Study: The Benefits of Daydreaming at Work

It’s been a very long week.  This is the first full five-day workweek of the year and probably the first time you've had to buckle down like this at work in about a month.  It's been a grind.  So it should come as no surprise after a week like this that by this afternoon, you'll likely find yourself wandering off a bit waiting for the weekend to start.  There is some good news: scientists say go ahead and daydream!

Two new studies show that daydreaming while at work could boost your brain's creativity. Researchers at the University of Central Lancashire in England gave study participants deliberately boring tasks to complete. Participants were then given another task to measure their creativity, and performed better than those who did not perform the boring task beforehand.

What does it all mean?  According to one researcher:

Our work shows that daydreaming could be potentially beneficial in the workplace, as it allows lateral thinking that could assist with problem solving.

Maybe you can talk the boss to set aside some mandatory daydreaming time for everyone in the office every day.  Good luck with that?