Question: why do people get bored quicker than others?

Helen O'Connor answered on 23 Jun 2011:

People mostly get bored with things that don’t mean much to them, as this doesn’t motivate them and then they don’t enjoy it or put much effort in. If you enjoy something you notice that you concentrate on it, and time flies by.

If I am working out on the weights machines at the gym I find it a bit boring as I am by myself and I am tempted to just skip some reps and finish early. But if I do a muay-thai class or spinning, the time goes so quickly plus I have usually put more effort in too (probably as I am a bit competitive so being around other people motivates me to work harder).

Athletes can start to feel a bit stale or bored of the training: bear in mind that actual competitions, which are the fun part, don’t take up very much time at all, compared with daily training every morning before work/school, every evening and most weekends. One of the things I am often asked to help athletes with is keeping motivated, or interested in, training. We usually work on setting lots of goals, even goals for one training session, to make that training session interesting and challenging.