Is it better to be busy or bored?  

That’s the question that many of us already have an answer to but never really stop to give it much thought.  When we are busy, time flies.  Those are the days where there just is not enough time to get everything done that we wish to do.   At the end of the day, we usually feel accomplished, but exhausted.  When we are bored, those are the days that drag.  We watch the clock and think, “For goodness sake, let this day be over already!”   At the end of the day, we usually feel exhausted, and unaccomplished.  Most of us seek that feeling of accomplishment, and for those of us – it is far better to be busy.   However, being too busy can sometimes stunt a career.  Let’s consider the self-motivated email administrator.  Every day she comes to work and is inundated with account updates and email related tasks.  The day completes before her work is finished, leaving no time for her to gain experience in other areas of administration, such as VPN or general server administration.   With this in mind, which is the better alternative?  To be busy, or to be bored?   My take on this question is that for every gallon of business, we need a couple of ounces of boredom.  Those ounces of boredom are learning opportunities that , if capitalized on, will help us to graduate to new areas of expertise, keep our skills sharp, and will eventually allow us to grow our careers.

To summarize:   Stay busy, but not exceedingly so.