Doing nothing is harder than it looks.

Think about it: when you get home after a hard day’s work - you’re worn out and just need to relax - you might flop in front of the TV, or read a book, or swipe through your Facebook feed, or phone a friend.

What you probably won’t do - in fact, what you’ll go out of your way to avoid - is to sit and do nothing.

There’s a good reason for this - doing nothing requires effort.

A shocking stat

Take a recent study, by researchers from the University of Virginia. They put people into a room on their own and told them to entertain themselves with their thoughts.

There was nothing in the room except for a button, which, if they really wanted to distract themselves, they could press.

They were aware that this button would give them a mild electric shock. They even knew what this shock felt like from earlier in the study and they had all said they would pay money not to experience it again.

And yet, most of the men and 25% of the women could not make it through 15 minutes without giving themselves at least one shock. It’s just too difficult to be left alone with…yourself.

The thing is, when you’re not focused on a particular task, your brain actually has a chance to work harder, albeit in a different way. This different way was discovered largely by accident in the field of neuroscience.

When people were left in a brain scanner without any specific task to work on, a meaningful pattern of neural activity began to emerge.

A spotlight mind

It’s called the brain’s “default mode” - a system of interconnected brain structures that become active when we’re not focused on a particular task.

And it’s really important. The focused mind is a bit like a spotlight - narrow and directed. The unfocused mind, in the default mode, is more like a bare lightbulb in a cluttered attic.

You switch it on and find all kinds of unrelated bits and pieces. But this makes it incredibly creative - you start to see connections between apparently unrelated thoughts and memories. These connections lead to new, creative ideas.

Although the neuroscience is new, the idea is old. For example, when the concept of gravity came to Isaac Newton, he was not at his desk studying facts and figures, but sitting under a tree “in contemplative mood” doing nothing.

And CS Lewis puts it beautifully when he describes himself as, “the product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstair indoor silences…”

Both highly creative people in their different ways, perhaps because they knew the importance of giving themselves time and space to let their minds wander.

Being engaged ‘just enough’

But there is a caveat.

Our own experience will tell us that simply sitting down to think can sometimes lead to a cycle of negative thoughts and worries. Hardly the stuff of creativity.

That’s why the true art of doing nothing is actually to do almost nothing.

That is, to do some kind of task that keeps your mind from mundane worrying, but is undemanding enough to allow it to wander, such as doodling, colouring, aimless walking, even chores such as gardening or washing up.

Often travelling provides the same level of undemanding activity, such as watching the world go by from the train window while you reflect on your life.

But here’s a good place to point out that staring at a screen is a focused activity that does not lead to creativity - but obliterates the creative freedom of the brain’s default mode.

This is why doing nothing is an endangered activity.

The danger of screens

Screens are the easy option, usually requiring much less effort than the heavy business of doing nothing.

And yet screens are always there, ready to fill up any spaces in our precious time, allowing us to sail through the day without ever having to really think.

During this holiday, many of us will be unable to visit friends and family as freely as we might have in past years. We will perhaps have more time to ourselves.

For some, this will be welcome but, for most of us, it will probably feel daunting and restrictive.

Either way, it does provide an opportunity to do nothing, and to do it seriously.

Take some time to find out what’s in the attic of your mind. It can help you to solve problems, see things in a new light, and discover who you really are.

Aidan Harvey-Craig is a psychology teacher and student counsellor at an international school in Malawi. His book, 18 Wellbeing Hacks for Students: using psychology’s secrets to survive and thrive, is available for pre-order. He tweets @psychologyhack