Why Distraction Can Actually Improve Your Learning (If You Do It Right)
Stepping away may be your smartest move—unlock breakthroughs with purposeful distraction.
The Apple That Changed the World
You've likely heard the famous story about Sir Isaac Newton and the apple tree—the moment when an apple fell, prompting his groundbreaking insight into gravity. But did you ever stop to think about what Newton was actually doing at that moment? He wasn't hunched over a desk or actively trying to solve complex physics problems. Instead, he was relaxing, allowing his mind the freedom to wander. In other words, he had intentionally stepped away from deep, concentrated focus.
This iconic story beautifully illustrates an often-overlooked truth about learning and creativity: sometimes, our best insights happen when we deliberately distract ourselves. Maybe you've experienced this yourself—working tirelessly on a problem or project until you hit a wall, only to have the solution pop into your mind later while showering, journaling, or taking a peaceful walk. It turns out, intentionally stepping away from a stressful or challenging task isn't laziness or procrastination; it's a strategic move.
In this newsletter edition, we'll explore why distraction, when done purposefully, can enhance your learning process. We'll cover the science behind beneficial distraction, share some of my personal experiences using intentional distraction to boost creativity and solve problems, and outline practical tips on how to use distraction effectively. We'll also look at notable examples of innovators who leveraged distraction to achieve breakthroughs, discuss how to avoid common pitfalls, and finally, reveal why embracing distraction might just be the counterintuitive key to deeper, more meaningful learning.
Ready to turn distraction into your learning superpower? Let's dive in!
Section One: The Science Behind Beneficial Distraction
Have you ever noticed that some of your best ideas come when you're not actively trying to solve a problem? There's a scientific explanation behind this phenomenon, and it centers around a fascinating part of your brain known as the Default Mode Network (DMN).
The DMN is activated when your mind is at rest or engaged in activities unrelated to your main task, such as daydreaming, watching a movie, or even going for a run. Interestingly, this brain network is closely associated with creativity, problem-solving, and generating insights. When you're not consciously trying to solve something, your DMN takes the reins, connecting previously unrelated thoughts and ideas in novel ways.
In my own life, I've found movie-watching to be particularly enlightening. I approach movies intentionally, treating them as a relaxing escape and a source of fresh ideas. As I immerse myself in compelling narratives, my mind naturally drifts into a more receptive and open state, often leading to spontaneous insights or fresh perspectives related to projects I'm working on. It's almost magical how an unrelated story can suddenly unlock solutions or connections I'd never considered before.
Another activity I rely on is running. While running is undoubtedly excellent for physical health, it also significantly boosts brain function. Increased blood flow and oxygen to the brain during exercise help sharpen cognitive functions and stimulate creative thinking. Often, midway through a run, I'll experience unexpected clarity about a teaching method, content strategy, or a complex concept I've been struggling with.
This phenomenon isn't just anecdotal. Research by psychologist Jonathan Schooler highlights how intentional distractions and brief periods of mind-wandering can substantially enhance creativity and memory retention. Schooler’s studies show that when participants took short breaks or shifted attention to unrelated tasks, they returned with improved problem-solving abilities and greater creative insights compared to those who worked continuously without pause.
Additionally, intentional distraction is scientifically shown to help the brain consolidate memories. Especially after intense learning periods, stepping back allows your brain to process and integrate new information, improving long-term retention. This consolidation process also underlines the importance of adequate sleep. Good sleep—ideally around eight hours—plays a critical role in helping your brain form stable, long-lasting memories, essentially solidifying what you've learned during the day.
Lastly, when you're wrestling with a particularly challenging problem, stepping away gives your subconscious mind room to maneuver. During these breaks, your subconscious can freely connect dots and unearth solutions that your conscious effort may have unintentionally blocked or overlooked due to fixation or stress.
By intentionally incorporating beneficial distractions—whether through a leisurely movie, an invigorating run, or even just a brief daydream—you can harness the power of your brain's Default Mode Network and subconscious mind to enhance your creativity, learning, and overall problem-solving capabilities.
Section 2: My Personal Experience Learning Through Intentional Distraction
A few years back, I faced a significant challenge while designing an online course. I was particularly struggling with structuring the final module—I had all the information and knew exactly what I wanted to convey, but putting it together clearly and engagingly was proving difficult. After several hours of intense effort, I hit a wall. Frustration set in, and the more I tried to force the issue, the worse it became.
At that point, I knew from experience that continuing to push through wouldn’t lead to quality results. Instead, I stepped away completely. I spent some quality time with my daughter—playing board games, enjoying time outdoors, and simply allowing my mind to detach from the challenge. This intentional distraction was exactly what I needed.
When I returned to the course design later, something amazing happened. The ideas I'd previously struggled to piece together suddenly crystallized effortlessly. The structure, content flow, and connections between ideas became clear and intuitive. I could jump back into creating that final module with renewed clarity and enthusiasm.
This experience taught me the importance of spacing out my work, especially when working under deadlines. Instead of trying to cram everything in at the last moment, I learned the immense value of building in deliberate breaks. By spacing out my tasks, I not only reduced stress but also opened up essential windows of opportunity for creative breakthroughs.
Since then, I've consciously integrated this practice into my workflow. If I’m tackling a large project—whether designing course content, preparing lessons, or even creating content for BookMattic—I break down tasks into smaller, manageable chunks. Between these chunks, I intentionally schedule enjoyable activities that allow my brain to rest, reset, and wander.
What I’ve found is that stepping back—whether it's watching a movie, going for a run, or playing with my daughter—is not wasting time. Instead, it's creating space for my subconscious mind to process challenges in the background. When I come back after these breaks, my mind is clearer, my ideas sharper, and my motivation stronger.
I encourage you to apply this strategy yourself. If you have a significant project coming up or find yourself stuck on something challenging, try intentionally distracting yourself. Break up the work, space out your tasks, and engage in activities you genuinely enjoy. Your brain will thank you—and your results will improve dramatically.
Now, let's explore some famous examples of individuals who used intentional distraction to create groundbreaking discoveries and innovations.
Section 3: How to Use Distraction to Your Advantage
Tip 1: Schedule Intentional Breaks
When we think of distraction, we often associate it with procrastination or poor discipline. But not all distractions are bad. In fact, when used intentionally, short, scheduled breaks can be one of your best tools for clarity, creativity, and cognitive recovery.
Let me walk you through how this plays out in my own day. Over the years, I’ve developed a rhythm that’s both structured and flexible. I loosely follow a modified version of the Pomodoro Technique—a productivity method that involves focused work followed by a short break. But instead of the typical 25-minute sprints, I prefer working in longer blocks of around one hour, followed by 15 minutes of intentional rest.
Why the longer session? It takes me a bit of time to get into deep focus. Once I’m in the zone, I want to stay there. Forcing myself to stop after 25 minutes can feel counterproductive. An hour gives me enough runway to enter that state of flow where real progress happens. Then, when I break, I make it count. I step away from my screen, refill my water bottle, stretch, take a quick walk, or simply stare out the window for a few moments.
These short “resets” are more than just opportunities to rest—they give my brain time to process and integrate what I’ve been working on. Often, I’ll return with a clearer sense of direction or a new insight that hadn’t surfaced before. It’s a small shift, but it changes everything.
The key is intentionality. These breaks aren’t mindless doom-scrolling or distractions that pull you away from your goals. They’re strategic pauses that serve a purpose: to let your mind breathe and your ideas settle.
So, whether your sweet spot is 25 minutes or 90, the point is to work with your brain, not against it. Experiment with different rhythms, and don’t be afraid to adjust based on your task, your energy levels, or even the time of day.
The right kind of break, taken at the right time, isn’t a distraction at all. It’s a catalyst for deeper, better learning.
Tip 2: Embrace Diverse Activities
Distraction doesn’t always mean stopping—it can also mean shifting. One of the most underutilized tools in a learner’s toolkit is rotation—switching between activities that engage the mind and body in different ways. Not only does this prevent burnout, but it also unlocks something incredibly valuable: creative cross-pollination.
Personally, I’ve always found reading to be my foundational learning habit. Whether I’m diving into educational theory, psychology, or science fiction, reading offers me a consistent way to generate new ideas, reflect deeply, and connect dots between seemingly unrelated concepts. But if all I ever did was read, I’d miss out on the breakthroughs that happen away from the page.
That’s where hobbies come in—exercise, painting, cooking, playing music, walking in nature, or simply doing something completely unrelated to your work. These activities not only serve as restorative breaks but often trigger insights your conscious mind has been struggling to reach.
The key is diversity.
Rotating between activities throughout your day, your week, or even over the course of a year helps you stay fresh and fully engaged. For example, I might read deeply for two hours in the morning, go for a walk or work out in the afternoon, and wind down the evening with some light sketching or watching a film—each of these activities feeding into different parts of my mind and sparking different kinds of thinking.
And here’s the science: when you engage in unrelated tasks, especially those that activate different regions of the brain, you increase your chances of making novel connections. This is what creativity researchers call bisociation—the merging of two distinct ideas or frameworks to create something new. Nobel laureates and inventors often report their best ideas coming not while working, but while doing something entirely unrelated.
So if you’re stuck, overwhelmed, or simply looking to deepen your understanding, try stepping sideways instead of forward. Pick up a paintbrush. Join a community class. Play an instrument. Bake a cake. None of it is wasted effort.
In fact, it might be the most productive distraction you have.
Tip 3: Creative Idle Time
One of the most underestimated tools in the learning process is something so simple it often gets overlooked: creative idle time.
In my own life, reflective practices like journaling, meditation, running, and leisurely walks have played a huge role in how I process information, generate ideas, and solve problems. The more I study the science behind reflective habits, the more I’m convinced that this type of intentional "doing nothing" is not only beneficial but essential.
And here’s the key: it needs to feel natural, not forced.
Take journaling, for example. I’ve been writing in journals off and on for years. But the best sessions—the ones that really unlock insights—aren’t when I sit down with a strict prompt or checklist. They’re when I give myself the space to write freely, letting thoughts flow from my mind to the page without judgment. It’s like thinking through writing—and writing through thinking. There’s no pressure to make it perfect, and that’s when the magic happens.
You don’t have to be a “writer” to benefit from this. You just have to show up and be honest with yourself.
These moments of reflection often allow your subconscious to stir up ideas that you didn’t even know were waiting there. Whether it’s working through an emotional block, untangling a professional challenge, or even mending a relationship, writing, walking, or just being still for a while can lead to surprising clarity.
Research backs this up, too. Studies on default mode network activation show that the brain becomes especially active when we’re at rest, not focused on a task, but instead allowing our thoughts to wander. It’s during these times that we consolidate memory, sort through complex problems, and make meaning of our experiences.
And let’s not forget: idle time is not wasted time.
It’s the fertile soil where ideas take root.
Section 4: Famous Examples of Beneficial Distraction
🎻 Albert Einstein and the Violin
Albert Einstein is universally known for his groundbreaking theories in physics, but fewer people realize that one of his most important tools wasn’t a chalkboard or telescope…it was his violin.
Einstein often turned to music when he hit a mental block. When stuck on a complex problem, he would walk away from his papers and equations and instead pick up his violin. He believed deeply that music stimulated a different part of his mind, opening new neural pathways that helped him think more clearly and creatively.
He once said,
“I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”
That’s a powerful statement from a man who redefined our understanding of time and space.
For Einstein, music wasn’t a break from thinking—it was a different mode of thinking. He didn’t play as a distraction from work, but as a companion to it. The melodies, rhythms, and structure of music gave his brain the freedom it needed to solve some of the world’s most complex scientific puzzles.
So what’s the takeaway for you?
Don’t underestimate the power of doing something completely different—especially something creative like playing music, painting, or writing poetry. These pursuits activate different parts of your brain, allowing you to return to your main work refreshed, inspired, and ready to see problems in a new light.
You don’t have to be a musical genius to benefit from this. Even just picking up a new instrument, humming along to a favorite tune, or learning a simple song can give you the space your mind needs to generate new insights.
In Einstein’s case, the violin wasn’t a detour—it was a bridge to breakthrough thinking.
🛁Agatha Christie and the Power of Mundane Moments
When you think of Agatha Christie, you likely picture suspenseful plots, clever detectives, and twists you didn’t see coming. But what you might not know is that some of her most brilliant ideas didn’t come to her while hunched over a desk or deep in study—they came during everyday, ordinary tasks.
Christie famously said,
“The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.”
Yes—dishes.
She wasn’t being ironic. Like many creative minds, Christie discovered that her most fruitful moments of insight came when she wasn’t trying to think of ideas at all. Simple, repetitive tasks like washing dishes or taking a bath provided the perfect mental space for her subconscious to wander, connect dots, and generate storylines that would later become some of the most widely read mysteries in history.
Her writing process often included long walks, gardening, and yes, bathing—not for luxury, but for inspiration. These activities weren’t distractions from writing; they were fertile grounds for ideation.
This reinforces a key point: when your brain isn’t directly engaged in a focused task, your default mode network kicks in—a neurological pattern linked to creativity, memory consolidation, and problem-solving. For Christie, the soap bubbles and rinse water weren’t just chores—they were a creative portal.
So what’s the lesson for you?
If you're feeling creatively stuck or intellectually blocked, step away. Do something simple, something rhythmic, something that requires just enough attention to keep you grounded but not so much that it crowds your mind.
Who knows? Your next big breakthrough might be waiting in the sink or floating in the tub.
🎼 Beethoven: Walking, Sketching, and the Power of Solitude
When we think of Ludwig van Beethoven, we often envision the intense composer furiously scribbling notes in a dimly lit room. But there's another side to his creative process that's less discussed: his habit of taking long, solitary walks with a notebook in hand.
In his amazing biography of the famous musician, Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph, Jan Swafford notes that Beethoven faced immense personal challenges, notably his progressive hearing loss, which began in his late twenties. Despite this, he continued to compose some of his most profound works. One of his coping mechanisms and sources of inspiration was his routine of daily walks in nature. These excursions weren't merely for exercise; they were integral to his creative process. He would carry sketchbooks to jot down musical ideas that came to him during these moments of solitude.
These sketchbooks reveal a composer who was constantly thinking, revising, and evolving his musical ideas. Some themes noted during his walks would later find their way into major compositions, sometimes years after their initial conception. This practice underscores the importance of stepping away from one's primary work environment to gain fresh perspectives and ideas.
For modern learners and creatives, Beethoven's approach serves as a reminder of the value of incorporating periods of reflection and change of scenery into our routines. Whether it's a walk in the park, a leisurely drive, or simply sitting in a different environment, these moments can unlock new insights and foster creativity.
🚶♂️ Steve Jobs: Walking into Innovation
Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple and former CEO of Pixar, was renowned for his unconventional approaches to creativity and leadership. One of his most notable habits was his penchant for walking meetings. Rather than confining discussions to boardrooms, Jobs preferred to stroll outdoors with colleagues, believing that walking fostered clearer thinking and more honest conversations. He once remarked that taking a long walk was his preferred way to have a serious conversation.
But Jobs didn't just apply this philosophy to meetings. He was instrumental in the design of Apple's headquarters, Apple Park, envisioning a workspace that seamlessly blended nature with innovation. The campus features extensive walking paths and green spaces, encouraging employees to step away from their desks and engage in reflective thought. Jobs believed that such an environment would inspire creativity and collaboration.
At Pixar, Jobs applied similar principles. He designed the studio's headquarters with a central atrium intended to encourage spontaneous interactions among employees. By placing essential facilities like restrooms and mailboxes in this central space, he ensured that people from different departments would cross paths regularly, fostering a culture of collaboration and serendipitous creativity.
Jobs' commitment to creating environments that promote movement and interaction underscores the value he placed on intentional distraction. By stepping away from traditional work settings and embracing physical activity and chance encounters, he cultivated spaces where innovation could thrive.
Section 5: Avoiding Pitfalls — The Right and Wrong Ways to Distract Yourself
Not all distractions are created equal. While intentional breaks can refresh your mind and enhance your creativity, mindless or excessive distractions can derail your progress and sap your energy.
Let’s start with the unhelpful ones. We’ve all been there—scrolling endlessly on social media or binge-watching Netflix into the early hours of the morning. These activities may feel relaxing in the moment, but they often leave us mentally foggy and emotionally drained. The same goes for excessive drinking or late-night partying. Now, I’m not saying you can’t go out and have fun—I still enjoy an evening out with friends now and then. But I’ve learned the hard way that staying out until 2 or 3 a.m. wrecks my next day. That’s why I set a personal boundary: home by midnight, like a modern-day Cinderella.
Even then, I try not to make it a habit. Instead, I look for alternative ways to connect with friends—family-friendly outings like a walk in the park or lunch at a restaurant with outdoor space where our kids can play. These experiences are far more restorative and fulfilling than a loud night at the bar.
The key takeaway? Be intentional. Distraction should serve your well-being and creativity, not sabotage it. Choose breaks that refresh your mind—journaling, a walk, reading, light exercise, or meaningful conversations with people who lift you up. These types of distractions give your brain space to breathe while still honoring your energy and goals.
Let your distractions work for you, not against you.
Conclusion: The Counterintuitive Key to Deeper Learning
As we’ve explored in this edition of Learning to Learn Well, stepping away from your work isn’t a sign of giving up—it’s often the most strategic move you can make. When you're stuck or mentally fatigued, pushing harder can sometimes push the solution further out of reach. Instead, try shifting your attention to something intentionally unrelated: go for a walk, pick up a hobby that inspires you, play music, paint, run, or even cook something new. These purposeful distractions aren’t detours—they’re catalysts for clarity.
Many of history’s greatest minds—from Newton to Beethoven to Jobs—found their breakthroughs not in front of a desk, but in moments of rest, rhythm, and unrelated activity. When you give your mind space to breathe, your subconscious goes to work connecting the dots and unblocking the paths you couldn’t see before.
So next time you're feeling mentally jammed, overwhelmed, or uninspired, don’t double down—step aside. Trust that your next big insight might come not in the thick of focus, but in the quiet space just outside of it.
💡 Want to help someone else discover this insight?
Forward this newsletter to a fellow learner, friend, or coworker who might benefit from seeing distraction in a new light.
If this sparked an idea or reminded you of your own breakthrough moment, I’d love to hear about it—just hit “Reply” or share your thoughts in the comments.
Until next time, keep learning, keep reflecting—and don’t forget to step away when you need it most.
– Matt
Learning to Learn Well
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