The science of a wandering mind
our minds are wired to wander. Wandering is their default. Whenever our thoughts are suspended between specific, discrete, goal-directed activities, the brain reverts to a so-called baseline, “resting” state—but don’t let the word fool you, because the brain isn’t at rest at all. Instead, it experiences tonic activity in what’s now known as the DMN
... See moreMaria Konnikova • Mastermind
Third, during mind-wandering, your mind will—Nathan said—engage in “mental time-travel,” where it roams over the past and tries to predict the future. Freed from the pressures of thinking narrowly about what’s right in front of you, your mind will start to think about what might come next—and so it will help to prepare you for it.
Johann Hari • Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again
Envisioning or planning one’s future, projecting oneself into a situation (especially a social situation), feeling empathy, invoking autobiographical memories also involve this daydreaming or mind-wandering network. If you’ve ever stopped what you were doing to picture the consequence of some future action or to imagine yourself in a particular fut
... See moreDaniel J. Levitin • The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
science of mind-wandering, asking: What happens when our thoughts float freely, without any immediate focus to anchor them?
Johann Hari • Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again
Task-negative mode is more colloquially known as daydreaming, and, as Daniel J. Levitin of McGill University has written, it “is responsible for our moments of greatest creativity and insight, when we’re able to solve problems that previously seemed unsolvable.”
David Leonhardt • Opinion | You’re Too Busy. You Need a ‘Shultz Hour.’ (Published 2017)
during mind-wandering, your mind will—Nathan said—engage in “mental time-travel,” where it roams over the past and tries to predict the future.
Johann Hari • Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again
In a recent series of studies at Cornell University, psychologists Thomas Gilovich and Clayton Critcher asked participants to think about what they'd be doing if they weren't in the lab: Some were asked to think about leisure, others about obligations. Then, all participants completed a jigsaw puzzle. Afterward, they were asked if their minds had w... See more
Could boredom be curable? - The Boston Globe
Have you ever sat in an airplane or train, just staring out the window with nothing to read, looking at nothing in particular? You might have found that the time passed very pleasantly, with no real memory of what exactly you were looking at, what you were thinking, or for that matter, how much time actually elapsed. You might have had a similar fe
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