Goof Off Day

What the day is

Goof Off Day is observed on March 22. It is usually credited to an American originator in the 1970s, though the attribution is difficult to verify, and the case for it is better than the joke suggests.

Origin and background

Psychologists call it the incubation effect. Set aside a problem you are stuck on, do something undemanding, and the solution frequently arrives unbidden. This has been tested repeatedly, and reviews of the experimental literature find a real if modest benefit, strongest on problems with many possible answers rather than problems with one correct procedure.

The likely mechanism is unglamorous. Working hard on a problem fixes your attention on one approach, and the longer you stay with it the harder it becomes to see any other, an effect known as fixation. A break lets the wrong approach fade, so you come back able to consider the second idea rather than repeating the first.

The brain is also not idle during the break. A set of regions called the default mode network becomes more active when attention is not directed outward, and it is associated with mind-wandering, recollection and imagining situations, which is why the shower and the walk have their reputation.

The important detail is what the break consists of. Undemanding activity works better than either hard work or complete rest, and a break spent on a phone is not much of a break, because scrolling occupies exactly the attention that needs to be free.

None of this makes goofing off a substitute for work. Incubation only helps a problem you have already worked on properly, since there must be something loaded to incubate, and the finding is about alternating effort with rest rather than skipping the effort.

How to take part

• Take the break when you are stuck, which is when it is most useful and feels least permitted.
• Choose something undemanding: a walk, washing up, staring out of a window.
• Leave the phone behind, since scrolling uses the attention the break is meant to free.
• Do the hard work first. Incubation needs something to work on.
• Notice whether you come back with the same approach or a different one.