Need a Big Idea? Forget About It.
How Distractions (and Showers) Lead to “Aha!” Moments
Coming up with big ideas on a regular basis isn’t easy. That’s one of the reasons clients come to Flynn and agencies like ours. And, if you’re like us, you’ve likely found that some of your best ideas show up when you least expect them — and not just between 9 and 5. It turns out that shouldn’t be too surprising.
Gijs van Wulfen, a Dutch trainer and speaker on innovation and design thinking surveyed 211 managers and professionals about when they had their “aha” moments. For the 348 moments they described, “showering” led the pack at 11.2%. How many ideas came “at work?” Less than one percent.
While I’ve definitely had my share of eureka moments during business hours, I can also remember coming up with great ideas pushing my daughter’s stroller on a walk, and returning a shopping cart to the corral at the grocery store. So, what was happening? A couple of University of Amsterdam researchers believe that while I was off the clock, my “unconscious mind” was still hard at work.
In their study Where creativity resides: The generative power of unconscious thought, Ap Dijksterhuis and Teun Meurs conclude: “One could say that unconscious thought is more ‘liberal’ than conscious thought and leads to the generation of items or ideas that are less obvious, less accessible, and more creative.”
Those eureka moments also happened while I was distracted from work. As Harvard researcher Shelley H. Carson told Fast Company: “If you’re concentrating on something and excluding everything else, you may not be able to take advantage of distractions that can form novel and original combinations.”
Next time you’re in need of an epiphany, here are a few tips to help guide you:
- Give inspiration food to chew on. While Mr. van Wulfen may have found that few people had their big ideas at work, in my experience the best ideas come after a lot of thinking and “background.” That means reading the research, getting familiar with all facets of the project, and, yes, straight up old-school brainstorming — almost all of which happens 9 to 5. My M.O. is “obsess it and forget it,” knowing that my subconscious will be doing anything but.
- Take some alone time. It’s no surprise that (typically) solitary activities such as showering and working out are often when people experience epiphanies. While it’s important to take a break from thinking about your problem or project, there is such a thing as too much distraction — and few things are more distracting than people.
- Don’t rush your muse. The calendar isn’t always your friend, but, whenever possible, give your mind — and your subconscious — time to work. It doesn’t have to be weeks. But since you never know when that magic aha moment will happen, allowing more time for that “when” to occur just makes sense.
- Be ready when it happens. You may think that there’s no way you’ll forget an awesome idea. But why take that risk? Your phone is always standing by to take a voice memo. Or, like Archimedes, should your eureka moment happen in the bath (or, more likely, the shower), you can be ready with a waterproof pad you can have by tomorrow for less than $10.
And just why are showers such a popular locale for innovative thinking? Drexel University psychology professor John Kounios believes the white noise of the shower, as well as the warm water, function as a poor man’s sensory deprivation tank. “This sensory restriction is like an extended brain blink. You cut out the outside world and ideas bubble up into awareness.”
So, if you’re not coming up with the big idea you need, give yourself a break — literally. Take that shower. Or, go for a walk. Wait … what if you could take a walk in the shower? Now there’s an idea …
