distractivity

The Benefits of Boredom

2011-11-12T11:50:00.004-05:00

When you’re doing nothing, you’re just getting started:

It’s easy to underestimate boredom.

However, boredom and its synonyms can also become a crucial tool of creativity. When people are immersed in monotony, they automatically lapse into a very special form of brain activity: mind-wandering.

In recent years neuroscience has dramatically revised our views of mind-wandering. [P]eople who consistently engage in more mind-wandering score significantly higher on various measures of creativity.

From the ever-fascinating Jonah Lehrer's essay, The Importance of Mind-Wandering in Wired.

On the Art of Puttering

2011-06-25T18:41:00.003-04:00

A moment of calm reflection:

We are a driven people… We keep lists; we crowd our schedules; we look for more efficient ways to organize ourselves.

But every now and then there comes a day for puttering. No one intends to putter. You simply discover, in a brief moment of self-awareness, that you have been puttering…

Your attention is diverted almost immediately and then diverted again. You move through the morning with a calm, oblivious focus, taking on tasks — incidental ones — in the order they present themselves, which is to say no order at all.

Puttering is small-scale, stream-of-consciousness problem-solving.

Excerpted from a New York Times editorial, June 24, 2011.

In Praise of Distraction

2011-04-09T08:16:00.006-04:00

Trust your inclination:

[T]here’s no doubt that the Internet has made it much easier—and more entertaining—to slack off at the office. … [P]lenty of new research suggests that forcing Internet-addicted employees to go cold turkey may make them less productive, not more. … [G]iving people some respite from difficult tasks, along with the chance to let their minds wander, will make them more productive.

James Surowiecki in the New Yorker.

The Art of Productive Procrastination

2011-02-04T19:01:00.000-05:00

Don’t let what you should be doing keep you from what you really should be doing:

I am rarely, if ever, doing what I should be doing. … I gave up on trying to do exactly what I was meant to be doing in favor of always doing something. … I’ve always found that it’s useful to have something else to be doing when you’re too burnt out to face the next thing on your list.

From Saul Griffith in MAKE Magazine.

Making a place for serendipity

2011-01-31T18:08:00.000-05:00

Planning can be an obstacle to opportunity:

Serendipity and luck are by their very nature unpredictable, and therefore not part of any good plan. When something unexpected happens, things are no longer “going according to plan”, and there is a tendency to view the unexpected event either as a distraction, or as a frustrating obstacle to success.

The difference between a life full of frustrating obstacles, and a life full of serendipity, is largely a matter of interpretation.

From Serendipity finds you by Paul Buchheit

Daydreaming’s Time Frame

2010-10-27T09:20:00.004-04:00

Your brain is working even when it’s not.

If creative insights are the products of daydreaming, could it be that they are the purpose of daydreaming? In that case, the seemingly aimless meanderings of our minds would, in fact, be goal-directed. Schooler agrees, but with a caveat: “It’s important to distinguish between the goals of the moment and more long-term goals,” he explains. “Daydreaming is typically not in the service of the goals of the moment; in fact it works against the goals of the moment. But at the same time, it likely is driven by more distant goals.”

From: Distraction – Psychology Today, March/April 2009

Ambient Thought

2010-07-21T20:44:00.003-04:00

Paul Graham describes the importance of what he calls your “top idea.”

I think most people have one top idea in their mind at any given time. That’s the idea their thoughts will drift toward when they’re allowed to drift freely. And this idea will thus tend to get all the benefit of that type of thinking, while others are starved of it.

You can’t directly control where your thoughts drift. If you’re controlling them, they’re not drifting. But you can control them indirectly, by controlling what situations you let yourself get into. That has been the lesson for me: be careful what you let become critical to you.

As a friend of mine once advised me, don’t get good at something you don’t want to do.

The Top Idea in Your Mind [via]

The benefits of being without goals

2010-07-09T18:32:00.004-04:00

In a test of creativity, a researcher discovered an unexpected advantage in subjects with willingness rather than willfulness:

Psychologist Ibrahim Senay of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign figured out an intriguing way to explore intention, motivation and goal–directed actions. Senay did this by exploring self–talk — that voice in your head that articulates what you are thinking, spelling out your options and intentions. Senay thought that self–talk might be a tool for exerting the will — or being willing.

It is the difference between “Will I do this?” and “I will do this.” [Q]uestions by their nature speak to possibility and freedom of choice. Meditating on them might enhance feelings of autonomy and intrinsic motivation, creating a mind–set that promotes success.

People with wondering minds completed significantly more anagrams than did those with willful minds. In other words, the people who kept their minds open were more goal–directed and more motivated than those who declared their objective to themselves.

Setting your mind on a goal may be counterproductive.

From Scientific American [via]

Productivity vs. Creativity

2010-07-04T14:31:00.004-04:00

Keeping busy is not your most important activity:

My best ideas come to me when I am unproductive. When I am running but not listening to my iPod. When I am sitting, doing nothing, waiting for someone. When I am lying in bed as my mind wanders before falling to sleep. These “wasted” moments, moments not filled with anything in particular, are vital.

They are the moments in which we, often unconsciously, organize our minds, make sense of our lives, and connect the dots. They're the moments in which we talk to ourselves. And listen.

Getting things done and knowing what to do are different problems.

From the Harvard Business Review.

Wandering out of a bind

2010-05-18T20:27:00.003-04:00

A wandering mind can do important work, scientists are learning - and may even be essential:

Many scientists argue that daydreaming is a crucial tool for creativity, a thought process that allows the brain to make new associations and connections.

“If your mind didn’t wander, then you’d be largely shackled to whatever you are doing right now,” says Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “But instead you can engage in mental time travel and other kinds of simulation. During a daydream, your thoughts are really unbounded.”

In a forthcoming paper, Schooler's lab has shown that people who engage in more daydreaming score higher on experimental measures of creativity, which require people to make a set of unusual connections.

[W]hen we are stuck on a particularly difficult problem, a good daydream isn’t just an escape - it may be the most productive thing we can do.

From The Boston Globe.

Career advice

2010-01-28T14:05:00.009-05:00

“The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.”

The words of Jessica Hische [via]

The benefits of daydreaming

2009-07-01T17:34:00.006-04:00

University of British Columbia research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

“Mind wandering is typically associated with negative things like laziness or inattentiveness,” says lead author, Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Dept. of Psychology. “But this study shows our brains are very active when we daydream – much more active than when we focus on routine tasks.”

The findings suggest that daydreaming – which can occupy as much as one third of our waking lives – is an important cognitive state where we may unconsciously turn our attention from immediate tasks to sort through important problems in our lives.

As reported by ScienceDaily.

Thinking like a baby

2009-05-14T10:29:00.005-04:00

The Boston Globe reports on the advantages of a baby's mind:

"Adults can follow directions and focus, and that's great," says John Colombo, a psychologist at the University of Kansas. "But children, it turns out, are much better at picking up on all the extraneous stuff that's going on. . . . And this makes sense: If you don't know how the world works, then how do you know what to focus on? You should try to take everything in."

While thinking like an adult is necessary when we need to focus, or when we already know which information is relevant, many situations aren't so clear-cut. In these instances, paying strict attention is actually a liability, since it leads us to neglect potentially important pieces of the puzzle. That's when it helps to think like a baby.

As the Globe says: "It's unfocused, random, and extremely good at what it does."

Involuntary Attention

2009-02-25T13:26:00.000-05:00

New research reported in the New York Times points to the value of not paying attention:

Andrea Faber Taylor, a child environment and behavior researcher at the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois, says other research suggests that all children, not just those with attention problems, can benefit from spending time in nature during the school day. ...

The reason may be that the brain uses two forms of attention. “Directed” attention allows us to concentrate on work, reading and tests, while “involuntary” attention takes over when we’re distracted by things like running water, crying babies, a beautiful view or a pet that crawls onto our lap.

Directed attention is a limited resource. Long hours in front of a computer or studying for a test can leave us feeling fatigued. But spending time in natural settings appears to activate involuntary attention, giving the brain’s directed attention time to rest.

Distractivity vindicated

2008-07-31T09:53:00.000-04:00

Quotes from “The Eureka Hunt” – published in The New Yorker – July 28, 2008

Scooler's research has also lead him to reconsider the bad reputation of letting one's mind wander. Although we often complain that the brain is too easily distracted, Schooler believes that letting the mind wander is essential. … We must concentrate, but we must concentrate on letting the mind wander. … “The relaxation phase is crucial,” Jung-Beeman said. “That's why so many insights happen during warm showers.” Another ideal moment for insights, according to the scientists, is the early morning, right after we wake up. The drowsy brain is unwound and disorganized, open to all sorts of unconventional ideas. … We do some of our best thinking when we're still half asleep.