredom. They’ve a hundred things to keep them busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others, like me, worried about it. What on Earth would I do with all that free time? Would I go a bit mad? Would I turn to drink?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For a few years it wasn’t an issue. We filled the years with travel and this blog tells the tale<\/a>. We ambled around Europe and North Africa in our motorhome, rarely getting bored as there was always somewhere else to visit, to explore and read about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But endless travel became a bit stale over time. Some folks keep travelling for decades, but that wasn’t for us. Yep, we love getting out and about, but we also missed the real-world human connection which comes from being part of a static community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we bought and renovated a house near our parents, and mixed up travel in the van with air travel and time at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we’re out traveling, again boredom is rarely an issue. While we’re at home boredom has become a useful driver to action, rather than something to be anxious about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what I mean:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might not fancy any of the ‘traditional’ things folks are supposed to do in early retirement: travel, gardening, learning a language, learning a musical instrument, volunteering, a part time job and so on. They’re all great things to try, but not all of them are for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think about it though, that excludes only tiny percentage of the things you **could** do. Our imaginations tend to get dulled with decades of work. Try sharpening up a little, let your brain loosen up, and see what comes to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve tried all sorts. Neither of us ‘work’ as such, but we do self-publish books on Amazon, and could extend this if we wanted to. We also run an AirBnB, which again doesn’t take much work but keeps us busy from time to time. I’ll often feel at a loose end so head up the gym or out for a run, listening to music and enjoying feeling my body work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ju is into language learning. I’m not, but do enjoy keeping up to date with technology. AI with its enormous range of uses is fascinating me at the moment. I’ve used it to write code for a running club website I manage, to read documents for me, to create graphics and help with a hundred other tasks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is also a fantastic generator of ideas. Fire up the free version of ChatGPT<\/a> or CoPilot<\/a> or whatever AI app’s on your phone. Type in ‘I’m bored’ or ‘Ideas for low-cost activities’ and hit enter. See what comes back. Most of it won’t work for you, but there’ll be the odd shiny nugget in there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog’s another example of boredom driving a bit of creativity. I was at a loose end for an hour, so wrote this post. It might end up helping someone, in which case it was a productive use of an hour. A positive result of me being a bit bored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary: boredom has proved a useful driver for me. It forces me to look for new things to do and try. New books to read, exercise to do, blog posts and books to write, areas to research and so on. Rarely has it had me doing housework mind you, but it has been known!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about you? Do you worry about not having enough to keep you busy in retirement? Or have you retired and are busier than you’ve ever been?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheers, Jay <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Short read: Why you should embrace boredom in retirement, and not be anxious or fearful of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1969,415],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-early-retirement","category-at-home"],"yoast_head":"\nEmbrace the Boredom Folks! - Our Tour Motorhome Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Short read: Why you should embrace boredom in early retirement, and not be anxious or fearful of it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/embrace-the-boredom-folks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Embrace the Boredom Folks! 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