Guy Reams (00:01.72)
This is day 32. Mind wandering is good sometimes. You know, I oftentimes talk about my desire to keep my brain focused. So I work on taking breaks throughout the day so that I can stay, you know, my theory is that can only really have 20 minutes of really focused thinking within an hour. So it's probably best instead of sitting here for an hour trying to get your brain to focus,
It's better just to plan on 20 minutes of focus time and then, you know, 30 or 40 minutes of really just doing other things to be prepared for your mind to be focused for that 20 minutes. If you have 20 minutes of focus, you can accomplish a whole lot more than just sitting staring at your computer or doing whatever. So that's the theory. I think it works. However,
I don't think you can fight mind wandering all the time because mind wandering, as it turns out, is actually very good for you. And that can provide you an example today. this a couple of weeks ago, I decided to build my own alarm system because I was tired of paying other people to do basic electronic stuff in my house.
And I was really getting tired of buying alarm system components just to have them become out of date and then I have to buy a whole bunch of new ones. This latest thing was Google deciding to discontinue a bunch of their security products. So I decided I'm tired of this. I'm taking over. I'm going to make it myself. So I started down that process. And it's all been going pretty well.
Except I decided to come, came up with this new idea and I wanted to implement something really cool. So I started working on it and I just could not get it to work. And I've been spending, you know, off and on whenever I get time, I've been spending off and on trying to get this thing to work and I could just never get it to work. So today I spent a whole bunch of time once again, trying to get this one particular signal thing to work in my alarm system.
Guy Reams (02:24.887)
Basically, I'm trying to wire up a siren thing. But I need to do it remotely, and I need to do it outside. there's some wireless connectivity involved. There's some DC power involved. There's some remote switching involved. It's not really complicated, but for some reason, I just cannot get this one thing to work. And I've been racking my brain on how to do this right.
You know, and it seems like it should be so easy, right? It's like, this isn't complicated. Well, so then today I decided I was working on it I just got frustrated. So I decided to just get away and just go walk around and do something different. And, you know, I was sitting there doing something totally different. And as I was doing it, a thought came into my head and I was like, wait a minute, I think I know the answer.
So I went back and I tried my solution and sure enough, I fixed the problem. And it was so easy. For some reason, my brain had a mental block and I just could not get past it. Well, my wiring was just wrong. So I fixed my wiring and everything works magically, like amazing. So mind wandering is kind of like an incubation, right?
In fact, there's a theory and I've heard this theory before called incubation. It's when you take a break with a task. And especially if you go take a break like sleeping or taking a walk or doing laundry or whatever and allowing your mind to just wander, allowing your mind to just do whatever your mind is going to do without interrupting it.
And most especially, don't listen to something on your phone or listen to music or listen to a podcast or something. Don't do that because that doesn't allow your mind to wander very easily. It can, but not very easily. So a lot of times what I'll do is I'll just listen to some classical music or I'll just take a walk or I'll do a repetitive task. So while you're doing that, your mind is wandering. And that wandering state can connect ideas in new ways
Guy Reams (04:49.995)
and allows for this process called incubation where your brain unconsciously reorganizes information and explores alternatives. And that's exactly what happened to me today. It's amazing how suddenly I was able to come up with the idea. So I think it's important that we give our brain this time to wander. And in today's society, we're so fixated on always having input coming into our brain that I don't think we get enough wander time.
think also we should consider reduced fixation. Prolonged focus on a problem can lead to what I call rigidity. You get so, like today, I was so focused on this one wiring scheme that I thought was right, but it wasn't. And the whole time I kept thinking the wiring's fine, it's gotta be this. But it was not anything else that was wrong. It was one wire not connecting correctly.
to the common wire to the I had a diagram wiring diagram I was following and I was convinced that I had it right when I really didn't and So that one little wire not connected correctly was my entire problem But my mental rigidity was preventing me from saying that So if you get too focused your brain can have this
rigidity which will make it harder for you to see alternative solutions. Giving yourself a break allows your brain to go, to let go of ineffective strategies or fixated perspectives or whatever. And it opens up room for new creative approaches to your thinking, right? So giving your time mind to wander can break the rigidity of your thinking.
Finally, I think there's a little bit to do with cognitive load.
Guy Reams (06:51.159)
There are times when your brain can just get overloaded. A difficult problem can exhaust your work in memory, kind of where you temporarily store information in your brain. And that can get overloaded. Like it just can just get overloaded. you know, if you're feeling overloaded and then you go take a break, it kind of recharges your cognitive resources, frees up your brain. You come back and you're refreshed at it.
and now suddenly you can handle a much more complex task. So I think it's important to reduce cognitive load from time to time so that you can come back at the problem and think much stronger.
Finally, I did a little bit of research on this after I thought about this. And there is one thing called the default mode. So think about it this way. This is a recent thing that people that research brain mechanics or whatever goes on inside the brain. And one thing they think of, they think is going on, is there's actually a network in your brain that is not connected.
to your conscious thought, your cognitive ability. It's actually a separate pathway in the brain. And this default brain, this default mode is in this creative thinking mode, problem solving mode. It's where you can subconsciously process information and make connections. So there's a theory that this default mode is going on behind the scenes while your conscious mind is focusing on one thing.
And if that's true, sometimes you're not going to be able to solve the problem right now. You need to give that default mode of your brain time to process. So maybe there is some truth to sleeping on the problem, or there is some truth to letting your mind ponder it for a while. I mean, it's amazing to me sometimes I've solved problems without even thinking about them.
Guy Reams (08:59.115)
Like today, I was off doing something else. And while I was doing something else, suddenly, pop, the idea came into my head. Maybe I should check that one wire. Maybe it's not correct. Maybe I connected it to the wrong terminal. Sure enough, I went back and right there on the board was labeled common. And I had it on one pin over. And I had been missing it the entire time. And it's like, wow, this one little pin
over on the board was wrong. It's like, but I hadn't, I was so stuck on it being right. I had to let my brain kind of think it through. And sure enough, my brain was like, you know what? If that common ground is not set correctly, the whole thing's going to short. Sure enough, it did. So there you go. So I think those are some concepts that I think can really help us. This idea of reducing cognitive load, letting your mind wander,
reducing rigidity in your thinking and allowing this default mode of your brain to be operating and had given it time to operate so that you can solve complex problems. Anyway, so most of the time focus is good, but I think also you should give your brain time to wander.