Karen Kelly has a piece in today's Wall Street Journal about an investment banker who spends his Saturdays volunteering as a prep cook, and she touches on the importance of zoning out in order to create room for different kinds of mental processing. Kelly notes that during the banker's first two years in the kitchen he was only allowed to wield a vegetable peeler:
Removing skin from miniature fingerling potatoes is not the Type-A recreation normally associated with executive downtime, such as high-intensity sports or mastering a foreign language. However, Erik Rosegard, associate professor of leisure studies as San Francisco State University, says that doing mundane tasks frees the mind and makes better employees. "Brain research shows innovation is spawned when our mind is not cluttered. Peeling a carrot relaxes us; doing it in an environment you enjoy and find motivating is even better for creativity," he says. [The banker] agrees: "It is physically demanding, but at the end of the day, there is a sense of accomplishment. It's a good way to get rid of what's bothering you."
Like Kelly's investment banker, I'm best able to clear my mind while doing something physical--it doesn't need to be strenuous; simply stretching and walking on a daily basis can have the same effect. But there's clearly a direct relationship between regular physical activity and my creativity, productivity and general sense of well-being.