Here’s Why You’re Bored, Based on Your Myers-Briggs® Personality Type

Boredom…it catches all of us at some point in our lives. Whether you’re a child lazily watching the summer days drift away in the pool or an adult straining to keep your eyes open during an office meeting. The fascinating thing about boredom is that what makes one individual bored could be totally fascinating to an individual with a different personality type. Let’s take a look at the reasons each personality type tends to experience boredom.

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Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Here’s Why You’re Bored, Based on Your Myers-Briggs® Personality Type

ENFPs and Boredom

Doing things by-the-book or in a traditional way tends to make you restless. As an ENFP you like to change things up and mentally extrapolate new possibilities and alternatives. You feel bored in conversations that lack long-term meaning. You want to challenge social values, extrapolate life-changing possibilities, and discuss the meaning of life or a new venture that will be personally significant to you. Talking about the weather, fashion, or other small-talk related subjects can be fine as a lubricant to deeper discussion, but mind-numbing in large doses.  Structure and a lot of rules also tend to exasperate you. It feels like every rule and every routine is just one more chain shackling you to a mundane life.

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ENTPs and Boredom

You need a challenge and mental stimulation in order to feel energized. Living a life of security and ease isn’t the ideal for someone like you. You enjoy taking risks, pushing boundaries, and innovating. Without novelty or another hurdle to metaphorically jump you feel like life loses a lot of its meaning. Getting wrapped up in small-talk with someone, a repetitive routine, or a conventional way of life can all feel de-motivating and dull to you. You also tend to get bored if you have to focus on one project for a sustained period of time. Your mind tends to wander to alternatives, different options, or other possibilities and ideas. Having to constantly harness your thoughts and bring them back to the one task you have to finish can feel like torture sometimes.

INFPs and Boredom

Free-spirited and individualistic, you feel the most bored when you’re forced to think about things that lack meaning. You can easily let your mind wander when you’re washing the dishes or taking a walk, but having to listen to a bunch of meaningless small talk can quickly cause you to feel restless. You also tend to feel bored when you aren’t given room for creativity. If you have to focus on a task that has very strict rules and guidelines to follow you tend to struggle with keeping your focus aimed at the project at hand. You’re a dreamer and a creative idea-generator. You want to extrapolate new possibilities, envision new ways of doing things, and create something that has personal meaning. Being subjected to an excessive amount of very specific rules makes you feel devoid of inspiration and energy.

Find out More About INFPs:  10 Things That Excite the INFP Personality Type

INTPs and Boredom

For you, boredom is often the result of mental under-stimulation. You want an intellectual challenge to try to overcome, a problem to solve, an idea to realize. Getting stuck in a long, drawn-out conversation about day-to-day details or personal relationship drama can feel like torture to you. Being micro-managed into doing a project the way it’s always been done feels like a complete waste of your energy. You want to invent, experiment, and tinker with improvements and possibilities. You want to challenge yourself to solve a problem that’s never been solved before. You want to learn and accumulate knowledge. Having your time so full of repetitive tasks or mundane conversations that you can’t explore ideas and new information is exasperating for you.

Read More Here: Understanding the INTP – an In-Depth Look at “The Thinker”

ENFJs and Boredom

For you, excitement and joy come from realizing human potential and interacting in meaningful ways with people. You get bored when you’re forced to focus on a lot of impersonal facts and nitty-gritty details. As a big-picture thinker, you’re more excited by the possibilities of tomorrow than the repetitive tasks of today. While you enjoy having a certain order and structure to your day you tend to feel bored when the conversation revolves around day-to-day subjects. Discussing sports in-depth, the weather or the plots and sub-plots of a movie you’ve never seen are all things that can make you feel restless. Being alone for long periods of time can also make you feel bored in the long run. Being around a variety of people inspires you and provides new perspectives to play with in your mind. While small spurts of alone time can recharge you, being alone for long periods tends to make you feel bleak and de-motivated.

ENTJs and Boredom

You feel bored when you don’t have a challenge to overcome or a project to immerse yourself in. People with your personality type are typically big-picture oriented and strategic, hoping to achieve success or do something that’s never been done before. Life becomes dull when you see no opportunities for advancement and no freedom to innovate. You feel restless when you’re stuck in a conversation that has no long-term purpose or aim. Who cares what the weather is today? Who cares if someone hurt your feelings ten years ago? What are your future goals? What are your objectives? What gives your life meaning and purpose? These are the things that occupy your mind. You are concerned with progress and philosophy because you want to improve everything and understand the main purpose of life itself.

INFJs and Boredom

You feel bored when you lack a long-term vision or purpose. You tend to be single-minded and idealistic, always searching for the “one thing” that you were called to do in life. When you don’t know where you’re going in life or what that goal is you can struggle with apathy or procrastination. Focusing your energies on day-to-day tasks that will only have to be repeated tomorrow can feel draining. Being stuck in conversations that focuses on surface-level actualities rather than deeper, more authentic issues can make you restless. When you have a long-term goal or a symbol or vision to work towards you’re inspired and can work for sustained periods of time. If your life is repetitive and focused mainly on short-term gains you find it harder to stay engaged.

Read This Next: The Struggles of Being an INFJ Child

INTJs and Boredom

As an INTJ you feel the most bored when you have to focus on concrete details that have no long-term significance. You were probably the kid in school who detested the repetition because having to think the same thought, in the same way, more than once felt like mental assassination. You want to be mentally challenged and given a steep learning curve throughout your life. You want to constantly progress and work steadily towards a long-term goal. Having no opportunity or room for achievement causes you to feel restless and dissatisfied. Having to focus all your energy on the moment at hand rather than the future you want to realize can be draining for you. This is because you are naturally wired to envision long-term possibilities and implications. You are mentally programmed to want to achieve goals and organize your world for effectiveness. Once you find your vision and you have the independence and means to achieve it you will feel that boredom disappears.

Read This Next: 10 Things You Should Never Say to an INTJ

ESFPs and Boredom

You’re someone who likes to stay open to life and the experiences it brings your way. You crave a sense of freedom to embark on an adventure or opportunity that comes along. You believe that life is to be lived to the fullest, filled with novelty, variety, sounds and sensations that fill you with a sense of awe.  What bores you is having your time managed or controlled for you. You detest being micro-managed or forced to conform to a strict schedule and set of rules. You cringe at the idea of long, drawn-out conversations full of half-baked ideas and self-congratulatory remarks. Why waste time hypothesizing and talking in circles when life is full of experiences waiting to be enjoyed right now? Having to reign yourself into a conventional path for life can make you feel stifled and restless. Living in accordance with your values with the freedom to grasp opportunities as they happen is paramount to your happiness.

ESTPs and Boredom

You’re someone who craves action more than the typical individual. You have a ceaseless sense of adventure and are drawn to a life that’s outside the ordinary. You don’t want a 9-5 office job and the typical suburban house. You want a fast-paced, challenging career that takes advantage of your spontaneous yet clever nature. You enjoy taking calculated risks and having a variety of tasks at your fingertips. As a realist, you find long, drawn-out conversations that lack practical application painfully dull. You’re more of a “doer” than a talker so getting wrapped up in small-talk or theory can seem mind-numbing to you. You also feel bored when your life lacks freedom or flexibility. Being roped into a predictable, routine lifestyle makes you feel trapped and de-motivated. Having to be sedentary for long periods will make you feel drowsy or restless.

ISFPs and Boredom

You crave meaning and a sense of purpose and passion in your life. You like to mix work with fun and appreciate activities that have a direct human benefit. You’re bored when your environment lacks beauty – whether that’s beautiful sights, songs you love, or tastes you savor. You get bored when life feels repetitive and the work you’re doing feels devoid of meaning. You also tend to get bored when you feel cooped up or unable to move and interact with your environment.  A conversation that focuses on a lot of impersonal details, jobs that require you to sit still for eight-hours-a-day, all these things make you feel restless and stifled. You also get bored around pretentious people. You can see right through them and their self-congratulatory remarks make your eyes roll.

ISTPs and Boredom

You’re someone who craves independence and freedom to be your own guide in life. You feel bored when people are trying to control you through emotional appeals and manipulation. Rather than feel moved by their words you tend to feel restless and distracted. Any kind of meaningless small-talk or pretentious long-winded speaking exhausts you. Careers that force you into sedentary, repetitive routines also feel de-motivating to you. You thrive best in a lifestyle that allows for spontaneity, quickness of mind, and a variety of challenges to solve.

ESFJs and Boredom

As an ESFJ you are inspired by connection, intimacy, and beautiful experiences.  You crave a well-ordered life full of good friends and meaningful traditions. Being stuck in relationships that lack depth or encouragement tends to make you feel bored and depressed. Wasting time makes you bored – whether that’s because someone’s talking about theories that have no practical application or you’re stuck in a job that lacks meaning. Listening to people rant and complain when they refuse to listen to any of your practical suggestions also bores you over time. If you feel like your advice is falling on deaf ears you may eventually check out of the conversation to focus on goals you can actually accomplish. You like to be productive and helpful, so being around procrastinators and lazy individuals tend to make you feel agitated and restless.

ESTJs and Boredom

You’re an individual who values order, logic, and common sense. You enjoy being productive and accomplishing goals. You feel bored and irritable when anything is taking you away from a project you desperately want to accomplish. Being around people who complain a lot, procrastinate, or take up a lot of emotional energy tends to make you irritable and restless. You’re also bored by long-winded conversations that lack any practical application. Celebrity gossip and half-baked hypothetical ramblings can feel exasperating to you. You prefer to dwell on topics that can be applied to your life in a meaningful way rather than theories that seem groundless or lack evidence or proof.

ISFJs and Boredom

As an ISFJ you crave a life filled with meaningful traditions, intimate friendships, and beautiful surroundings. You find yourself bored when the days come and go without any positive rituals to help you commemorate them. You feel like life is lacking in purpose when your relationships are one-dimensional and shallow. Dull, impersonal surroundings can make you feel de-motivated and restless. You want to commemorate the passing of the year with meaningful routines. You crave friendships that are deep and authentic. You want your surroundings to give you a sense of comfort and belonging. Living a life that doesn’t exemplify any of your values is what makes you bored.

Read this Next: The Timeless Power of Introverted Sensing

ISTJs and Boredom

As an ISTJ you value autonomy, order, and peaceful living. You find yourself bored when you have to focus on extraneous matters that don’t match up with your goals. If you’re trying to get a project done and you’re interrupted with someone’s personal problems you’ll likely feel bored and restless. As an introvert, if you’re forced to socialize too extensively you might feel tired and detached. You like time alone to recharge and immerse yourself in your various hobbies and interests. Boredom for you often comes from social obligations and duties that force you to focus on things unrelated to your personal endeavors and close relationships. You also tend to feel bored when you’re stuck in conversations that lack any immediate practical application.

Read This Next: Getting to Know the ISTJ

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