How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life

by Caroline Webb

A number of cognitive scientists have demonstrated that it doesn’t take long to get some of this subconscious processing benefit. Studies have found that shifting attention from a complex problem to another task for just two, three, or four minutes can help people make better decisions when they return to the problem.4 However, the research does suggest that two things are needed to make sure we reap the full benefits of this cognitive shift. First, we need to intend to come back to the task at hand.5 Otherwise, our brain will assume it’s not necessary to continue processing the information at a subconscious level; it will just move on to thinking about other things, like what we’re having for lunch. Second, researchers have found that it helps to tackle a different kind of task during those moments when we step away from the problem.