26. The Importance of Brain Down Time

It's summer time and either you're feeling pressure to do research and publish or you're embracing downtime ... or you're like me and feeling the pressure of both. In this week's episode, I talk about the importance of downtime for our brain to consolidate information, make long-term memories, and encourage creativity. So if you think you need to go, go, go--like many of us in academia do--you actually need time to go slow, slow, slow. I include some ideas for how you might practice downtime, especially if your inner critic is yelling at you to not take downtime.  Check out this Scientific American article "Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime" and this Psychology Today article "The Scientific Case for Downtime."