The Neuroscience of Drift: Why Spontaneity Boosts Success

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Welcome to Psychologically Speaking with me, Leila Ainge This is a podcast and blog all

about human behaviour, weaving together fascinating research, insights and experiences.

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I'll share a psychologist's take on how the spaces we live and work in shape who we are.

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This year, we'll delve into the fascinating gap between intentions and actions.

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A liminal space where plans meet spontaneity and explore what it reveals about our

identity.

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Some snails can hibernate for up to three years.

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I don't know why I know this random fact, but it was my immediate thought when I found a

collection of snails stuck or perhaps more accurately suctioned against the bottom of a

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brick wall in the garden.

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I hoped I hadn't disturbed them too much from their slumber as I yanked away the rotten

fence panel that had perished under the weight of overgrown ivy.

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This led me to a train of thought about hibernation, the popularity of the book Wintering

by Catherine May and the possibility that my enthusiasm for New Year with its promise of

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fresh starts and ambitious goals might be out of sync with at least half of the

population.

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Then...

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in an Alanis Morissette kind of way, I wondered, well, isn't this ironic?

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Because two of the main reasons that people fail to achieve their goals and resolutions,

according to a recent study, aren't due to the need for mastery or attending a course,

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delegating life admin or automating workflows.

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Instead, the culprits are failing to start, hello procrastination, and getting distracted

by social media.

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Speaking of which, I love online spaces and communities.

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Before we all nod in agreement that social media is indeed a terrible thief of time, let's

get some psychological perspective because research suggests that we spend an estimated 30

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to 50 percent of our time distracted.

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Academic papers refer to this as spontaneous off-task thoughts.

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Case in point,

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I drifted into thoughts about snails and hibernation, followed by a flicker of self-doubt,

in a mindful moment while enthusiastically destroying that fence panel.

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We don't need social media to distract us, per se, but in the absence of pulling down

fence panels or staring at garden walls, guess social media fills the gap with a feed of

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thoughts we never knew we needed.

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And the important thing here is that I caught that small dose of self doubt and turned it

into curiosity while clearing out the greenhouse for its annual wash down.

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And yes, I know I sound like a diligent gardener at this point, but let's be clear.

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Last year I neglected the greenhouse entirely.

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It rewilded itself all the way to the glass roof, leaving a terrible mess.

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So despite the frame being older than me with seals and clips deteriorating faster than I

can replace them, fresh tomatoes are absolutely worth it.

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Greenhouses are also expensive to replace.

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So my advice is this, wash yours down regularly because of my erratic gardening style.

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I then noticed bulbs with green shoots poking through.

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Greenhouses are expensive to replace, so my advice is wash yours down regularly.

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So because of my erratic gardening style, I notice bulbs with green shoots poking through.

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And naturally, I have no idea what they are.

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Is it too early for daffodils?

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Tomatoes, daffodils, and weeds are probably the only things I consistently grow well.

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It was the nudge though that I needed to remember that hibernation is not just a season

but a cycle.

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So those snails were snoozing and the bulb had woken up.

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In fact I'm pretty sure I do more autumn ink than wintering.

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I aced sitting on sofa binge watching Grey's Anatomy for an impressive amount of time last

year as the silver birch leaves fell outside my window.

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Chances are...

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Unless you're an actual snail, you'll experience spontaneous thoughts no matter what

personal season you're in right now.

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And this includes drifting into daydreams and creative thinking.

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Spontaneous off-task thoughts are normal most of the time, but they can turn into negative

things too.

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Because excessive rumination or worry can hold us back by shifting our attention away from

the here and now.

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And psychologists are fascinated by attention, particularly when it affects our cognitive

performance, like being, I don't know, distracted while driving.

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Increasingly, we're looking at individual differences in attention, notably ADHD and how

it relates to spontaneous off-task thoughts in adaptive and its maladaptive forms.

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Now based on podcast feedback, I know many of my listeners resonate with ADHD.

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So I'll summarize some thoughts on that.

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One key area of interest is the default Bode network and that's the DMN, fall short.

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This isn't a single brain area, but it's actually a collection of regions thought to be

involved in memory, planning for the future and how we draw to conclusions, draw things to

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conclusions.

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when we're not focused on a task, this default mode network defaults to our internal

thought processes.

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So the DMN was discovered in the late 1990s using PET scanning.

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That's where they put a radioactive tracer and inject it into a vein and the scanner then

tracks its movement through the body.

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We can't do that on a large scale across the whole population.

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So...

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I think there's some caution when we're looking at certain studies that have used

different types of experiments.

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But what scientists were able to observe is a decreased blood flow during active tasks

that required that kind of focus, that cognitive control compared to passive viewing of

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stimulus.

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Some researchers theorize that hyper activation and or dysfunction of the default mode

network

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contributes to attention lapses in people with ADHD.

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However, studying real life or real time distraction or spontaneous off-task thoughts is

challenging.

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If you think about experiments, they're typically measuring attention to tasks in group

settings rather than individual.

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And are they always looking at things like real life behaviour or real world behaviour?

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I like the way that clinical psychologist, Dr.

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Naomi Fisher, cautions against us labelling brains as types and evidence shows that brains

vary across the population and can change.

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I've linked to her post on LinkedIn and also her book in the show notes.

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She's got some different views about some of the popular things we will see around

neurodiversity.

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There are also benefits to spontaneous thought though.

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So historically, it's been associated with creativity and idea generation.

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Psychologists at Princeton University suggest it supports memory consolidation through our

episodic memory replay.

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So that's when we replay our past events in our mind.

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And this may optimize memory and goal pursuit.

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So

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They think that because in a recent study they explored whether those event memories,

those episodic memories, were prioritised during spontaneous thought.

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And participants engaged in a think aloud task, so they were either speaking or typing

their thoughts as free flow.

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And they also completed a second study which was to look at word retrieval tasks and they

were testing a motivational theory here of what we call current concerns.

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So they were interested because they found that when current thoughts no longer provided

enough episodic details or event memory detail, the mind shifted to a new topic.

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So from this, they then concluded that that probably helps us to prepare for goal-directed

action.

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And what I've taken from this and from the research is that our minds naturally default in

thought processes.

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and spontaneous thinking is no bad thing under normal circumstances.

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Mind wandering likely plays into procrastination, but it can also spark creativity.

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So staring at snails caused me to doubt myself briefly, but it also nudged me towards the

idea that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for goal setting.

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My advice?

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Keep drifting, because not all distractions are bad.

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They may even help with the creative pursuit of your New Year's resolutions.

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Spontaneity might just be the secret sauce.

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So build time for daydreaming into your planning.

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I make no apologies for being industrious in the new year.

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As a psychologist and coach, I find fresh tools and creative goals inspiring, obviously.

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If that isn't you, I hope you enjoyed my erratic gardening tale.

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Perhaps you started to drift off when I mentioned brain networks and if so, I hope that

those spontaneous thoughts brought you joy and helped you to nip any negative rumination

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in the bud.

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For those interested, I've cited several sources in today's podcast and blog.

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You can access the written blog on Substack complete with research article links.

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I prioritise putting in free open access articles wherever possible.

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And if you're new to reading academic journals, start with the abstract because it

summarises the research context, methodology and the outcomes.

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That's it for today.

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Coming up, I'll be delving into accountability.

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Why and how it exactly works.

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Plus a book review of neurodivergent coaching and what I see as potential in the coaching

space.

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Don't forget to rate and review and share the podcast.

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Your feedback really helps.

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Independent podcasters like me get heard by a wider audience.