Some heresy from David Brendel from the Harvard Business Review who reports that compelling new research reveals that “less is more” for human brains—and that mental downtime should be among our highest priorities.

If you aren’t making progress on that to-do list or performing up to the level you need to, here are five tips for getting downtime so that you can perform better than ever:

• Daydream as often as you want
• Stop preparing for meetings and presentations
• Spend less time on key decisions
• Be more “mindful” than focused
• Shorten your workday.