What Is Dordaling?
Dordaling is the art of mental wandering. It’s those inbetween moments when the brain isn’t engaged in deep work or full rest. You’re not actively producing, but you’re present. It’s different from zoning out—it’s loosely guided, consciously unproductive time. Think of it like keeping the engine running while parked.
Most people fight these moments. We swipe, scroll, or stack tasks to avoid what feels like waste. But ignoring this space robs our minds of a natural pressure release. Dordaling gives your thoughts room to shuffle, connect, and occasionally stumble onto something genius.
Why We Need Mental Idling
Humans aren’t designed for backtoback tasks all day. Performance drops when we ditch recovery periods. Dordaling acts as a loweffort alternative to fullon breaks. It’s balance. Some mental slack lets our brains surface connections we don’t see when we’re locked into execution mode.
Creativity doesn’t hit on command. It thrives in liminal zones, when you’re walking, showering, or spacing out while playing with your coffee cup. Dordaling creates these micro preconditions without having to “try” for creativity. You just let it happen.
How to Dordal (Without Feeling Lazy)
People aren’t good at doing “nothing.” Even resting gets gamified. So give yourself structure around dordaling, ironically, to keep it loose but intentional.
Set a lowkey time box: 10–15 minutes. Keep it simple. Choose simple activities: light doodling, walking around the block, looking out a window. No screens. Don’t analyze it: If your brain wanders to grocery lists, fine. Let it go random. Trust the process: Some of your best reallife “aha” moments will slip out during this state.
Dordaling vs Procrastination
Let’s draw a sharp line here. Dordaling is not procrastination in disguise. Procrastination postpones meaningful work due to discomfort or disinterest. Dordaling supports focus by stepping out strategically. You choose it before you’re stuck—not after avoiding something tough.
It blends intentionality and drifting. You’re not just spacing out endlessly, you’re recognizing the value of drift time as part of the full cycle of thinking, producing, and recovering.
Dordaling in a Digital World
Most modern workflows aren’t built for it. We’re addicted to alert cycles and microdistractions. But there’s a case for engineering little pockets of dordaling into your day:
Swap doomscrolling for fiveminute window time. Create “white space” buffers between video calls. Walk without audio input now and then. Unplug.
Digital detox isn’t the goal here—awareness is. If you can catch yourself trying to cram a dodged moment with noise, that’s a signal to just let go for a few.
Dordaling and ProblemSolving
Oddly enough, some of your brain’s best problemsolving happens just after you stop trying to solve the problem. This is called the incubation effect. Dordaling is built for that.
Let’s say you’re stuck on a writing prompt or a business challenge. Instead of banging your head against it, go do dishes. Stare out a train window. Let the brain drift, knowing it’s processing in the background. Answers often arrive quietly during the space inbetween.
Making Room for Dordaling in Culture
Professionally, we tend to reward grind. Visible hustle. There’s almost a guilt tax when you’re not showing effort. But if high performance is the goal, then strategic idling deserves a new reputation.
Leaders should normalize it. Teams can schedule It. Even fiveminute mental wander breaks during longer meetings can improve clarity and reduce fatigue.
The paradox is this: the more we build space to not work, the better our actual work gets. Dordaling isn’t indulgent. It’s useful, sustainable, and honest.
The Takeaway
You don’t have to be meditating or hyperproductive every second. There’s value in the drift. Dordaling, as a concept and practice, invites us to rebuild our relationship with mental space—and stop mistaking presence for productivity.
In a world that tries to maximize every minute, choose to idle strategically. That’s where your next best idea might be hiding.
