Pushing on, completing the task, getting things done has an energy and drive of its own. But sometimes, pausing can be the most efficient and effective course of action.
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Pushing on, completing the task, getting things done has an energy and drive of its own. But sometimes, pausing can be the most efficient and effective course of action.
Ever felt physically exhausted even without undertaking any physical activity? It turns out that a hard day’s thinking can be just as tiring as physical exertion. The fatigue is essentially your brain’s way of telling you to switch off in order to save itself.
When the stakes are so high, sitting back to relax is the last thing you’d expect to be helpful when trying to make such important improvements. However, it turns out that sitting back may be a necessary part of the process.
Do you ever feel frustrated when you doze off when you don’t want to? But, what if dozing in and out of sleep was actually a helpful state to be in? What if we gave into it a bit more often (as long as we’re in a safe space and not operating machinery!).
At the onset of sleep there’s a state we enter called ‘hypnagogia’, which we experience as being half-asleep, half-awake. Charles Dickens talked of this as a time that enables the mind to “ramble at its pleasure.”
When was the last time you were bored; when those little moments and tiny cracks in the day were left unfilled – while waiting for the lift, queuing for a sandwich or arriving early for a meeting? Do you allow boredom to creep in, or are spaces quickly filled with snippets of news, a quick text or a catch up post?
We crave stimulus and it’s only when we can’t find it externally that our minds tend to create it internally; sparking innovative ideas and solutions.
Our brains really do "keep working" unconsciously, even when we've stopped.
It's why ‘ah-ha!’ moments – those times when ideas suddenly click together when we least expect them to – are much more likely to come about when your mind is relaxed and free from tasks. We call this Click Thinking. It happens when we stop focussing directly on the tasks in hand.
We underestimate how much we enjoy spending time alone with our own thoughts, without distraction. We think we’d prefer to keep busy, rather than take the time to stop and think, but in reality it’s not the case. We incorrectly think we won’t enjoy doing nothing, but when given the chance, it's far more positive than we expect.