Here’s a question I love to ask audiences in my keynotes:

When was the last time you were truly bored?

Not “stuck in a meeting” bored. But mentally spacious, no-input, let-your-thoughts-wander bored. The kind of bored when you stare out the window, notice the sky and unexpectedly solve a problem that’s been sitting at the back of your brain for weeks. A place where your mind meanders.
Most people can’t remember. Because we’ve filled every idle second with scrolls, swipes and notifications.
But that “wasted time”? That’s when your brain is doing its best work.

Welcome to the Default Mode Network (Also known as Do Mostly Nothing Network)

When we’re not focused on a task, when we’re walking, resting, or daydreaming, our brain enters what neuroscientists call the Default Mode Network (DMN).

Or, as some like to call it, the “do mostly nothing network.”

This isn’t idle. It’s deeply generative and vital for high-performers.

The DMN is a complex neural network that activates when your brain is off-task, and it’s responsible for:

• Creative insights
• Complex problem solving
• Memory integration
• Emotional processing
• Deep self-reflection

This is the brain’s background processor. It helps us join dots, make sense of our experiences and come up with fresh ideas. But we’ve lost access to it because we rarely give ourselves permission to do nothing. Today, we often fill every bit of white space with distractions.

Cognitive Luxuries Are Disappearing

Recently, I came across a New York Times article that stopped me in my tracks. It argued that thinking itself is becoming a luxury good, something only accessible to those with the time, space, and capacity to disconnect from the noise of digital life. An editorial in Nature also argued that scientists need more time to think. Whilst communication tools are essential for driving research, they’re also a substantial distraction impeding on the core work of academics.

The team at Ness Labs calls these fading capacities “cognitive luxuries” which is the ability to think slowly, deeply and freely in a world designed to fragment and divert our attention. And that term really resonates because in the attention economy, having the mental space to be idle with your thoughts feels like a genuine luxury,

Ness Labs break cognitive luxuries into three types:

• Spaciousness (thinking slowly)
• Agency (thinking freely)
• Depth (thinking deeply)

All of which are now under threat in our digitally-distracting, always-on world.
Instead of cognitive spaciousness, we get screen time. Instead of agency, we get algorithmic nudges. Instead of depth, we skim, scroll, and get distracted every 47 seconds.

Yes, Doing Nothing Can Feel Uncomfortable

In one study, people were asked to sit alone for 15 minutes in a quiet lab. They had one optional activity: pressing a button to give themselves a mild electric shock.

67% of men and 25% of women chose the shock over sitting in stillness.

One person pressed it 108 times.

That’s how deeply we’ve come to fear mental quiet. We’ve become allergic to boredom, but that boredom is the entry point to breakthroughs.

So, What Do We Do About It?

If you want your brain to perform at its peak, whether you’re a leader, knowledge worker, or creative, you need to actively protect your mental white space. You need to be bored.
Here’s what I recommend (and practice):

Micro-Habits to Reclaim Cognitive Space

1. Schedule white space.
If it’s not in your calendar, it won’t happen. Block 30–60 minutes a week for “DMN activation” or “mind-wandering time.” One of my exec clients labels it exactly that, even if that meant a round of golf, or a surd. Words matter.

2. Walk without headphones.
Let your brain breathe. No playlist. No podcast. Just you, your thoughts, and some optic flow, aka nature’s way of calming your nervous system and quieting the noise.

3. Take regular screen sabbaticals.
A Sunday morning without screens. A no-scroll lunch break. Short breaks > big results. You don’t need to live offline. You just need to live more often without a glowing rectangle illuminating your face.

4. Create more friction.
Remove your tech-temptations from the home screen of your phone, which is prime real estate on your device. If LinkedIn or Tik Tok are your digital achilles heel, put them in another folder, off the home screen. Change your phone’s settings so you can only access the app via the app store.

5. Crowd out your digital load.
Swap social feeds for reading on Substack. Trade clickbait for reading books. When you change what you consume, you change how you think.

TL;DR: Doing Nothing Is a High-Performance Tool

The Default Mode Network is not a luxury, it’s a performance necessity.

White space fuels creativity, mental clarity and emotional insight.

And in a world where the average person taps their phone 2,617 times a day, choosing to do nothing might be the most radical thing you do.

So if you’re foggy, flat, or creatively fried, don’t push harder.
Create space.

Let your brain do what it was built to do: nothing… for a little while.

Final Thought

In a world that glamorises busyness, we need to reclaim boredom as a badge of honour.

Because the most powerful breakthroughs, those “ah-ha” moments and genius marketing campaigns don’t happen when you’re trying harder.

They happen in the spaces in between. They germinate when you’re bored.

Your Turn

Do you have mind-wandering time blocked in your calendar?

Have you noticed a difference when you protect your white space?

I’d love to hear what you’ve tried, what’s working, or what you’re struggling with.

References

1. Goodwin, K. (2023). Dear Digital, We Need to Talk: A guilt-free guide to taming your tech habits and thriving in a distracted world. Wiley.
→ A science-backed, practical guide to navigating digital overload and reclaiming cognitive capacity.

2. Nature. (2024, July 25). Scientists need more time to think. Nature, 631(8025), 709. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02381-x

3. Thompson, D. (2025, July 28). Thinking Is a Luxury Now. The New York Times.
→ An exploration of how digital distraction is threatening attention, literacy, and democracy itself.

4. Le Cunff, A-L. (2025, October 30). Cognitive Luxuries. Ness Labs Newsletter.
→ A thoughtful breakdown of spaciousness, agency, and depth—and why these mental luxuries are worth protecting.