But there is a trick to
doing it if you want your brain to benefit.
Letting your mind wander
may actually help your concentration, suggests new research from Cornell
University.
Here’s why scientists think
that: In a study, participants matched photos of celebrities more quickly and
accurately than they did for pictures of anonymous people they didn’t
recognize.
The celebrity pictures sparked
the activation of long-term memories in the study participants. This boosted
the participants’ short-term memory performance, which was also
associated with greater activity in the brain region that’s involved in things
like imagining or reminiscing.
In other words, thinking
about certain moments from the past can help you crack present problems. “We’re
able to use information from our long-term memory to solve the task at hand and
succeed at it even better,” says study author Nathan Spreng, Ph.D.
Previously, neuroscience
experts believed that all daydreaming squashed your focus and hindered your
performance. And that’s still true if your mind wanders way off course—like if
you start musing about what you did last weekend when you’re proofing your sales
figures for errors.
But if you summon up a
long-term memory that’s relevant to what you’re working on, you can actually
help your performance, says Spreng. Going over your sales stats? Let your mind
wander to that mistake you caught on last quarter’s report.
I hope this helps you
to be outstanding.
That is all -
David
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