How to Relieve Your Boredom, Based On Your Myers-Briggs® Personality Type

The thing about being cooped up at home is — no one likes it. Even the types that are introverted don’t like it as much as they thought they would. Each person is going to react very differently to the current crisis depending on their Myers-Briggs® personality type, and when you stop freaking out about the situation long enough to just want something to do, what do you reach for?

Luckily, there are solutions based on which of the 16 types you are. Read on to find out the best way to add value to your life in a fun activity, even if you are stuck indoors:

ENFP Boredom Relief

ENFPs should do more puzzles during this time. In fact, because their Extroverted Intuition is always putting pieces to mysteries together, having a physical representation of how things fit together may be very soothing at this time. You will find joy in completing it when it’s finished, but the process of seeing things come together will be so joyful that your boredom may quickly pass!

Other Ideas:

• Write poetry (or read it!)
• Get in touch with your sensing side and take a hot bath with epsom salts and essential oils for extra luxury
• Ask random, deep questions on Twitter
• Read a controversial book (think “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk)
• Write snail mail and send it to all your closest friends and family members.
• Watch the most mind-bending movies you can think of (Inception, Donnie Darko, Predestination, Brazil, The Prestige, etc,.)

INFP Boredom Relief

Writing short fiction is actually a great activity for you right now. Creating an immersive new world to escape the tyranny and fears in the old one both achieves helping to pass the time and might lead to a sense of accomplishment that can carry you over. Having the world represented as you’d like to see it may give you the energy to seize the day in your current one.

Other Ideas:

• Peruse art museums online
• Make mix tapes or playlists for all your friends
• Find an unusual way to photograph everyday objects in your home. How could you make something ordinary look extraordinary or mysterious?
• Listen to an audiobook while doing calisthenics

INTJ Boredom Relief

You can’t ignore that the main reason you’re stuck in quarantine is because of a lack of solutions to the current pandemic. Thus, researching the science behind what is even happening outside might actually be of interest to you. As an INTJ, you don’t tend to get emotionally frazzled easily by things because it’s easy for you to tune into what you can control and what you can’t. Because you can gather information and translate it into something simple for everyone else to know, it might be interesting for you to look at the intricacies of pandemics, disease, and more on how it affects society and muse on that information. If you can connect what’s going on to a meaningful concept, you’ll be more fascinated by just how life goes down, even when it’s really boring.

Other Ideas:

• Re-organize your room to make it more inspiring or efficient.
• Read a mind-bending novel (Pick up some Stephen King, George Orwell, or Chuck Palahniuk. You can also check out this list for each personality type).
• Meditate or pray. Afterwards, write down any insights that show up in your mind.
• Pick one of your favorite quotes and learn how to say it in American Sign Language.

ENTJ Boredom Relief

You’re a pretty social creature, ENTJ, so you can use your creative bones to figure out a way to plan an event of interest to your community. Whether it’s an online business seminar or hosting a birthday for a friend on Zoom, you can make it happen. You are extremely good with logistics and creating an ideal, convenient experience for others, so why not give that back right now to facilitate growth and intimacy in your surroundings?

Other Ideas:

• Come up with a new business idea that you could do from home.
• De-clutter your home and organize everything as efficiently as possible.
• Tap into your intuitive side by reading a deep, philosophical book (think Kierkegaard or Kant)
• Exercise and get those endorphins flowing!

ISTJ Boredom Relief

Play a type of role-playing video game you wouldn’t normally. That’s right — your inner child wants to get lost in virtual la la land right now. So let it! Go and find the new Animal Crossing game on Nintendo Switch and muse on what these games make you feel. Try to tune into how rest and relaxation and catching fish can actually be enough in your cautious, careful life. You’ll find that the experience becomes soothing (provided you, of course, put a time limit on it).

Other Ideas:

• Play a solo card game like Solitaire or Patience.
• Have a movie marathon of all your favorite childhood movies.
• Fill your home with your favorite smells. Simmer cinnamon sticks and apple peelings over the stove, drink some herbal tea while taking a scented babble bath, or open the windows and do some spring cleaning.
• Learn 150 random fun facts so you can impress your friends later.

ESTJ Boredom Relief

Organize everything in your house in the exact way you can envision it. As an ESTJ, you are great with details and brainstorming ways to accomplish sensory and logical objectives. And that organizational system in your house probably needs a lot of help with that. So go ahead and Marie Kondo what no one uses anymore and get real about how you want to have an effective place for everything you own. Everyone will thank you for it!

Other Ideas:

• Get creative with gardening. Could you grow something edible in your apartment or in your yard?
• Do some spring cleaning!
• Play an online game with your friends!

INFJ Boredom Relief

If you haven’t already, pick up cooking! There is so much satisfaction found when you create something new from your intuitive, creative side. Get daring and try something with spices you’ve never used before, or listen to an audiobook while you make a tried-and-true family favorite. Cooking for your friends is an amazing way to connect.  But also, doing it because you love following your gut and seeing what comes out may really get you going. ;D

Other Ideas:

• Look for inspiring quotes online, write them down and illustrate them with drawings, then put them up all around your house!
• Watch abstract, mind-bending movies that will tickle your intuitive side! Think Memento, Inception, The Matrix, or The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
• Listen to music you love and journal the pictures and ideas the songs give you.

ENFJ Boredom Relief

Start a meditation group! You do want to accomplish feeling calm, but you also love doing it with a group of friends. If everyone comes together at the same time every week, your ENFJ heart will be oh-so-happy. Remember — we can’t save the world until we try our hardest for the ones right in front of us.

Other Ideas:

• Ask random, deep questions to your friends on Zoom chat
• Read some Agatha Christie or another mystery author to stimulate your intuition and thinking sides!
• Bake cookies and deliver them to your friends doorsteps!

ESTP Boredom Relief

Try all sorts of new makeup looks you see on YouTube. Turn your face into a canvas and experiment with the most daring looks you can find. Marvel at how you can change yourself drastically with only a brush and a palette, and keep going throughout quarantine.

Even male ESTPs can try this at home. There are men who are also teaching how to paint your nails or use concealer. Experimenting with these things only helps you unpack your insecurities and misgivings to society. Definitely not your thing? Challenge yourself with brain-teasers to stimulate your Introverted Thinking side.

Other Ideas:

• Set a new exercise goal and try to achieve it.
• Gather your friends and do some online gaming together.
• Impress your friends by learning these 40 random facts.

ISTP Boredom Relief

Get out of your shell by beginning to live stream on Twitch or making Tik Tok videos. You can have so much stage presence when you really go for it and embrace your sensing side. You are more versatile than you give yourself credit for. Find a way to capitalize on that by creating an internet presence that may run counter to your ‘chill’ persona!

Other Ideas:

• Set a reading goal and see if you can achieve it. Write reviews of each book afterwards.
• Solve riddles (find them online if you need to)
• Learn how to build something with materials you already have on hand.

ISFJ Boredom Relief

Start a book club! There are so many fun books out there that are online or can be shipped to you. You can get lost in a fantastical world if you so desire, and share it with a friend too at the same time. The only thing more fun for you than reading the books themselves is to share them with others. Get in touch with your friends and start nerding out about all the books you’re reading or will currently read! Sharing is caring — especially with information.

Other Ideas:

• Pick a theme and have a movie marathon revolving around that theme (medieval times, horses, unexpected romances, Jane Austen)
• Find uplifting quotes and write them down, placing them strategically through your house.
• Create a new beverage in your kitchen that you can add to your list of favorites.

ESFJ Boredom Relief

Take up knitting. The soothing repetition of the loops, while also being able to see yourself accomplish something that can be gifted to friends and family eventually, may help you feel calm and capable. First, help your own mindset by slowing down and doing something for its own sake, and what better way than knitting? You’ll be so proud you accomplished a life skill that the product will almost feel secondary.

Other Ideas:

• Create unusual gifts to leave on your friend’s doorsteps. Things like bubbles, jokes written on bright paper, brightly colored candies, and mix tapes)
• Re-organize your bedroom.
• Write snail mail to all your loved ones.
• Read classic literature for free online.

ENTP Boredom Relief

Create a fake Twitter account and start trolling big corporations. As an ENTP, sometimes the ridiculousness of the world leads you to embracing your prank-loving side. If you can’t do that in the real world during, you can do that on virtual Twitter. Start a sass-off between Wendy’s and Burger King, or make fun of your own thoughts and expedites via an analog of all your dark inner thoughts.

Other Ideas:

• Write a list of potential business ideas that you could do from home.
• Ask thought-provoking questions to your friends online.
• Throw open your windows and exercise. Get lots of fresh air and stress-relieving endorphins!

INTP Boredom Relief

Work your way through a philosophy book and find threads on Reddit that discuss it. You do need community to a certain extent, INTP, but they need to be likeminded folks that want to talk about the topics that make your brain tick. This is a great time to be intellectual and share your insights

Other Ideas:

• Surprise someone you love by writing them letters with ten things you appreciate about them. Trust me, they’ll appreciate it.
• Make playlists on your phone for every mood you experience.
• Find riddles online and see if you can answer them.

ESFP Boredom Relief

Learning a dance is actually a great way to get active and moving and satisfy your inner urges. Your Extroverted Sensing will be missing the outdoors, but taking a class that is also a way to express your creativity with your body can be exhilarating. As long as working out is fun and novel, you’ll be able to power through this entire quarantine.

Other Ideas:

• Create unusual gifts to leave on your friend’s doorsteps. Things like rubber ducks, jokes written on bright paper, jelly beans, or mix tapes.
• Pick one of your all-time favorite songs and learn how to say the lyrics in American Sign Language.
• Play an online game with your friends!
• Make a YouTube playlist of ten music videos that inspire you the most. Share it with your friends and ask them to make theirs.

ISFP Boredom Relief

Paint something new. You love having physical, tangible art in front of you, but this would be a creative expression. You don’t want to feel trapped, and people who take themselves too seriously with art risk doing that. Not you, though. As long as you make it a hobby to convey what feels intangible via the physical, you’ll be able to produce more than you realize— and make yourself proud in the process!

Other Ideas:

• Learn a new form of cooking or baking. What’s something you can create that is completely new?
• Create playlists of songs to listen to when you need something (inspiration, concentration, energy, solidarity)
• Have an Anime marathon. Naruto anyone?

What Are Your Thoughts?

Do you agree with these ideas or have any others to add? Let us know in the comments!

Find out more about your personality type in our eBooks, Discovering You: Unlocking the Power of Personality Type,  The INFJ – Understanding the Mystic, and The INFP – Understanding the Dreamer.

About the Author:

Crystal Duan is an ENFP freelance reporter and writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in Bustle, The Washington Post, and The Minneapolis Star Tribune. In her spare time, she focuses on bringing attention to social justice and mental health issues through the lens of personality and the Jungian functions. Follow Crystal on Twitter, Facebook, read her articles on Medium, or visit her web site at crystal-duan.com.