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I recently read an article by Clive Thompson from Wired Magazine entitled Why Idling Mind Is Mother of Invention (thanks @janerawson). The super-brief summary of the article is that, contrary to popular belief, daydreaming and procrastination (hereby labeled ‘mental drift’) are actually crucial to solving complex problems and hence, productive.
As somebody who works in a fairly technical and creative industry, I whole-heartedly agree with the sentiment.
You dream, I dream, everybody daydreams
To go in to a little more detail, Clive talks about how brain scientists have shown that the areas of the brain responsible for long-term memory processing and problem-solving kick into overdrive when our brains wander into mental drift land. This suggest that our brains are doing more then looking for a distraction from a boring task: it seems they may be utilising this time to store/access memories and solve nagging problems. This doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Most people can relate to the idea of having (at least partially) solved some nagging issue whilst off in la-la-land. Think the famous ‘Eureka’ moment of Archimedes in his bathtub (Granted, we tend not to run down the street nude after every great idea, but the parallel exists none-the-less).
So, the take-away message from this is that daydreaming – good. Forcing high-levels on concentration on a particular, probably boring, task – bad. The second thing the article suggests is that you should actively timetable your day to allow a little daydreaming time. Most people suggest that going for a long, many hours walk might be the best solution. However, as Clive correctly points out, this is not possible in most work environment. Instead, he suggests the fairground that is the social web might be the solution. He postulates that killing time on YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook and web-games might be the electronic othologue to going for a walk along a path, through a wood, with nothing but your thoughts.
I vehemently disagree.
The problem with resources such as YouTube and the like is that they require moderately high levels of attention and concentration. I can honestly say that I have never gone ‘Archimedial’ whilst catching up with people on Facebook or watching Sesame Street reruns on YouTube. These things are too much like watching TV or playing video games – activities considered to be creativity-killers. I personally believe you need to have a degree of sensory deprivation and introspection to be truly creative.
So, anyway, what does all of this have to do with notepads?
Well, if you are in a creative work environment that doesn’t completely suck, you should have a certain degree of control over your movements throughout the day and a boss that doesn’t sit behind your chair whipping you in to action every minute of the working day. A 3 hour walk may be out of the question, but there are some things you can do.
- STEP 1. Walk away from your computer!
- STEP 2. Grab your trusty notepad, and a pen
I find that the computer is a big creativity killer for me. It is a device that supplies a saturation of sensory input (especially with today’s media-rich web environment) and encourages interaction, that in turn discourages introspection.
What I tend to do is grab my notepad, find somewhere fairly close to work but away from distraction (ideally a nice area with plenty of lighting). I work on a large campus so I will tend to head to a cafe or something similar – you might have a nice lunchroom, or even find a tree to sit under – whatever works for you. Then you can just sit down and do nothing – thinking about whatever pops into your head and mulling over the problems. If you are writing an article, think about the logical structure of the article and note dot-points for what you want to talk about (I structured this very article in my notepad this morning over breakfast). Draw flow diagrams for algorithms. Sketch your perfect partner. Hell, draw dragons if you want to.
The important thing is to have a notepad handy to write down your ideas. Why? Because ideas you have during a daydream can be just like the particulars of a real dream – once you are out of that mindset they can very quickly fade into oblivion.
My two most creative timeframes? Breakfast and work travel. I always lay out a great spread for breakfast and have my notepad with me. I also have my notepad (or at least my diary) with me when travelling on the train – public transport with an iPod plugged into your head can be heaven, introspectively speaking.
This is all well and good, but why should I always have my notepad with me?
Social idea explosionism
One of the great perks in my work is that I am surrounded by a bunch of very bright people who love what they do, know a lot about what they do, and come from a variety of disciplines. Some of them even wear shoes. Having meetings with energetic people that have similar passions and interests to your own often leads to a state that I call idea explosionism.
Ever been discussing a problem or idea with a friend or work colleague and entered that positive feedback loop where, bouncing off each others ideas, you come up with an outcome that is bigger and better then your original solution or idea? You might have even spawned a number of sub-ideas relating in some fashion to the original. This is idea explosionism. Think of it as brainstorming at a higher level of existence. Another analogy is that you are creating a multi-threaded consciousness, with each member of the conversation contributing an independent thread of thought and creativity.
The problem with idea explosionism is that it is exciting. You will often get so caught up in it all that any thought of taking notes is virtually thrown out the window. However, take notes you must. Some of the best ideas that I have ever come up with has been over coffee or lunch with a bunch of like-minded people – and in most cases I’ve only remembered the ones I’ve written down.
Administrivia: clear out that creative space!
Things are required to perform most actions. However, too many things can hinder action, or stop it all together. Consider this. To play a game of basketball (action) you need both a ball (thing) and some players (thing). However if you imagine that you cover an entire basketball court with balls and try to put 100 players on the court, a game of basketball will be extremely difficult at best, impossible at worst. I believe our brains are no different. From the perspective of the brain; facts, ideas, tasks and schedules are all things: like our players and balls they take up space. The former take space in your creative space or mental workshop, the latter on the basketball court. Creating solutions to problems and creating new ideas is an action, similar to playing a game of basketball. You need some ideas and facts to create, but too many can get in the way.
In short, the more things (facts, balls) cluttering our space (brain, court), the harder it is to perform actions (create, play ball).
This is where a notepad can help. To continue our basketball analogy, if we found there were too many balls and players on the court, we would put all the spare balls into a storage closet and put the excess players on the bench – clearing our space and allowing a game of basketball to be played. We can do the same with our minds. Let the notepad be your storage closet. Let your diary be your bench.
This idea of dumping all the tasks and ’spare ideas’ on to paper to clear the mind is not a new one. It is called, rather appropriately, mind dumping. The premise is that, by dumping all the things you need to do from your brain onto paper, that you no longer need to use your brain-power to keep a mental todo list running in your mind. The scheduling responsibility is left to your list or diary, leaving your mind free to do stuff we now know is important, such as daydreaming.
I’ve written at length on a mind dumping technique I created called mind clustering on Cognicology. Mind clustering is a categorical mind dumping technique. I’ve even created a simple instructional video on the mind-clustering technique that you can also find on Cognicology. The inspiration for mind clustering came from an earlier mind mapping article by Yaro Starak.
Take home message
So the take home message? Always have a notepad with you, always. Daydreams, idea explosionism and the need to dump ideas can happen anytime, anywhere: so grab a comfy couch and be prepared!
Filed under: general by Chris
It’s been pretty hectic with the PhD and 
