How Being More Productive Starts With Doing Nothing
It ’ s gotten harder to create mental breaks as work and home have blurred . Here are ways to get your brain a rest .
By Annemarie Dooling
One secret to achieving more : Finding time to do nothing .
In our efforts to squeeze every second from the day , it seems counterintuitive to watch a pot of coffee boil or gaze out the window . But your brain uses those free periods for important cleanup work , neuroscience research indicates . And during the pandemic , as the boundaries between work and home have blurred , it has become harder to create mental breaks .
Even brief timeouts help the brain reinforce long-term learning and productivity . You come out of downtime able to learn more , and can access that learning faster .
“ When you take a break , you may want to do something mind-consuming to help with motivation , but technically your best way of taking a break is to do something mindless ,” says Barbara Oakley , a professor of engineering at Oakland University in Michigan who teaches a popular online course on how to open your mind to learning .
To ease into allowing yourself to do nothing , start with something familiar . Here are some techniques .
8 DITCHMEN • MARCH 2021