Too much structure kills creativity — the importance of letting your mind wander
Being an entrepreneur requires more than great executive skills
Productive people are supposed to do the same thing every day. Eat the same breakfast. Wake up at the same time. Wear a uniform. Codify your life you so you can focus on the important things. Save your energy for what matters and let routine take care of the rest. I’ve given that advice myself.
And it’s true: reducing decision fatigue does free you to spend more of your limited cognitive load to solve analytic problems, using strategy and systematic thinking that are crucial for tasks like executing a plan or scrutinizing data. Pretty important, right?
But it’s not the full picture. Being an entrepreneur and successful leader requires more than great executive skills: it requires cultivating creativity. Startups are built on the premise of doing things differently, looking at problems a new way, and charting solutions that move beyond the way we’ve always done things.
An overly-structured day can be a creativity killer.
While structure can help with linear thinking, reducing your distractions can be counterproductive in cultivating creativity. Creative people actually are more prone to distraction due to…
