Eve Broenland
Why it’s so important to just do nothing.
Researchers at the University of Virginia conducted a study where people sat in a room by themselves for up to 15 minutes with nothing present except a device that could administer a small electric shock. 65% of men and 25% of the women gave themselves the electric shock, something to do rather than sit in silence with only their thoughts to entertain them. We prefer doing something, over doing nothing, even if that something is negative. But what is all this stimulation doing to us? We are constantly on, and with the glorification of being busy, we’re under a lot of stress. Simplicity Expert, Eve Broenland, says we desperately need downtime so our brains can make the necessary links between chunks of data which enhances our information processing, our memory, and ultimately, our decision-making ability.