A couple of recent Fortune magazine articles make a good case for slacking off a bit.

Anne Fisher’s “Be smarter at work, slack off” column starts with a premise that’s hard to deny:

Consider that for most industries, the U.S. can’t hope to be the low-cost producer in a global economy. With innovation now our main competitive strength, creativity is crucial for anyone who wants to move up.
But it’s really, really hard, if not impossible, for the human brain to come up with fresh new ideas when its owner is overworked, overtired, and stressed out.

Many people respond to today’s task overload environment by multitasking. We’ve all heard from managers and leaders who swear by multitasking as the key to top efficiency. In Ellen McGirt’s “Getting Out From Under” article (3/20/2006 issue), author Julie Morgenstern explains why:

People respond to the thing that’s screaming the loudest. It’s reactive. And being reactive isn’t smart.

In fact, research shows that multitasking is actually quite inefficient. Fisher’s article notes that University of Michigan psychologists discovered five years ago in a detailed study that the time cost of refocusing your attention will probably cut your efficiency between 20-40%.

Do the math: It’s taking you nearly 11-1/2 hours to do 8 hours of work if you’re a mega-multitasker. (I won’t annualize that figure here…it would only depress you.)

That’s a problem on multiple fronts. Not only are you taking time away from family/friends/outside interests, but you’re also denying your brain the time and conditions under which it does its best work. Fisher explains:

What scientists have only recently begun to realize is that people may do their best thinking when they are not concentrating on work at all…The unconscious mind is a terrific solver of complex problems when the conscious mind is busy elsewhere or, perhaps better yet, not overtaxed at all.

Google seems to be counting on this phenomenon to drive their innovation engine. HR director Stacy Sullivan notes that “a relaxed state of mind unleashes creativity,” and that the company “[doesn’t] reward face time or working super-long hours. We just measure results.”

That’s it…I need a break