By Caragh Medlicott and Chris Griffith
We tend to think of daydreaming as a time-wasting activity, but when you bring focus to the process you can actually use this genius-backed technique to achieve more, foster creative resilience, and even boost wellbeing. To do this, you need to make time for “focussed” daydreaming by fitting mind wandering into your daily routine and keeping your goals in mind. Find out more from the authors of “The Focus Fix: Finding Clarity, Creativity and Resilience in an Overwhelming World”.
If you want to see someone go from calm to panicked in a matter of seconds, start a stopwatch and ask them for ten great ideas. Creativity is rarely something we can produce on command, and that’s doubly true when we’re under pressure. No wonder, then, that we’re finding less and less time for innovative thinking at work.
In our current working environment, busyness reigns supreme. We deem someone to be a hard worker on the basis of how stressed and harried they seem to be, rather than looking at the actual quality of the work they produce. Yet, if we want to be successful, we need to be able to operate at our cognitive best. Achieving this can be intimidating, but luckily for you there’s a little-known technique that can help you kickstart your brain and reenergise your batteries at the same time.
So, what is the magical technique, you ask? Well, it’s something we like to call “focussed daydreaming” – while this might sound like an oxymoron, it’s actually about bringing structure to a cognitive tool that is naturally beneficial to us. While there’s a wealth of research to prove that mind wandering comes with a whole host of brain boosting benefits, there’s also plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest this, too.
Let me ask you to think, for a moment, about where you get your best ideas. While everyone’s answers will vary somewhat, very few people say that their most creative moments hit in classically “focussed” environments. Frustrating as it may be, we’re much more likely to experience a strike of inspiration when doing something random – whether that be driving, walking or showering. On the surface, this might seem like a bit of bad luck, but actually there’s sense behind this seeming randomness.
The correlative factor between these seemingly unrelated activities and the light bulb moments that they bring about is, in fact, daydreaming. When you begin to understand the full power of this tool, you won’t be surprised to hear how it’s been actively applied by some of the greatest thinkers from the pages of history. That even goes for perhaps the most famed genius of all time, Albert Einstein.
In his work and research, Einstein actively used daydreaming (what he called his “thought experiments”) to achieve some of his most impressive breakthroughs – including his theory of relatively. Other fans of the daydreaming technique include Wolfgang Mozart, Thomas Edison and Sir Isaac Newton (who’s theory of gravity is fabled to have come to him while daydreaming under an apple tree).
While this evidence is mostly anecdotal, it is also substantiated by neuroscience. Researchers from the University of British Columbia used brain imaging technology to see what’s actually going on in our brains during mind wandering sessions. To understand this, you need to know that the brain’s functions can typically be sorted into the default network and the executive network – the former refers to the portion of the brain used for simple and routine tasks, while the executive network is responsible for more complex activities.
Researchers had expected that daydreaming would only involve the default network, but were surprised to find that this state actually engaged both portions of the brain. They concluded that this explained why mind wandering can be linked to improved performance in areas such as problem solving and creativity. Far from time-wasting, it seems that mind wandering actually connects sections of our brain that are usually working separately – allowing for new ideas to form, and novel solutions to crop up.
You can harness the power of daydreaming yourself by making time for mind wandering breaks throughout your day at work. While it can sound bizarre at first, the benefits are undeniable. Indeed, thinking about our toxic working culture – the one in which we prioritise busywork over real strategy – focussed daydreaming provides a natural remedy to this. Research from Microsoft has shown that work without break causes stress to build up in the brain, while other studies have indicated that regular breaks actually improve productivity.
Given all this, combining regular breaks with mind wandering feels like the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone – giving your focussed mind some respite while also facilitating the state that naturally fuels your creativity. In order to make this daydreaming “focussed” you need to learn to bring intent to your sessions. That means giving your subconscious to chew on while you’re in the thick of the mind wandering state so it has material to formulate new ideas in the area that is beneficial to you.
In summary, the focussed daydreaming technique can be boiled down to three steps:
- Find your focus. Make your daydream session productive by having a focus in mind. That could be to think of ideas for a project at work or to unpick a problem you’re currently facing – whichever case, know your end goal.
- Information for inspiration. With this focus in mind, take time to get to know this topic or subject – this will give colours for your imagination to paint with, providing inspiration fodder for the daydreaming mind.
- Activate the daydream state. Now, get into the mind wandering state – that might be through taking a walk, doing some doodling, or even working through your chores. Any activity that naturally causes your mind to wander off. Just make sure to note down any ideas of breakthroughs that strike you in this period!
By making time to apply this technique on a daily basis, you’ll be able to harness the power of focussed daydreaming to actually make the most of your brain – and offer protection from burnout and stress in the process!
About the Authors
Caragh Medlicott, the author of The Focus Fix: Finding clarity, creativity and resilience in an overwhelming world (published by Kogan Page).
Chris Griffith, the author of The Focus Fix: Finding clarity, creativity and resilience in an overwhelming world (published by Kogan Page).
