Everyday Canvas

Daydreaming, Intentional or Otherwise

Prompt: Do you think intentional daydreaming can help performance and achievement? And in what ways do intentional daydreaming and the mind's wandering differ from each other?

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How often do we daydream during the day? This is a good question to think about. I used to daydream a lot more when I was younger, but at my age, I see myself, in my mind’s eye, as doing and finishing the things I’ve noted in a list. Seeing myself in the action, somehow, quickens the jobs or whatever it is I might have planned. I guess this is what psychologists call intentional daydreaming. If so, yes, daydreaming could help performance and achievement. Intentional daydreaming may also work in the long run, as in life goals, book revisions for writers, or inventions in the making.


The mind’s wandering is not intentional, however. It just pops up on its own in a stream of consciousness about things that happened, people a person knows, or future apprehensions and fears. The mind also wanders more under boring conditions into content with fantasy, stuff to do, worries, and problems. Sometimes the mind sends messages similar to the pop-up ads that surface on the computer screen. All this may not be so bad for its entertainment value, but people who can control the mind’s wanderings usually have better attention spans and they are less worried about petty stuff.


On the other hand, for writers, artists, and inventors to let the mind wander may produce creative results if the haphazard wandering, at some point, can somehow be channeled into a specific context, which may mean letting intentional daydreaming take over the thought processes. As Sartre said, "“Before experimenting, isn’t it appropriate to know as exactly as possible on what one is going to experiment?”