“I am Always Busy” is the worst thing ever that happened to work.
There is a mantra, specially in the startup community: ”All Work, No Sleep”. Bullshit. This is crishing the founders and making them zombies.
The biggest obstacle to creativity and innovation is being too busy.
History shows that many famous inventors have come up with novel ideas while letting their minds wander.
Simply put, creativity happens when your mind is unfocused, daydreaming or idle.
Every person that comes back from vacation is saying this:
Now that I had some time to think, I’ve realized …
With a few days to clear my mind, I figured out …
While I was away I got this great idea …
The irony is that people can get some of their most important work done outside of work, when they’re free to think and wonder.
We take time off maybe once a year, without realizing that time to think is a key element of many jobs, and one that a traditional work schedule is destroying!
In 1881, for example, famous inventor Nikola Tesla had fallen seriously ill on a trip to Budapest. There, a college friend, Anthony Szigeti, took him on walks to help him recover. As they were watching the sunset on one of these walks, Tesla suddenly had an insight about rotating magnetic fields — which would in turn lead to the development of modern day’s alternating current electrical mechanism.
Friedrich August, one of the most renowned organic chemists, discovered the ring-shaped structure of the organic chemical compound benzene while daydreaming about the famous circular symbol of a snake eating its own tail.
Albert Einstein famously turned to music — Mozart in particular — when he was working on complex problems and needed inspiration.
In a society that glorifies grinding, short-term gains and pushing to extremes, it takes guts to rest. Perhaps we should all reframe rest. Rest isn’t lazily slothing around; it’s an active process in which physical and psychological growth occurs.
Researchers have found that despite spending the vast majority of our waking hours in effortful thought, over 40 percent of our creative ideas manifest during breaks.
Many esteemed philosophers, from Kierkegaard to Thoreau, held their daily walk as something sacred, the key to generating new ideas. The moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.
A good idea doesn’t come when you’re doing a million things. The good idea comes in the moment of rest.
Take care of your brain. Wandering mind is an innovative mind.
