a dedicated block of time set aside for uninterrupted task-based work.
If you do knowledge work, you’re constantly reminded of the importance of focus time. Companies schedule recurring “focus days”, discouraging employees from scheduling meetings so everyone can maintain heads-down focused execution. YouTube is overflowing with productivity influencers offering 15 steps to improve your focus, pomodoro timer routines, distraction blocking apps and 4 hour instrumental tracks that improve your concentration. The Workspace version of Google Calendar even has a special event type called “focus time.”
If you’re struggling to get your day-to-day functional work done, investing in focus time is a good idea. Seriously. Go do it, I’ll wait.
Once you’re nailing the day to day, you might think “Focus time is really helping! Give me more!” Here’s where I think it’s easy to get tripped up. An over-investment in focus time could be preventing you from doing your best work.
Equally important is making space for noodling (a.k.a. incubation time).
to improvise, experiment, or think creatively.
Noodling, in this context, is deliberate wandering of the mind. You don’t have a specific task you’re trying to complete or a specific tactical decision you’re trying to make. You’re letting your mind wander from one topic to the next, while potentially injecting new ideas through reading or listening. (I find encountering new ideas helpful but I’m not convinced it is necessary for effective noodling.)
Think of noodling as reflective daydreaming. Take yourself out of focused, heads-down execution and let your mind play with ideas loosely. You’re reframing problems, making odd connections and discovering simpler solutions you’d miss in focus mode.
Noodling reduces your inertia towards the first solution available and boosts originality by inviting more inputs and weak signals. You’ll discover ideas you can’t brute-force, clarify priorities and create cleaner designs - small investments that compound into better impact.
During these moments, it helps to incorporate undemanding, low-stakes activities such as walking, simple chores or, my favorite, cutting the grass. It also helps to separate from digital distractions - step away from your phone and computer.
My most reliable noodling time is cutting the grass for an hour or two each week while listening to podcasts or audiobooks tangentially related to the problems swirling in my head. The grass requires just enough of my attention while leaving plenty of bandwidth for listening & mind wandering. I seek out content that’s likely to introduce me to new ideas or new ways of thinking about things. (Night Science is one of my recent favorites.) I let my mind freely bounce between paying attention to what I’m hearing and getting lost in thought while the audio plays in the background.
Noodling matters because truly creative breakthroughs rarely happen intentionally. I make the most meaningful progress on the complex, sticky or strategic challenges when I revisit them during one or more noodling sessions.
Functionally, my noodling results in a few quickly captured notes, just enough to capture the spark of an idea along any potential shortcomings I’ve identified early. I’ll then dedicate an upcoming focus time block to dig in and see if the idea has legs.
As with anything, success is about finding the right balance - in this case, a balance in how you spend your time. Don’t crowd out all of your creative potential by over-investing in the focused & tactical. Go for a walk, cut your grass, fold the laundry, encounter a few new ideas and see what you come up with.
P.S. You can greatly increase the quality of your noodling by learning and practicing a few critical thinking techniques. They’ll help you gain a deeper and broader understanding of challenges and evaluate new ideas. (Ask your neighborhood LLM to help you learn and practice creative thinking techniques.)