Although most of us recoil at the idea of “busywork,” such mindless tasks can boost our mood—as long as we have an excuse to perform them, according to a study in the July issue of Psychological Science.

Psychologists at the University of Chicago and Shanghai Jiaotong University offered subjects a choice between rebuilding a beaded bracelet or sitting idly during a 15-minute wait. Most chose to sit idly—unless they were given the chance to rearrange the beads instead of to rebuild it as it was. In another experiment, subjects filled out a survey and then had a choice either to turn it in to the assistant in the room and then wait, doing nothing, until the next part of the experiment could begin, or they could kill the time by walking the survey over to another building to turn in. In all cases, the students were offered a candy when they turned in their survey, but only when the candies in each location differed did more students opt to take the walk. The results were the same no matter which type of candy was offered in either location, suggesting that the students were choosing the distant candy simply to rationalize taking the walk.

The results of both experiments suggest that when there is an excuse, such as doing something artistic or getting a different reward, people like to keep busy—and indeed, those who chose the busier option reported feeling happier afterward, on average, than those who did nothing. The researchers suggest that next time you’re waiting around for something to happen, think of a reason to keep yourself busy—even simple activities such as taking a walk or organizing a closet could boost your mood.

3 Comments

1. 1. TTLG 12:27 PM 11/17/10

   Interesting, but there seems to be more than just "keeping busy" involved. Rebuilding the bracelet as it was would be a useful and productive activity, but these people did not want to do it. Re-ordering the beads, on the other hand, added creativity to the task, making it worthwhile to them. Similarly, deciding between two type of rewards also involved some thinking. Perhaps it was mental rather than physical activity that these people desired. Not too surprising for college students. Might be different for those who never attended college.

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2. 2. Raghuvanshi1 11:19 PM 11/17/10

   Easy answer to this question is if you sit idle, flow of oxygen in your brain diminished and you feel unrests.This is harmful to your health. If you are busy with some physical or mentalwork, flow of oxygen start forcefully in your brain and you feel energetic.

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3. 3. liyaguang 12:45 AM 11/29/10

   For different people, there must be different conditions. For those who have been customed to being idle, even given more rewards, they'll just like waiting. However,when you are forced to keep busy by the society ,and when you become unconscious about what is idleness ,just keeping busy is your life .Though idleness is denied by the society ,we must sometimes try it ,or our life will be very dull .

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