The Secret to Creative Problem Solving

Does the following scenario sound familiar? You are working to solve a tough problem at work, but feel blocked from finding the solution. No matter how much time and effort you have put in, you are just stuck.

I have a solution for you… pun intended: an incubation period.

What is the incubation effect?

The incubation effect was first introduced by English psychologist Graham Wallas in 1926.¹ The effect has four stages: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification.

• Preparation is acquiring knowledge for the task at hand.²
• Incubation is when you take conscious attention away from the task.³
• Illumination is when the creative idea flashes into sight.⁴
• Verification is when the creative idea is evaluated.⁵

The incubation period is stage two, when you take attention away from the task at hand and direct it toward a different activity. Research has shown that short and long incubation periods enhance creative problem-solving.⁶

• Short Incubation Periods: Mind-Wandering. The default mode network is a group of regions in the frontal and parietal cortex.⁷ It is especially active during mind-wandering, when you are “not focused on the outside world and when cognitive control is low.”⁸ Structural MRI research has suggested that the default mode network is tied to creativity and that less controlled processes like mind-wandering are important to creativity.⁹
• Long Incubation Periods: Sleep. A recent experiment found that sleep facilitates insight in problem-solving. Subjects in the experiment completed a number reduction task. While it could be solved in a slow, stepwise way, it could also be solved more quickly with a hidden, abstract rule.¹⁰ Participants who got several hours of sleep were over twice as likely to figure out the hidden rule when retested.¹¹

How can I use incubation to my advantage?

• Engage your brain in advance. Overcoming a mental block requires more than simply taking a break. You must consciously process the problem beforehand to establish a knowledge base.¹² Your unconscious processing will then work more effectively, with more information stored in memory.
• Take short breaks. Studies have found that 30-minute incubation periods are often better than 24 hours.¹³ You do not necessarily need a full night’s sleep for incubation to work. Short periods of incubation are beneficial and will save you time if you are in a crunch.
• Choose your incubation tasks wisely. Studies have shown that the benefits of an incubation period are greater when people engage in an undemanding task than in a demanding task or no task.¹⁴ An undemanding task is a task that does not require a lot of attention. Furthermore, greater benefits are seen when people engage in a dissimilar activity to the problem.¹⁵ You should not engage the core skills needed to solve your problem (e.g., visual thinking) in your incubation task.¹⁶ For example, you can organize your desk area, make yourself a cup of coffee, take a shower, or go for a run.¹⁷
• Sleep. Rather than spending late nights trying to solve the problem, put down your work and sleep. You might have more insight in the morning, which will save you time and energy.

In a society that glorifies being busy, it is crucial to remember that taking a break is a simple and effective way to enhance your creative problem-solving.

Endnotes

1. Dean, J. (n.d.). The Incubation Effect: How to Break Through a Mental Block. Retrieved from https://www.spring.org.uk/2012/07/the-incubation-effect-how-to-break-through-a-mental-block.php
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ritter, S. M., & Dijksterhuis, A. (2014). Creativity — the unconscious foundations of the incubation period. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3990058/
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Wagner, U., Gais, S., Haider, H., Verleger, R., & Born, J. (2004). Sleep Inspires Insight. Nature. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14737168/
11. Ibid.
12. Ritter, S. M., & Dijksterhuis, A. (2014). Creativity — the unconscious foundations of the incubation period. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3990058/
13. Dean, J. (n.d.). The Incubation Effect: How to Break Through a Mental Block. Retrieved from https://www.spring.org.uk/2012/07/the-incubation-effect-how-to-break-through-a-mental-block.php
14. Gilhooly, K. J. (2016). Incubation and Intuition in Creative Problem Solving. Frontiers in Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01076/full#B35
15. Ritter, S. M., & Dijksterhuis, A. (2014). Creativity — the unconscious foundations of the incubation period. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3990058/
16. McQuaid, H. (2017, September 14). How to incubate your way to great ideas. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-incubate-your-way-great-ideas-heather-mcquaid/
17. Ibid.