Creativity, Breaks and Noisy Environments

Archimedes had his eureka moment in the bath tub. Kekule came up with the structure of benzene in a dream. Schrodinger (he of the cat fame) discovered wave mechanics when he took his mistress to a ski resort. And for the rest of us, inspiration (sometimes) strikes in the bathroom.

Why is it we often come up with solutions and ideas when we are not thinking about the problem? Here’s Art Markman’s take:

“When you walk away from a problem and think about something else, your memory resets. The ideas that dominated your thinking recede from your thoughts. The memories that were inhibited before gradually become more accessible. If your thoughts return to the problem after a pause, those other memories now have a chance to influence your thinking.”

Of course, a lot of ideas do come when we are working on the problem. But if you want to increase your chances, then aim for the Goldilocks zone of ambient noise (not too noisy; but not too quiet either). David Burkus explains:

“A moderate level of background noise creates just enough distraction to break people out of their patterns of thinking and nudge them to let their imagination wander, while still keeping them from losing their focus on the project all together.”

But what if you are working at an office? Or it’s late in the night? How would you generate a “noisy” environment? I list two ways:

1)      Install the Coffitivity app on your phone. It plays coffee shop noise (conversations and coffee brewing)!

2)     Go to the website, Raining.fm: it plays the sound of rain. And for fun, you can even control the amount of thunder!

So the next time you get stuck on something, you might want to give these options a shot!