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Why We Spend About Half Our Time Awake Just... Spacing Out

Can you even make it through this article without your mind wandering?
Rachel Pick
New York, US

It's Thursday, and if you're reading this, I'm willing to bet you've already completely zoned out at your desk at least once today. Good news: zoning out, or "mindlessness," has a purpose, and it's actually super beneficial.

This science explainer from New York Magazine's "The Science of Us" tells us that consciousness is a spectrum—from total mindfulness (imagine a meditating Buddhist monk) to total mindlessness (me, idly wondering if there's an artistic distinction between a selfie and a self-portrait, while half-watching Storage Wars). Mindfulness gets a lot of hype, but the opposite end of the spectrum is just as good for you.

Maintaining total mindfulness is hard, and constant mental vigilance is nigh impossible. According to the video, we spend 50 percent of our time zoning out, and it turns out there's an evolutionary advantage to this unfocused time. When we're unfocused, our mind drifts to bigger questions and more abstract concepts, enabling creative insight. This is why you get your best ideas when you're performing routine tasks that require little focus; like showering, commuting, or walking the dog.

So the next time your boss gets pissed off at you for zoning out, you can tell them you're just really hard at work forming genius ideas. Let us know how that goes.