I believe in taking one day a week to do “nothing.” I call it “me time,” and I guard it with a stubborn resistance. After a long work week, I often refuse invitations to all-day Sunday BBQs – and insist on taking a night of rest if I feel like my brain is in overload.
Lucky for me, I have science on my side. I just listened to a fascinating interview with Jonah Lehrer, the author of “How We Decide” on NPR’s Fresh Air.
Lehrer describes the “paralysis of analysis” we experience when our brain is overwhelmed with information and we’re confronted with simple decisions. He cites a research study by Stanford psychologist Baba Shiv who studied how two different groups resisted temptation when asked to memorize information. The first group was asked to memorize a seven digit number and the second group was asked to memorize only two digits. The groups were then offered the option of eating a piece of chocolate cake or a healthy fruit salad. The people who were asked to only memorize two digits had the brain capacity to make a healthier decision.
Lehrer says the “five extra numbers – so overwhelmed the prefrontal cortex that there wasn’t enough processing power leftover to exert self-control.”
It’s important to take time out of the proverbial hamster wheel existence of our information-loaded world. Take a mental health day, and tell the world you have scientific research to back you up!
