How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

REFRESH AND REBOOT
“I often find that problems are best solved by not thinking about them for a
while,” Peggy says. “I’ll deliberately plan to step away from a tough task after
spending some focused time on it, to work on something else for a while. When
I come back to the original thing, I come back at it in a different way, and I’ll
often get a eureka moment. I think there’s value in trusting there’s a better
solution and telling yourself you just don’t know what it is yet, but that it’s out
there if you just give yourself the space to process it.”
Everything we know about the brain suggests that Peggy is spot on with this
observation. In 
Chapter 5
, on the value of planning downtime, I highlighted that
a great deal of further neural processing happens when we stop consciously
thinking about a topic. Our subconscious connects the information we’ve just
absorbed to the older memories stored in our brain—and those new connections
are just what we need for fresh insight. So when we return to the original task
after shifting our attention elsewhere, we often find ourselves able to see new
ways of approaching the problem.

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But what if you’re in the middle of a meeting, or you’re up against a deadline,
and it’s simply too fanciful to think of taking a break right now? Research
suggests that even briefly shifting your focus to another serious task can be
enough to refresh your thinking. That’s Peggy’s experience, too. “If people are
getting stuck and maybe a bit negative, with everyone bagging on an idea, I’ll
suggest we change gear and brainstorm another part of the project just for a few
minutes. When we come back to the original topic, it always helps us see
something we hadn’t previously seen.”
A number of cognitive scientists have demonstrated that it doesn’t take long to
get some of this subconscious processing benefit. Studies have found that
shifting attention from a complex problem to another task for just two, three, or
four minutes can help people make better decisions when they return to the
problem.
4
However, the research does suggest that two things are needed to make sure
we reap the full benefits of this cognitive shift. First, we need to intend to come
back to the task at hand.
5
 Otherwise, our brain will assume it’s not necessary to
continue processing the information at a subconscious level; it will just move on
to thinking about other things, like what we’re having for lunch. Second,
researchers have found that it helps to tackle a different kind of task during those
moments when we step away from the problem.
6
If we’re working on a
spreadsheet full of numbers about product sales, looking at another grid of
numbers isn’t going to be as mentally revitalizing as engaging in conversation
about, say, the product’s new marketing campaign.
So for a complex task where the way forward isn’t obvious:
Stop and tackle a different part of the problem or a different issue for a few
minutes, to allow your brain some time to do some background processing
before you return to the issue.
If you can, plan to split your work on the topic into two working sessions
rather than trying to complete the task in one sitting.
Important side note: for those tempted to see this as a license to multitask,
resist! What the science suggests is that you can revitalize your creativity by
deliberately
stepping away from the toughest part of your task for a while,
before reengaging deeply with it. We’re talking about a careful shift, from
focusing on one topic to focusing on another, not frantically flitting across the

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vast realm of your to-do list in the hope that it will inspire you. (Scattering your
attention only increases the load on your brain, making it harder to think
creatively.) So it still pays to do one thing at a time, even when you’re mixing
things up.