The 'Phenomenology' of Boredom

In a word, anxiety.  I think that all boredom can essentially be described as a manifestation of anxiety.  At least, whenever I experience boredom, it is as a trade-off--it is as a desire to be doing something else--usually, something very explicit that I can indeed explicitly name.  It comes as an emotion of the incongruence of actions to desires.  Moreover, there is a set impermanence to its character.  It is set as a constant urge to be doing yet some other action.  And, furthermore, the only set difference between boredom and anxiety is, I submit, a difference only in degree and not in kind.  That boredom is merely the most mild form of anxiety is readily apparent at the thought experiment of increasing the supposed need of the desired action.  That is, if the same thing desired during boredom should suddenly become more urgently needed, say desire to write a paper in leisure v. desire to write it under a deadline, then we would suddenly feel anxiety.

With that said, all that we find in the state of boredom is that which we find in anxiety; and of that only of the most mild character.