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Being busy is killing our ability to think creatively
Busyness and Creativity
Being busy all the time dials down your creativity. Being distracted doing the scheduled work in your calendar doesn't give your brain time to do any creative thinking and in turn any real, original work.
Real productive work requires an unobstructed window of time during the day.
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Our inability to focus
Two significant challenges are destroying our ability to focus.
- We are increasingly overwhelmed with distractions from various connected devices.
- We...
Practice mindfulness
Our biggest mistake is how we start the day. Instead of checking email on your phone, try a simple mindfulness practice when you wake up.
It can be quietly taking a few deep breaths or meditating for 20 to 30 minutes.
Organize tasks
A common mistake is to fill your calendar with the wrong tasks.
A meeting can break your day into two pieces, each too small to do anything hard in.
Instead, take advantage of your body's natural rhythms. Focus on complex, creative tasks in the morning and schedule your meetings for the afternoon.
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The Importance Of Boredom
It drives us to engage in activities that we find more meaningful than those at hand. Without it, we’d be perpetually excited by everything.
Research shows that people who are bored...
Focus And The Brain
When we’re consciously doing things we’re using the “executive attention network, ” the parts of the brain that control and inhibit our attention. The attention network makes it possible for us to relate directly to the world presently around us.
By contrast, when our minds wander, we activate the brain’s “default mode network, ” which is the brain “at rest”; not focused on an external, goal-oriented task. In this mode, we still tap about 95% of the energy we use when our brains are engaged in focused thinking.
Types Of Daydreaming
- Poor attention control: when people with poor attention control drift into daydreaming. These people are anxious, easily distracted, and have difficulty concentrating, even on their daydreams.
- Guilty-dysphoric: when our thoughts drift to unproductive and negative places. We berate ourselves for perceived mistakes or flaws and feel emotions like guilt, anxiety, and anger.
- Positive-constructive: when our thoughts veer toward the imaginative; it reflects our drive to explore ideas and feelings, plan, and problem-solve.
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Pamela Slim
Creativity is complex
It means producing something novel or original, evaluating, solving problems, whether on paper, on stage, in a laboratory or even in the shower.
Knowing how to think
Geniuses know “how” to think, instead of “what” to think.
People who are more creative can simultaneously engage brain networks that don’t typically work together.