There’s a point in Lee Child’s book Make Me (the 20th in his Jack Reacher series, for those keeping score) where Reacher is trying to solve a problem and decides to back-burner it: instead of actively working the problem, he sets it aside, trusting his subconscious to eventually make the right connections.
Which it does.
Sound kinda hokey?
Actually, no. Neuroscience shows you tend to be at your most creative when you’re not trying to be creative. Actually, you’re at your most creative when you’re not trying to do anything at all.
Refreshed leadership advice from CEO Stephanie Mehta
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis used PET scans to determine which parts of the brain lit up during different types of activity. To establish baselines, some participants were put in the scanner and told to do nothing, what the researchers called “resting state.” Surprisingly, resting state resulted in mental energy spikes across various brain regions. their surprise, though, mental energy spiked in various regions of the brain.
In fact, mental energy turned out to be higher in resting state than active state, where participants were given mental tasks.
A few years later, neuroscientist Nancy Andreasen made resting-state activity (she called it “free floating periods of thought”) her focus. No tasks. No inputs. No intentional creativity. No nothing; just vegging.