The Upsides of Downtime
In a well-known 2009 experiment, Ira Hyman, a researcher at Western Washington University in Bellingham, instructed a clown to ride a unicycle in a busy part of campus. Of the pedestrians who were using cellphones, only 25 percent noticed him. When Hyman informed them that they鈥檇 missed the cycling clown, who was hardly inconspicuous with his big red nose and purple-and-yellow suit, they were surprised.
鈥淧eople think they鈥檙e fine, but when they鈥檙e , they miss all sorts of things,鈥 Hyman says. The same is true with downtime. We鈥檙e so busy and so sidetracked that we don鈥檛 realize how the lack of reflection affects our mind.