The Idle Brain Is Not a Wasted Brain
Neuroscientists at the University of British Columbia identified a network of brain regions, collectively called the default mode network, that activates specifically when you stop focusing on an external task. This is the network that fires when you stare out a train window, wait in a queue, or sit through the gap between two meetings. It is the network responsible for autobiographical memory, future planning, and creative association. In plain terms: the brain does its most generative work when you give it nothing to do.
