5 hours in the car.

5 hours in the car with a DAB deficient dinosaur of a radio. (I can choose any station as long as it’s BBC Radio 4.)

So there I am. Full tank of petrol. Full bag of Haribos. (Neither of which should be taken for granted.) Radio on. I’m in luck, it’s the The Digital Human series. This week the topic is, focus. Not lost on me as I fix my eyes firmly on the long road ahead. Voice, ‘We have a greater recollection of an event, when we allow our gaze to roam, rather than use a camera, as our means to memorise’. I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist. As someone who never takes photos, I feel that warm hug of smugness. I also recall a friend telling me of the time when her phone / camera packed in just before her sister’s wedding. When she’d finished beating herself up she went on to say that it was the best learning experience. She felt more connected, more observant, more relaxed. And yes, she remembered lots of detail from the day with great clarity. Still does. 10 years on.

Enter, psychologist and neuroscientist, Dr Srini Pillay, who boldly takes the concept of letting go and unfocusing, a step further and suggests it is a world-changing leadership strategy. His research supports the idea that when the going gets tough, rather than backing the default, dogmatic, time-proven, stick to the plan, steady- as- we- go rhetoric, the real winners take time out. Some even go as far as taking a snooze. Nothing new in a power nap. In fact didn’t Churchill swear by 40 winks (or more)? Dr Pillay goes on to say that 5- 15 minutes of napping can buy us 3 hours of top quality thinking, I’m pulling in to the next lay-by. (Only I can’t because this is a not-so-smart motorway.)

It’s a fact. If we put our minds under relentless pressure to get the job done we are at serious risk of not just good old fashioned burn out, but snuffing out the right conditions for making genius discoveries. Block gut feeling and the belief in possibility at our peril. The power of day dreams and ‘leaps of faith’ have proof points in every walk of life, best dramatised by Einstein’s “musical perception” or Steve Jobs’ unfocused trips to the ashram. Yes, taking serious time out for positive constructive thinking, aka day-dreaming, has had a huge role to play in the discovery process. It’s how we learnt as children, until someone told us to put the toys away.

Our value system is still labouring away under the Victorian, post-industrial view of work order. We applause and pin our medals on the steely unrelenting gaze. Our mantra as the world burns? Keep calm and carry on. I mean if I say to you, “She’s incredibly focused’, chances are you picture someone successful and productive. A go-getter that gets stuff done whatever the cost. No disrespect, there are times when we do need to concentrate, and I sure as hell would want my surgeon to, but, science shows us how much more potent we can be if we take proper time out. An hour in the garden, rather than going for the burn and missing lunch, could be your biggest competitive advantage.

Despite this, we are still more likely to label it ‘lazy’ than ‘enlightened’. Even if it’s not said out loud, it’s deep in our subconscious. Our brains simply love habit, for better or worse. As coaches we do a huge amount of work on neuroplasticity. It takes patience and belief to create new value systems, but right now the stakes for not allowing our minds to widen have never been higher.

Let’s celebrate everything deemed flakey and chance-y. Let’s take pride in gazing out of the window, Let’s leave our phones at home, stop asking Google for direction and trust in our beautiful bonkers brains to find the right path.

I find a service station. The coffee is crap but I have this brilliant idea….

Thank you to>>>>.

The Digital Human series on BBC iPlayer

Dr Srini Pillay. Challenges traditional ideas about productivity, revealing the lasting, positive benefits of adding deliberate and regular unfocus to your repertoire. Read his book Tinker Dabble Doodle Try.