Yes. Yes. We've all heard the rant. Gamers = slackers. Millions of work hours and productive free time, murdered by those dreaded computer and video games. Games serve no purpose in serious business. They're addictive, hour-eating mind-numbing wastes of digital data. Don't play games. You'll poke your eye out, or something like that.

"I liken the process to a computer defrag. Playing puts all the files back on their shelves in order, just like a defragmenting application does with your computer. On top of that, you've fed your brain the sugars it needs to perform at a more efficient level."

Except, games are fun. We like games. We like to have fun. All work and no fun makes Jack Nicholson take an axe to his family. Why must life be so unfair. Why must the tasks that put food on our tables be so eye-glossingly boring? Why must we toil until we drop? Can't we take a few minutes out of our workday to blow off steam, collect our thoughts and maybe have a little joy?

Wouldn't it be awesome if playing games was actually good for you? Wouldn't it be ironic? Well, prepared to be amazed. According to an article in Scientific American, playing games can make you smarter and more capable of managing tasks. That's right. Take that, boss! I'm not fucking off, I'm exercising my brain so I can be a better worker! So, let me get back to my World of Warcraft, dammit!

Okay, settle down. While it's true that video/computer gameplay improves logical and spatial thinking, there's one specific game that has the studies to back it up and it ain't World of Warcraft, or GTA or whatever avatar, cyberworld, role-playing yankfest you're into. We're talking about the most classic of computer games. One of the simplest, least visually decorated games in all of bit history. This is the game that haunted your dreams. The hypnotic one. The game that is so absorbing you can visualize playing it without even opening a program or powering on your console.

Tetris.

Ah. That's right. You know what I'm talking about. Anyone that has played Tetris has been locked into its magnetic pull. When you play, it's almost impossible to stop. This deceptively easy, bare-bones, nothing puzzle game entrances you. Tetris into a realm where nothing matters but matching up, falling, colored blocks. What even more amazing is how Tetris stick with you. Have you had a Tetris dream? Did you know that you're not the only one? There is a real, actual phenomenon called the Tetris Effect. Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia page on the Tetris Effect:

"People who play Tetris for a long time might then find themselves thinking about ways different shapes in the real world can fit together, such as the boxes on a supermarket shelf or the buildings on a street. In this sense, the Tetris effect is a form of habit.

They might also see images of falling Tetris shapes at the edges of their visual fields or when they close their eyes. In this sense, the Tetris effect is a form of hallucination.

They might also dream about falling Tetris shapes when drifting off to sleep. In this sense, the Tetris effect is a form of hypnagogic imagery..."

Well, get this. All that mind play is the result of the way that playing Tetris temporarily alters the chemicals in your brain. That article from Scientific American I mentioned above states this:

"Yes, this addictive game that has you rotating shapes to fit into a grid until you go mad may actually be making you smarter. Past studies have found that when people play Tetris initially, they use more glucose, suggesting that their brains are working hard. Over time, though, glucose usage returns to normal. In other words, the brain has to work less hard the more it practices. It becomes primed to solve related problems quickly.

Bass-Krueger [scientist ­ ED] wanted to test how large this effect was. He had some of his several dozen subjects play Tetris for 15 minutes. Then he gave everyone a spatial reasoning test similar to those used in IQ assessments. The results were staggering: Tetris players scored more than 55% higher than the control group. "Even in 15 minutes it can still have an effect,” Bass-Krueger told us here in Atlanta at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair, where he presented his results. (That doesn’t mean their overall IQ went up that much, of course; the spatial reasoning test is just a small fraction of an IQ test.)".

Cool, huh? A silly little game over 20 years old has the ability to improve your brain power by 55%. You can reap that benefit with as little as 15 minutes of play. Are you trying to design a cleaner layout? Trying to figure out how to personalize a cut-and-paste script? Learning a new software program? Is your mid so frazzled that you can't think straight? Stop and play a game that's actually good for you. Take 15 minutes and fire up the Tetris or a Tetris clone. If you don't have one you can get one just about anywhere ­ usually for free. I liken the process to a computer defrag. You've been calling up thoughts (files) all day. Those files are all messed up, jumbled. Playing Tetris puts all the files back on their shelves in order, just like a defragmenting application does with your computer. On top of that, you've fed your brain the sugars it needs to perform at a more efficient level.

Of course, the problem with Tetris was never the playing, it was the stopping. Maybe set a timer or alarm on your computer to let you know it's time to quit. You want to exercise your mind so you can get back to work.

So, play some Tetris. It's good for your brain and in turn, your productivity!