Lateral Thinking for Every Day

29

Ways to be more spontaneous at work

We are told that we should plan our lives, make to-do lists, work diligently, organize our schedules and arrange things in sound and sensible ways. But is it better to sometimes do the opposite and just be spontaneous?

Researchers Tonietto and Malkoc¹⁹ at Ohio University in 2016 carried out 13 studies of leisure activities and found that scheduling an activity (vs. experiencing it impromptu) makes it feel less free-flowing and more work-like. They discovered that scheduling diminishes both the anticipation and enjoyment of the experience. The researchers found that maintaining the free-flowing nature of the activity by ‘roughly scheduling’ (without prespecified times) is much better.

Spontaneity does not ...