The Secret Productivity of Daydreaming - Default Mode Network

Lala land, naval gazing, wool gathering.

This all sounds so very unproductive and frivolous, right?

But when you're daydreaming, you're engaging the default mode network in your brain, which is a bunch of parts of your brain that don't normally talk, getting together for a wine and cheese party. But only when you're thinking about nothing.

Sometimes, when you're doing nothing? You're actually doing everything  

Imagine that there's a problem you're trying to solve and it's like a spaceship.

You don't have radio contact with a spaceship

🚀 it's blasting off inside your brain.
But the problem is that you don't have radio contact with the spaceship

🤷‍♀️ Dunno where the spaceship is.

But, under the radar, that spaceship is flying all around your universe brain, trying to find different experiences, connections, skills, pieces of information that it can combine to realize an insight or an aha!

Maybe you've gone to bed with a problem that you're trying to solve, and you've woken up with a solution.

That's your default mode network.

Or maybe you're in the shower.
Or driving to work on autopilot.

All of a sudden an idea pops into your brain. That's your default mode network - ENGAGE! (If you said that in a Jean Luc Picard Star Trek voice, voila, I wrote it that way)

it's really important that we take the time to allow our brain to daydream to give our brain the space to make connections. A few tips? Think about a problem you are trying to solve and let your mind wander. Or, think about something fantastical. How to get to inbox zero? What if every email were a little tiny alien life form trying to get home? Or what if you were playing Tetris and every email were a block? Both techniques are proven to be helpful for generating great insights. Avoid ruminating on past events or worries, which is where mind wandering can lead instead to anxiety. Daydreaming is a force. Use it wisely, my friend (Yoda voice?)

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