From “Listen To Your Day: The Life-Changing Practice of Paying Attention” by Paul Angone
Many psychologists recommend the idea of taking microbreaks at work to be more productive. In the report on the “Qualitative Study of Daydreaming Episodes at Work,” a group of researchers concluded that “mind-wandering may be able to be used strategically to enhance work experience.” The microbreak that the daydream provides can help to combat fatigue and strain during the day, because “it allows individuals to cognitively and affectively disengage from their work demands.”
As Boston College research professor Peter Gray wrote in Psychology Today,
Dozens of experiments have shown that people who are stumped in solving certain kinds of problem are subsequently much more likely to solve the problem if they take a break. This is called the “incubation effect”…When we stop thinking consciously about the problem that we have been unable to solve, the unconscious mind takes the problem on and continues to work on it in some way. Suddenly the mind hits a link that works, that solves the problem, and this awakens the conscious mind – “Aha, I see it now!”