Laziness and inactivity don’t get the respect they deserve. No one speaks up for the value of coasting and taking it easy. Instead we hear way too much about efficiency, activity, and bustle. Time management gurus hector us with advice about squeezing more effort out of every minute. Climbing, streamlining, and multi-tasking hog the spot light, while cooling your heels is mocked.

But the truth is, a little down time is vital to recharge our batteries. Especially for creative people. Grinding away on a problem too long and too hard drags results down.

As Gary Marcus points out in his insightful book, Kluge—about the haphazard evolutionary development of human beings—”Thinking while tired is not so different from driving while drinking.” Or to put it more bluntly: all work and no play, makes Jack an idiot.

The thing that continues to surprise and delight me is this. Stepping away from our problems can actually make them easier to solve. The trick seems to be to wallow in the problem long enough to embrace its complexities. When one takes a break, the subconscious keeps cranking. Often an answer drifts into view in less than 24 hours. For many people, the answer arrives in the shower, often after a good night’s sleep.

More than once, I’ve heard career coaches suggest pushing all work away from weekends—to use Saturday and Sunday solely for restoration and recharging—never for office work. While I support this idea in principle, it remains hard to implement. But no one ever said being slothful was going to be easy.

One final thought about sloth. Like all good things, some people are prone to over do it. If you find that inactivity has become your main activity, you know you’ve gone too far. Like so many things in life, one needs to find and maintain a balance point. Sloth in moderation is the goal. I promise you that if you get it right, your productivity will increase.