Your Brain Can Only Take So Much Focus

From Harvard Business Review: Your Brain Can Only Take So Much Focus

Particularly in the realm of self-help books, focus is treated as the ultimate Nirvana state that, if only we could reach, all our problems would melt away. But as the article states, “excessive focus exhausts the focus circuits in your brain.”

The trick is to find the right balance of focus and unfocus. Unfocused thinking lets the Default Mode Network circuits in your brain wander freely, and often leads to striking creative breakthroughs. Being able to switch back and forth between focused and unfocused modes is behind a lot of my own creative work.

The article goes on to describe Positive Constructive Daydreaming, a concept I very much like seeing put into words.

Also mentioned: napping. Worth a read!

(Front image: CC attribution flickr.com kaeru Too much staring at the screen today)

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