Many of us feel guilty if we are not constantly working or otherwise doing *something* (this can be an issue, of course, but many of us might feel this way). We equate “doing things” with success, like “productivity”, and fill every block of time.
The problem this causes for coming up with ideas: constant preoccupation leaves no time for useful, creative thinking. Science has figured out that our brains are actually more active for problem-solving during “boring” moments, when our brains are on autopilot. This is known as the Default Mode Network.
In this micro-episode:
- Why “doing nothing” increases neurological activity
- How the Default Mode Network helps you generate content topics (or solve business problems)
- Research on how boring tasks improve creative ideas
Find more episodes and subscribe at stereoforest.com/minute.
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Transcript
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::So a lot of us out there feel really guilty if we're bored because like, hey, I'm building a business. I'm offering all these services. I need to do things because time is
money. I need, you know, doing things means I'm successful. So we end up filling all of our blocks of time with something in it like podcast episodes. I'm going to add
another show to my schedule, right?
::I'm responding to guest requests. I'm busy. I'm doing stuff. I'm successful.
::However, if we're always preoccupied with doing stuff, we're not leaving the time to actually be doing some pretty useful thinking.
::And one of the questions that I hear all the time is how do you get ideas for new episodes?
::How do you get new topics for your episodes?
::And we need to allocate time to actually do this. And we can do this while we're bored. It actually works better that way. The science behind it is that quiet moments like
things, time when we're bored and we're not doing anything, that's when our brains, our neurological activity for problem solving actually increases. Your brain is
more active when you do it.
::something mindless, like you're just not thinking, than if you are focused on doing some work. And this is called the default mode network. And the default mode
network is a circuit in your brain and it gets busy. It starts activating when you stop focusing on external things like tasks that you're doing. So when you're doing
really routine things, really repetitive things,
::like washing dishes or you're on the elliptical that's when your brain goes into autopilot which is essentially this default mode network like it was studied with
people who were doing a really boring task they were copying down phone numbers and they did that boring task before they had like a creative challenge and then there
was another group of people who were not doing
::They were kept really active. But the busy group, the people that were really active, they didn't have as many ideas and the ideas that they did have weren't as good. So
the boring task people, the people copying phone numbers, did better on the creative challenge. And other research, it found that the boredom, just the routine task,
the brain being really bored and put on autopilot makes it go and
::actually seek out a way to keep busy that internal stimulation and when that happens that's the default mode network so the boredom is pretty much giving your brain a
signal to start that internal processing and that's where ideas are going to come from so that's when you're going to start making those connections and figuring out
topics that you can talk about on your podcast so if you want ideas just
::yourself to tears. I'm Jen deHaan. This is the Credibility
Minute. You can find more episodes and get in touch with me at stereoforest.com slash minute.