"You want to change yourself, but you can't move." "Before you know it, time disappears on your smartphone."
When days like this continue, you end up blaming yourself: "I need to try harder." But that's wrong.
The reason you can't take action isn't about your willpower—it's about how your brain is designed.
This article introduces an incredibly simple method that saved me: "10 minutes of boredom."
You Want to Try, But You "Can't Move"
You wake up in the morning,
thinking, "Today I'll do it right."
You have tasks to do.
You want to go to the gym.
You want to fix your hair and focus on work.
But when you sit on your bed and open your smartphone—
TikTok, YouTube.
Before you know it, 30 minutes pass. Then an hour.
Your head feels foggy,
and the feeling of "I have to do it" just keeps piling up heavily.
And once again today,
not a single thing you should do gets done.
"I'm really useless..."
You Can't Move Because Your "Brain Is Burned Out"
Many people think "I'm just being lazy" or "I'm weak-willed,"
but the real cause is dopamine "burnout."
Many smartphones and apps
are designed to stimulate your "reward system."
- Short, stimulating videos on TikTok
- Small victories in games
- Social media notifications
All of these give your brain pleasure "instantly, intensely, repeatedly."
In other words,
your brain becomes too accustomed to "easy rewards."
What happens as a result?
- Tasks are slow
- They require effort
- They bring anxiety
- Your brain judges them as "low reward"
→ No wonder you can't find motivation.
It's not your fault.
Your brain is just overheating from artificial stimulation.
What I Regained with "10 Minutes of Boredom"
To be honest, I was completely "burned out" too.
Tasks kept piling up.
I wanted to go to the gym but couldn't get started.
Some days, even grooming felt like too much trouble.
Every day I'd think "today's the day,"
but before I knew it, I was in scrolling hell.
Then one day,
it suddenly hit me.
"Maybe my brain has gotten too used to stimulation."
What I tried was
10 minutes of "deliberately experiencing boredom."
- Put my phone face down
- Sit
- Do nothing
- Just look ahead
At first, it was boring as hell.
But after about 10 minutes,
a strange feeling began to emerge.
"I want to do something."
Tasks didn't feel "troublesome" anymore—
I actually felt like "I want to move."
The desire to do things came back naturally.
In just 10 minutes.
From then on,
I was able to calmly tackle the things I needed to do.
The "10-Minute Reset" You Can Start Today
👉 Create 10 minutes of doing nothing.
This is like
a "reset" to return your dopamine levels to normal.
When your brain feels "boredom,"
it naturally begins to seek "real rewards."
As a result:
- Tasks start to feel appealing
- You feel like going to the gym
- You regain the energy to take care of yourself
- Procrastination weakens
It's not about effort.
It's not about willpower.
Just by letting your brain rest, your ability to take action returns.
If it's hard to keep it up alone,
creating quiet focus time with others in an online study room like CoFocusRoom
can also be effective.
By sharing boring time together, you can naturally regain focus and action ability.
How 10 Minutes of Boredom Will Change Your Actions
10 minutes of sitting and doing nothing.
That alone clears your brain,
and you naturally become able to move, thinking "let's do it."
10 minutes today.
10 minutes tomorrow too.
Before you know it,
you'll transform from "the self who can't move"
into "the self who can start moving."
Motivation isn't something you create.
Motivation naturally grows from boredom.
You can regain your action ability starting with today's 10 minutes.