Human Nature

From Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

Something in us wants to be distracted, whether by our digital devices or anything else—to not spend our lives on what we thought we cared about the most.

Daydreaming Can Be Good for You

Your high school English teacher might have called you a space cadet, but in reality, even the briefest mental vacations can restore a sense of well-being.

For decades, psychologists have equated daydreaming with a failure of cognitive control, focusing on how it stunts abilities like task processing, reading comprehension and memory. Yet, Jerome Singer, a former professor at Pennsylvania State University and the father of daydreaming research, hypothesized that daydreaming can have a positive effect. If not, why would our minds be so prone to wander?

From Rebecca Renner in the New York Times.

Constructive Distraction

A concept to live by, from Walter Mischel, the creator of the Marshmallow Test:

His secret seems to come straight from the marshmallow test: distraction. “It’s to keep living in a way one wants to live and work; to distract constructively; to distract in ways that are in themselves satisfying; to do things that are intrinsically gratifying,” he says. “Melancholy is not one of my emotions. Quite seriously, I don’t do melancholy. It’s a miserable way to be.”

From Pamela Druckerman in the New York Times

Daydreaming may, in fact, be a sign of greater intelligence

Soft focus.

[T]he data suggests a high correlation between those with higher quality and efficiency of thought—and a tendency, or more appropriately an ability, to let one’s mind wander a little more.

W. Harry Fortuna at Quartz

The scientific link between boredom and creativity

In case you didn’t get the message.

One of the most common questions that writers receive is: “Where do you get your ideas?” The best answer for me is that I get ideas for stories during periods of associative thinking—that is, letting my mind wander, just musing and reflecting.

Indeed, research suggests that people who want to come up with creative ideas would do well to let their minds drift. These people are more prone to “divergent thinking styles”—the ability to come up with creative new ideas. “Thus, boredom may encourage people to approach rewards and spark associative thought.”

Jordan Rosenfeld at Quartz

Procrastination encourages divergent thinking

While procrastination is a vice for productivity, I’ve learned that it’s a virtue for creativity.

Our first ideas are usually our most conventional. When you procrastinate, you’re more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.

In every creative project, there are moments that require thinking more laterally and more slowly. My natural need to finish early was a way of shutting down complicating thoughts that sent me whirling in new directions. I was avoiding the pain of divergent thinking — but I was also missing out on its rewards.

Adam Grant in the New York Times.

A New Theory of Distraction

The pleasure we get from being distracted is the pleasure of taking action and being free. Distraction is appealing precisely because it’s active and rebellious.

Why do so many writers find distraction so scary? The obvious answer is that they’re writers. More generally, distraction is scary for another, complementary reason: the tremendous value that we’ve come to place on attending. The modern world valorizes few things more than attention.

Behind the crisis of distraction, in short, there is what amounts to a crisis of attention: the more valuable and in demand attention becomes, the more problematic even innocuous distractions seem to be.

Joshua Rothman in The New Yorker