What if doing nothing's the best way to be productive?

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with The Point.

For the brain to thrive, you can't spend all your time working, writes J. Dixit of the Neuroleadership Institute.

Human beings aren't robots, overwork leads to burnout, disengagement, resignations.

More than that, he says, the brain requires downtime, unstructured time with no goal in mind and no targeted focus of attention. Now that last part's important

because to relax many of us turn two screens like our phones or Netflix, but these are all

task positive activities. They require the brain to focus even if on irrelevant things. By contrast,

Dixit explains, there's an important half of our brain that lights up and makes new connections

when we're actually at rest.

This helps foster innovation and creativity. Because the modern world is so preoccupied by so

many distractions, we have to be intentional to have what previous generations did. And it's because

of this quirk of human psychology, God gave the world the Sabbath, a command to rest. And he

knows what we need because he made us.

I'm John Stone Street.