How Daydreaming Can Make You More Productive

If you’re like most people, your mind sometimes wanders. One minute you’re working on an important report, the next, you’re Googling something. No worries; a wandering mind is normal and with three minor optimizations can be amazingly helpful.

Your brain has two large-scale networks, which are sets of neural pathways that generate our conscious thoughts. One of these, the executive system, is used for intense, focused thought. The other, the default mode network, is used when you’re thinking about nothing in particular.

Have you ever focused hard on a problem for hours, only to hit a brick wall? Then you’re cooking or taking a shower, and a solution pops into your head? Your brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN) is engaged in diffuse thinking. Your mind is wandering, forming random connections between ideas, and often stumbles across a solution.

FACTS:

Our brains have two large-scale networks: the Executive System and the Default Mode Network (DMN).
These networks correspond to two modes of operation: focused and diffuse.
Focused and diffuse thinking are both essential to breakthroughs in work and life.

Focused thinking is hard. It requires a lot of energy, and you can’t engage in it for more than around 30 to 90 minutes without becoming fatigued. A break can lead to what academics, historians, and neurologists call “Eureka moments”. Think of them as shower thoughts.

Diffuse thinking has value of its own. Instead of fighting against your brain, work with it. Schedule short blocks of time for focused work, and make time for diffuse thinking. Take a walk, or go out for lunch instead of eating at your desk.

Academics speculate cycling between convergent and divergent thinking help to make a breakthrough or get unstuck.

SOLUTIONS:

Set aside time each day to let your mind wander.

Take up a hobby to keep your body busy and engage your creative side.

Keep a notepad while your mind is wandering to capture any insights.

From the falling apple that prompted physicist Isaac Newton to formulate his laws of gravity to Greek polymath Archimedes taking a bath and figuring out how to calculate volume and density - these are iconic “light bulb” moments in the history of science. Or, as Archimedes reputedly said when insight struck, Eureka!