Slack Off

 
CNN Money runs with an article about how one can be smarter at work by slacking off. The message isn't to be lazy or careless. Rather, it is that long hours, multi-tasking and and over focusing on a task are probably counter-productive for those of you in any sort of creative and innovative field. We need lulls and mental breaks to think clearly and to be open to new ideas. As Peter Drucker wrote 40 years ago in The Effective Executive, "All one can think and do in a short time is to think what one already knows and to do as one has always done." Not good.

[I]t's really, really hard, if not impossible, for the human brain to come up with fresh new ideas when its owner is overworked, overtired, and stressed out. And in today's wonderful world of nonstop work, 40% of American adults get less than seven hours of sleep on weeknights.

"The physiological effects of tiredness are well-known. You can turn a smart person into an idiot just by overworking him," notes Peter Capelli, a professor of management at Wharton. ...

What scientists have only recently begun to realize is that people may do their best thinking when they are not concentrating on work at all. If you've ever had a great idea pop into your head while you were washing your car, walking your dog, or even napping, you already know what a team of Dutch psychologists revealed last month in the journal Science: The unconscious mind is a terrific solver of complex problems when the conscious mind is busy elsewhere or, perhaps better yet, not overtaxed at all.

(Thanks Sylvain)