Despite what we’re often taught to believe, daydreaming can be immensely useful. Not only can it be a source of pleasure and a way to relieve boredom, but research shows that our ability to mentally escape the present can also boost creativity, problem-solving, and planning, as well as provide an antidote to loneliness.
Daydreaming, when defined as thoughts that aren’t tied to what you’re currently doing, occupies a good chunk of our waking lives—an average of around 30 percent of the time if you randomly probe people. It’s part of our everyday conscious experience. You might even think of it as our default mode, which we return to, especially when doing things that don’t require a lot of brain power; for example, mundane tasks such as hanging out laundry….