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triangles had changed position. What he found was the low multitaskers had no problem with this task. However, the high multitaskers performed horribly. They could not ignore the blue rectangles and they could not tell if the red triangles had moved. What this means is that multitaskers cannot filter out irrelevant information because their attention is overloaded with whatever tasks they are not doing. In other words, a multitasker cannot actually distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information because the multitasker does not really know what they are doing at any given moment.
    The clearest evidence of this that is an estimated two thousand six hundred deaths and three hundred thirty thousand injuries are caused each year by drivers talking on their cell phones while driving. Multitasking is compulsive behavior that actually leads to a condition very similar to adult ADHD.
    Psychiatrist Edward Hallowell dubbed this condition “attention deficit trait” to describe what happens to chronic multitaskers. He also argues that the way we run our modern work environments contributes to this problem in which normally high-functioning people have difficulty organizing tasks, get easily distracted, and become absentminded. Modern information workers are interrupted on average every three minutes by instant messages, email alerts, or phone calls. It has been estimated that at work you spend anywhere from twenty-five percent to fifty percent of your day just recovering from interruptions, asking yourself “where was I?” A study by Intel found that the effects of interruptions cost them a billion dollars per year in lost productivity. Modern technology can literally make us dumber.
    We can decide to become aware of our limitations and live within them. Removing such stressors makes life enjoyable, leading to a further reduction in stress. As Klingberg points out, “when we determine our limits and find an optimal balance between cognitive demand and ability … we not only achieve deep satisfaction but also develop our brain’s capacity the most.” This process is a positive feedback loop, which also is a feature of nonlinear systems. A big part of this process is to be idle.
    Our bodies were designed for protein-rich diets and long periods of low-intensity physical activity, like walking or jogging, interspersed with idleness. Continually stretching our mental capacity beyond its limits leads to worse job performance, fatigue, and eventually chronic psychological and physical disease.
    The life of a Cro-Magnon was actually more leisure than work. Back then, work was defined as hunting or gathering food. It is generally accepted that the Cro-Magnon ability to be idle led to the “creative explosion” in human evolution. In biological terms, our brains are almost identical to Cro-Magnon brains. Once basic needs are met—food, shelter, protection from elements and adversity—it is no longer necessary to work.
    What follows is an exploration of what our amazing brains are doing when we are doing nothing. My goal is to offer bullet-proof scientific excuses for laziness. But I also present possible neuroscientific insights into the relationship between idleness and creativity. Finally, I hope to hammer the first nails into a coffin for the insufferable time management industry.

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SOMEONE ELSE’S NOISE
    â€œUncovering the mysteries of natural phenomena that were formerly someone else’s ‘noise’ is a recurring theme in science.”
    â€”Alfred Bedard Jr. and Thomas George
    Let us return to our resting brain. The discovery of a resting state network in the brain is very recent. It has been likened to the discovery of the pervasive “dark energy” in the universe.
    Just as it is unsettling to imagine there may actually be a “dark side of the force” that we know almost nothing about, it is spooky to think our brains are doing all this stuff while we