Anyone else find themselves calculating when they are bored?

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I was bored this morning... so I did something I usually do when I am bored... calculated how many individual bristles are on a 50 foot long garland, how many points are on the styrofoam snowflakes that hung from the ceiling, i calculated how many circles were on the table I was sitting at, that I found the percentage of the difference of both types of circles. I also calculated the number of inch large squares on a large couch. (I was waiting for my college's financial aid office to open.)

I usually calculate energy usage I use compared to energy usage my family uses, or how many individual plastic bag strips it takes me to crochet a bag from plastic bag yarn.

Am I the only one who does this? Or is this a aspie thing?

I calculate the total of my purchases and add in sales tax while waiting in line. Then I'll dig exact change out of my pocket.

I do like to count things while waiting. How many tiles are on the floor? How many lightbulbs? How many chairs?

But I'm more often daydreaming of soaring through the clouds in a sunset sky or something. I'm not much of a number cruncher.

I'm too bad at arithmetic to calculate when bored, instead I do higher maths in my head that are usually irrelevant. Thats all I do mathwise when bored.

Counting? (Please wait while I count how many words were in your post.) OK, done. Now what was the question? Oh, yea counting. or calculating if you will. I do this all the time and always have. This question appeared on several of the psychological tests I had to take.

Recently I've been tending to color-code things randomly (colors help with my mood swings and counting is systemic).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors#Color_table

I also do calculations when I'm bored, though my calculations are more like rough estimates and it's usually done when I'm interested in solving a particular problem, like minimizing heat usage in my hypothetical future dwelling (I figured hole myself up in one well-insulated room and I should be able to cut the heat bill by a factor of 7 compared to a typical house.) or business expenses during market testing.

Anyway, I remember in another post that you mentioned calculating the amount of steps or something in some kind of building (Was it the Space Needle?), and I thought that was interesting. In a good way.

Yep! I am a weird math nut. But I am only a math nut when it comes to a few things. Like when I am bored. Than I look like a schizophrenic talking to myself about numbers and pointing at random objects! lol! Maybe I will write it in a note-pad and make it look like I am studying!

I count random things... it happened to me yesterday in a bank.

Doing calculations gives me a headache because I'm NOT good with numbers due to dyslexia. I'm not into counting either

I do it at church or anything that has squares, always like to count them have no idea why.

Actual number manipulation isn't very often for me, but I do something similiar to help me sleep, and when I'm zoning or bored (and don't have a book or something to keep me occupied), and I think of it as "Mental Stimming".

For years, this has been a coping mechanism, a source of intense enjoyment, and a big part of me as a person and who I am. Even before I learned about the autistic spectrum and my place within it, this has always fascinated me.

Usually the counting comes into it for me when either running calculations for the interest that I'm thinking about, or thinking in terms of geometry. I have in the past done just straight numerical manipulation and enjoyed it, but I moved on (My own theory on Pi vs Phi stems from this period... Theory vs Reality, Possibility vs Actualy, etc). I also have found I am totally enamoured and love doing this when there are lights to stare at.

But yeah, after learning about the spectrum and the likelihood of me being autistic, and researching stimming (self-stimulation) this was one of the first things I thought of as well as some true physical stims I do, but it seemed like the most fitting way of describing it to me, so thats still how I think of it

Good post, thanks

I do this constantly - even did it multiple different times today when bored in meetings at work.

I do it.

I don't get bored.

I find myself counting things, or just counting to myself quite often.