The Best Approach To Being Creative

Do you need to be creative for work?  Is there a problem to solve at home?  Or are you just bored?

If you need more creativity in your life, a study completed in the journal, Thinking and Reasoning, can point you in the right direction (Salvi et al., 2016).

Researchers had study participants complete puzzles that required flashes of insight (also known as an “Aha!” moment, or a spike in creativity).  Results showed that 94% of insightful answers were correct, while 78% of analytical responses were correct.

And why is this?

Dr. Kounids, one of the study’s authors, suggests that analytical thinking can be sloppy; while insightful thinking is unconscious and automatic (it just happens when it’s going to happen).

Take Home Message

The best approach to creativity is to avoid analytical thinking and ignore deadlines whenever possible (deadlines create anxiety that interfere with insightful thinking).

Bonus Tip

It can help the creative process to do something you consider to be mundane that requires little mental effort. So, for you Big Bang Theory fans our there, “yes” Sheldon had the right idea when he went to work as a waiter to help overcome his block in creativity!