My best ideas - the ones that lead to actual publishable breakthroughs - all seem to happen in the shower. Some combination of enforced downtime, warmth, relaxation and white noise from the water seems especially effective.
Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)
51–60 of 66 posts
Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)
#52I recently started reading "Deep Work" by Cal Newport and this is one of the points highlighted in the book. I'd recommend it (even though I haven't finished it yet).
I'm trying to be mindful during my day and I walk to and from work every day which is around 9km total. The beneficial effects (on attention, memory etc.) are twofold. In the morning it wakes me up and by the time I'm in the office I'm ready to dive into my work straight away. I see a lot of people that arrive drowsy or sleepy in the office and they need at least an hour to actually start doing anything meaningful. In the evening I use the walk as a "shutdown" ritual after which I don't think about work anymore. I also take a 30-40 minute walk during lunch time. It's a good point during midday to relax a little bit and be refreshed for the second half of the day. Overall for the day I walk around 11-12km. Health benefits of walking aside I really see how it's making me more focused and I do better work because of it.
Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's also the one interesting argument against podcasts. That they take the last remaining moments of doing nothing (vacuuming, doing the dishes, commuting,...) Especially interesting since one of the most popular podcasts is also run by a very reflected meditation proponent (Sam Harris).
One thing I like doing with podcasts is pausing them often to consider my own position. Form my own argument- given the new information I've just obtained. Often times the wheels just keep turning and I'll forget I was even listening to a podcast, and spend the majority of the time listening to myself think. I absolutely agree with the argument you mentioned with short term tasks like vacuuming, dishes, etc. If you d…
Most podcasts can be easily listened to at 2x speed. You quickly realise how useless many of them are.
Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)
#54I recently started reading "Deep Work" by Cal Newport and this is one of the points highlighted in the book. I'd recommend it (even though I haven't finished it yet). I'm trying to be mindful during my day and I walk to and from work every day which is around 9km total. The beneficial effects (on attention, memory etc.) are twofold. In the morning it wakes me up and by the time I'm in the office I'm ready to dive int…
My walking schedule evolved somewhat naturally once I started. I had always been active, but normally sports or weightlifting. So when I started walking I didn't expect to gain much, I figured I was already fit. I was wrong, I gained so much cognitive clarity that I drifted toward walking more and more until I could easily be walking 3+ hours a day. It works incredibly as a clarifier, even if I don't figure anything out on the walk, when I come back to it later things tend to seem much simpler.
Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's funny you mention this, I've been thinking about this lately. I make a 1.1 hour sporty bike ride every day and listen to podcasts while doing so, but I'm often asking myself if I should just not do that and instead listen to myself. The same goes for falling asleep, where I used to listen to podcasts but they got replaced by YouTube videos which I just listen to. I remember the time when I dealt with my thoughts…
I’ve never been able to “deal with my thoughts” and also get sleep so since I was able to read I consume fiction before bed to wipe the mental slate clean. Before it was books, now mostly audiobooks or occasionally music so I can keep it dark for my wife. If I can’t do this its usually 1-3 hrs of brain processing worries from the day, next day etc. There must be others like me who can’t just turn off instantly.
FWIW, I'm very similar. I find that the light pollution of a fully dimmed screen in night mode, reading light text on a black background, is negligible. (FWIW I mostly read in Pocket.) That amount of light doesn't keep me awake, let alone my wife. I think headphones would disturb me much more.
Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)
#56"We don’t give them any specific instructions with regards to what they should or shouldn’t do while resting,” Dewar says. “But questionnaires completed at the end of our experiments suggest that most people simply let their minds wander In one study, for instance, participants were asked to imagine a past or future event during their break, which appeared to reduce their later recall of the newly learnt material. So…
Doesn't seem too surprising. Mindfulness & meditation, shown to improve cognitive abilities, are all about clearing the mind, rather than actively using the mind for recall or calculation.
Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)
#57[deleted]
Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)
#58Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)
#59It's funny how this seems to be a form of meditation. It seems like an incredibly useful tool for the modern age. I wonder sometimes just how the brain manages to deal with the influx of all these new, abstract ideas on a daily basis. Doesn't seem like there's much time to digest it all. But if this works, if it really is an effective tool for learning, I could see it as a good way of bringing clarity into your life…
That's also the one interesting argument against podcasts. That they take the last remaining moments of doing nothing (vacuuming, doing the dishes, commuting,...) Especially interesting since one of the most popular podcasts is also run by a very reflected meditation proponent (Sam Harris).
I enjoy long walks (30-100km) so they take me from 4 to 18 hours. I see them as a kind of meditation so I don't listen to any podcasts or even music during that time. I feel it would be wrong somehow.
Re: Downtime is an effortless way to improve your memory (2018)
#60I find more and better solutions to problems without actively thinking about them in a 1 hour yoga class than I can actively trying to solve them all day at work. It's gotten to the point that I need to bring pen and paper with me into practice.
I've said to myself that I do my best work in the bathroom. Whether sitting on the toilet (sorry) or standing in the shower, it seems that enforced brain idle time can be more productive than "trying". I wonder if there's also a relation to the 'doorway = change of context' in there somewhere? It literally gets you thinking outside the box.
That's diffused vs. focused modes of thinking.
I see it like a river entering a new landscape. In the focused mode the landscape has defined hills and valleys so the river has little choice where to flow. The Diffused mode is like a very flat landscape, not much is going on there so the water can access pretty much any part of it or keep changing the way it flows randomly connecting different points.