Why your 9-to-5 isn’t the problem, but your creative soul is bored to tears
I can hear her creative soul screaming for help.
Your job might not be the villain here
If you’ve ever stared at your screen and thought, “Is this it?” while dutifully answering your 8th email of the day, you’re not alone. Most of us were raised to believe that finding the “right” job would make life wonderful because having that stability would lead to satisfaction.
But here’s a quiet truth we don’t talk about enough: You can have a decent job, a steady paycheck, the greatest boss, and even good coworkers… and still feel like something’s missing.
If you’re wondering whether your sense of dissatisfaction is a sign of burnout, it might be. But sometimes, it’s just boredom. The kind that creeps in when your creative self has been ignored for too long.
And no, you don’t have to quit your job or sell everything to backpack through Bali in order to find happiness again. What you need to do is make space for the creative side of you that isn’t being used. The one that creates, expresses, and feels alive. Am I being a tad melodramatic? Yep. Is it really that important to be creative? Also yep.
Your job was never meant to fulfill you creatively
Let’s take the pressure off your job for a minute. It’s not supposed to give your life meaning; it’s supposed to earn you a living.
A friend of mine works in financial compliance. It’s meticulous, analytical, and… not exactly the stuff of wild artistic inspiration. But she’s not miserable. In fact, she’s thriving. Why? Because after work, she paints abstract portraits for fun and as her side hustle.
She doesn’t expect her job to meet her creative needs. She just makes the space for creativity elsewhere in her life.
Something to think about:
What creative parts of yourself don’t get used in your workday?
Do you ever find yourself jealous of creators online? What are they doing that stirs something in you?
What creative activities did you enjoy in the past that you could pick up again?
If you’re asking your job to be your paycheck, your passion, your purpose, your growth path, and your joy? That’s a lot of hats for one desk to wear.
Sometimes, the issue isn’t your 9-to-5; it’s that your creative self has been locked in the supply closet for three years and is now quietly banging on the door with a glitter pen.
How creative boredom shows up (and why it matters)
This person looks like a secret gardener at heart.
Creative boredom tends to show up as low-level irritability. A weird mix of fatigue and restlessness. That feeling that you should be doing something, but you can’t name what it is, and none of your usual activities seem to appeal to you right now.
Some signs to look for
You scroll Pinterest and save ideas you’ll never try.
You buy a watercolor set but never open it.
You get irrationally excited at the idea of organizing a closet, not because it’s fun, but because it feels like it would feel fulfilling.
Creative boredom isn’t just in your head. Research from the American Journal of Public Health shows that engaging in creative activities reduces stress and improves mental well-being. One study even found that adults who take part in arts-based activities report higher levels of flourishing and life satisfaction, regardless of talent or skill level.
Source: Stuckey, H. L., & Nobel, J. (2010). The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health: A Review of Current Literature. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), 254–263. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2008.156497
Translation: Even a tiny creative outlet can make life feel a lot more worth living.
What your creative self really needs
You don’t need to build an art studio in your home or take a year-long sabbatical from work. You simply need:
20 minutes in your day (at least 3 times each week) to play
Permission to make something, no matter how badly it might turn out
A reminder that creativity is for fun, and it isn’t supposed to feel productive
A past client of mine, I’ll call her Sam, was convinced she wasn’t a creative person. She worked in IT, hated painting, and hadn’t touched anything “artsy” since grade school. But after talking with her for a while, I noticed she loved telling stories. With a little nudging, she started recording voice notes of her “made-up in-the-moment” bedtime stories she told her nieces. Three months later, she self-published her first children’s book. Not creative, my butt!
Want to give it a try?
1 | Write a ridiculous short story using five random objects from your desk.
Look around. What’s there? A coffee mug, a sticky note, a charger, and maybe a large paperclip? Great. Turn them into characters. Give them a plot. Maybe the mug is a time traveler. Maybe the sticky note holds ancient secrets. The goal isn’t to be super clever, it’s to play. Even 10 minutes of creative nonsense can shake something loose in your brain and take you out of work mode.
Pro tip: Set a timer for 15 minutes. No editing. Just write and see what happens. Bonus points if you make yourself laugh.
2 | Revisit a childhood hobby and see how it feels.
What did you used to love doing before adulthood got in the way? Drawing comic strips? Making friendship bracelets? Building entire cities out of shoeboxes and tape? Choose one thing and try it again. The idea is to remember the creative person you used to be.
Optional mission: Text a friend and say, “Guess what weird childhood hobby I just brought back?” It makes it more fun.
3 | Try the 10-minute creativity timer.
Here’s how it works: Pick a medium (doodling, collage, playlist building, Lego bricks, freestyle dancing, literally anything). Set a timer for 10 minutes. Then play. That’s it. Just do it for 10 minutes. See how it feels.
You might hate what you make (or do), but you might surprise yourself. You might end up doing 30 minutes because you were actually enjoying it. (Weird, right?)
One idea if you need one: Grab a junk mail flyer and a glue stick and make a weird collage of your dream life, made entirely of toasters and sale items. Kind of like a visual wedding registry.
What changes in your job when you make space for creativity?
Here’s the weird thing: your job might not change at all. But your relationship to it does.
When you make room (and time) for being creative outside of work, you’ll likely show up differently for work. You won’t look to your boss or your inbox to define your value. You might carry a bit more energy into each day. You might even get better at problem-solving. And best of all, you’ll stop wishing you were doing anything else and be able to focus on doing what you’re paid to do.
One client once told me, “I didn’t even realize how numb I’d become until I started drawing again. Now, I actually look forward to the evenings instead of just zoning out. I don’t even mind working on boring stuff because I know I’ll do fun stuff tonight.”
The bottom line
If you’re feeling like you’re bored with your job, instead of blaming your job, try paying attention to the part of you that needs something more. Something expressive. Something playful. Something that reminds you that you’re not just existing to complete tasks.
What does creativity look like for you? Write it in the comments below.
New around here? Welcome.
I’m Michelle, a life coach, course creator, and recovering overachiever who finally got tired of chasing the wrong version of success. I don’t believe in perfect lives. I believe in intentional ones.
I started Intendify Your Life to help people stop living for everyone else and start building a life that feels like home.
Warning: I’m a little blunt, a little nerdy, and wildly in favor of tough love and bold decisions.
Want to know the whole story? Start here.
At Intendify, we break life down into 12 key areas and offer guided paths to help you reflect, plan, and take action so you can start living more intentionally, one step at a time.
It’s like having a life coach in your pocket, minus the awkward eye contact.
