Got two minutes to calm your nerves?

SMALL PRINT:CAN YOU DO nothing for two minutes? It's harder than it seems. Thanks to the internet, distraction is never more than a click away – which can make it difficult to just switch off and calm down.

This is where a new website, donothingfor2minutes.com, comes in. When you go to the site, you are greeted by a peaceful seascape, the sound of waves and instructions to, well, do nothing for two minutes. A timer counts down the seconds but, if you crack and touch your keyboard or mouse, it restarts. You may not think you are an e-mail or internet addict, but this site may prove you wrong.

It’s the brainchild of Alex Tew, a young man from Wiltshire in England who funded his university studies through a website called The Million Dollar Homepage. It allowed advertisers to buy tiny blocks of the million pixels that made up the page image.

Having made a fortune thanks to other people’s pointless internet usage, Tew developed the new site to encourage people to take a break from the web. “I had been thinking how we spend every waking minute of the day with access to an unlimited supply of information, to the point of information overload,” he said. “[and] there is evidence that our brains are being re-wired by the internet, because we get a little dopamine kick every time we check our e-mail or Twitter or Facebook and there’s a new update. So we’re all developing a bit of ADD (Attention deficit disorder).” So while employers may not immediately warm to the idea of their workers downing tools for two whole minutes and staring into space, perhaps they should welcome it. Those two little minutes of calm could be what we all need to clear our heads – and then get back to serious work.