Most people assume that daydreaming is a negative thing, especially in the workplace or locations where sustained attention is required. Daydreaming redirects attention from the task at hand, so it may seem to be detrimental to overall productivity. However, researchers of creativity and innovation are reexamining daydreaming as a potentially powerful new tool to unlock creative problem solving for employees.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
In the study, researchers (Ibaceta et al., 2025) collected daily surveys from 78 participants. In the late afternoon of the workday, participants were asked to rate their own creative thinking, how many cognitive demands they faced, their own states of neuroticism and openness to experience, and how much they engaged in daydreaming throughout the day.
Results showed that daydreaming can lead to creative thinking, especially when employees are faced with specific problems and score high on openness to experience. This was true for daydreaming focused on solving the problems, instead of the immediate execution of tasks at hand. When employees were high in neuroticism and were faced with demands, they tended to veer into daydreaming that was rooted in guilt and fear-of-failure, which lowered creative thinking.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Creativity and innovation are skills in high demand. As such, many organizations want to do everything in their power to cultivate and harness creativity. Organizations who want to utilize the power of daydreaming should consider doing the following:
- Regularly provide employees with cognitive goals that are challenging but attainable. This will stimulate constructive daydreaming.
- Be cautious about penalizing perceived distractions. This may be part of the productive daydreaming process for employees.
- Allow employees space and time to engage in daydreaming. Also allow them to voice their ideas, which could stimulate even more daydreaming.
- Help direct employees to problem-solving mindsets. This could prevent them from getting stuck in states of distress.
Ibaceta, M., Madrid, H. P., & Reiter-Palmon, R. (2025). Creativity as a function of daydreaming and cognitive demands at work: The role of openness to experience and neuroticism personality states. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 46, 1090-1106. doi: 10.1002/job.2882
Image credit: Unsplash+