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 Simple  Ways  To  Make  Creative  Thinking  A  Daily  Habit  |  Fast  Co... http://www.fastcompany.com/3044634/work-­‐smart/5-­‐simple-­‐way...

WORK SMART

5 SIMPLE WAYS TO MAKE CREATIVE THINKING

A DAILY HABIT
LET YOUR INNOVATIVE IDEAS SIMMER AND PERCOLATE WITH THESE
FIVE DAILY RITUALS.

BY SCOTT EBLIN

Where or when do you get your best ideas?

I ask that question to a lot of clients and executives attending my

presentations and seminars. The answers I often hear are things like "In
the shower," "Walking the dog," "Working out," "On my commute,"
"Taking care of the yard," or "Cleaning the house."

But do you know what answer I never hear? "At my desk in front of my
computer." In fact, when I ask if anyone gets their best ideas at their
desk, everyone laughs because the very idea is absurd.

People hardly ever get their best ideas at their desks, and yet that’s
where most professionals spend most of the day. If it’s not the desk,
it’s a conference table, and hardly anyone gets their best ideas there
either.

The irony, of course, is that most of the great work any of us do

depends on the sparks of insight and creativity that come when we’re
not actively focusing on a particular task or trying to solve a problem.
We need to create and leave time for unconscious thought.

As neuroscience researcher Loran Nordgren explained to

strategy+business magazine, unconscious thought is the more
intuitive, right-brained kind of thinking that leads to flashes of insight
about how to solve problems. If you’re one of those people who’ve
noticed that you get some of your best ideas while you’re in the
shower or doing yard work, you know what Nordgren is talking about.
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Giving yourself time for unconscious thought is a key component of
making effective decisions when there is a large amount of data or a
complex problem to solve. The research of Nordgren and his
colleagues shows that people make their best complex decisions
when they have an opportunity to review the data or the facts and
then focus their attention on something else for a while. It’s a process
of what psychotherapist Richard Carlson and psychologist Joseph
Bailey in their book, Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, called putting
a problem on your "mental back burner" to simmer a while.

Ready to give unconscious thought a try? Here are five simple ways to
build unconscious thought into your day:

1. LET IT GO
If you want to create space for unconscious thought, you need to give
yourself permission to let go of consciously thinking about the
problem you’re trying to solve. A great way to do this is to literally tell
yourself, "I’m going to stop thinking about this for now," and then go
do something else.

2. MOVE YOUR BODY

If that something else involves moving your body, you’re much more
likely to come up with fresh insights and ideas on how to solve your
problem. Movement leverages the mind-body connection to give a
rest to the part of your brain—the prefrontal cortex—where all of the
big-time decision-making and analysis goes on. When you come back
to your desk after a walk, a workout, or five to 10 minutes of
stretching, you’ll be not just physically but also mentally refreshed and
renewed.

3. CHANGE IT UP
Encourage unconscious thought by changing up your work
environment or routines. Take a morning to work from home at your
dining room table. Go to a coffee shop to create a little space for
some midafternoon mental downtime. Bring a colleague along for a
walk while you do some brainstorming together or just take some time
to catch up on what’s new with each other. Any of these change-ups
or others that work for you give your brain an opportunity to
unconsciously think about things other than the immediate problem at
hand.

4. BLOCK IT OUT
If your calendar is racked and stacked with back-to-back meetings and
conversations all day long, you’re not leaving much time for
unconscious thought. Take back some control by blocking out at least
one 90-minute chunk on your calendar each week for unconscious
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thought time. Protect it and when the time comes use one or more of
the first three tips to optimize the time.

5. SLEEP ON IT
Have you ever gone to bed mulling over a tough problem and woken
up the next morning with a clear picture of how to proceed? If you
have, your brain was working and making neural connections while
you slept that helped you solve the problem.

Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco found that

95% of people need at least seven hours of sleep a night to function at
their creative best. If you think you can get by with less, then you’re in
the 5% of the population that has a rare genetic mutation that enables
you to do so. Odds are that you’re not in that group. If you want to be
more creative and innovative, give your brain the ultimate opportunity
for unconscious thought and get a good night’s sleep.

—Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker, and author of

Overworked and Overwhelmed: The Mindfulness Alternative.

[Photo: Flickr user Brian Tomlinson]

April 3, 2015 | 5:01 AM

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