“Doing nothing” is a great technique to improve your productivity. Neuroscience is clear

A priori, staring at the infinity without doing anything can collide frontally with the concept of productivity. However, according to science, You are opening a new space in your brain in which to settle knowledge or combine abstract elements that become creative ideas.

Against all prognosis, it seems that those small vacations that we give to the brain in the form of dreaming awake – what is commonly known as being embossed – allows to activate parts of the brain involved in the generation of ideas and learning new concepts. Therefore, it is advisable to allow, from time to time, Look at the screen and disconnect from the world Not doing anything.

Conscious rest but without connection. Technically known as a quiet state of vigil, or popularly as dreaming of awake or being embobey, it is a relaxed state of environmental awareness that helps the mind to process complex thoughts while it is awake and at rest. Would be the equivalent of putting the Airplane mode on your mobilesince the mind is aware, but somehow the environment disappears and takes prominence more abstract and creative thoughts.

Easier. Some people have a special ease to achieve that mental state, but others get it by performing simple and repetitive tasks such as scrubbing dishes, cleaning the car or laying the casting. Many great ideas arrive while you showers or while cooking. Bill Gates has assured In one of his rounds of questions with Reddit users who one of his favorite activities to enter that state of mental relaxation is to scrub the dishes. Science supports it.

Do nothing potency memory. The science has triedthat stress harms long -term memory recovery, so a remedy to stop that loss is to make it The brain takes a respite From time to time. A study published in Nature He has reviewed the neuronal mice activity while they dream awake, revealing the activation of different neuronal patterns and activating the hippocampus, the area responsible for memory and learning.

These findings indicate the importance of incorporating this disconnection time for the brain to consolidate knowledge and assimilate new data. By anecdotal that seems, it seems that this phase of “doing nothing” contributes to being Much more efficient and productive when you return to activity.

Let crazy ideas flow. When he was barely 16, the Nobel Prize Albert Einstein had the inspiration to develop his theory of relativity that would forever change the concepts of modern physics. Although development was the result of years of work, Inspiration came to him while dreaming awake.

The evidence. A study published in 2022 It indicates that the mental state that reaches the brain when it enters this state of conscious reverie is similar to the one it adopts during creative processes, so it is not surprising that the result is the generation of new and creative ideas as a result of the combination of the combination of Abstract elements and knowledge that we have learned. In that state, the brain becomes a drawer of cognitive sand for ideas and has fun playing with them and giving new approaches in a subconscious way.

The scenario is similar to the one that occurs During the first phases of sleepwith the advantage that, when you wake up from that conscious “trance”, you will remember the idea and you can develop or discard it, something that is not always achieved with ideas during sleep, which are forgotten when you wake up.

I’m not empanado, I’m solving problems. Another benefits of achieving a mental state of conscious reverie demonstrated by science is problem solving. Studies relate The increase in creativity in this state with the increase in the ability to solve problems.

Researchers have discovered that people who take time to dream awake before facing the resolution of a problem demonstrate greater capacity and do so more creatively. To the Perform magnetic resonancesFrom their brains, they have found that several regions of their brains were very active, including the executive network related to the resolution of complicated problems.

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Image | Pexels (Sora Shimazaki)

*An earlier version of this article was published in January 2024