At the risk of sounding like a cracked record; training in this area is very poor. In my experience, too much is assumed by trainers and not trained by them. They assume we have read all the books, cover to cover. They assume we have understood every word and implication. They assume we can do things that are not specifically trained. They assume that a new sentence in a manual has been spotted, read, and understood by everyone. They assume that we are all equally capable of monitoring and correcting PF effectively. I didn't think we were supposed to assume anything in flying?
Regarding boredom; I never fail to be amazed by the 'farts on guard' or 'music on guard' brigade. Considering what they have had to go through to get into a front seat of a jet, I cannot believe they find it so boring that they resort to such pathetic childishness. I guess that they are the ones whose Daddy paid for it all......
If people are bored by modern jet flying then they are missing something and not doing their monitoring job properly. If ever anyone starts getting bored, try thinking, "if we had an explosive decompression NOW, or an engine failure NOW; what would my actions be and where would I go? Where is the high ground, what airport will I head towards?" That should prevent boredom
Doing a crossword or similar keeps the brain alert and ticking over, and as someone mentioned, you are likely to check things even more often while doing so.