We need to daydream more.

What is creativity?

What is creativity?

Creativity is independent of training, expertise, or even common sense. There are no experts in it.

There are no recipes or newfangled drills that facilitate it. It springs from the insights of the mind.

Creativity is fundamental to effective design however its scarcity leads us to waste time and energy looking for solutions.

Creative solutions cost less and often are solutions already present in the ideas of others, if only we recognize what they are.

The most important thing is to notice them.

One of the worst waste of time is finding suggestions that we know to be inherently bad, then trying to fix them.

Anyone can learn to be more creative.

It may require a lot of work, but in the long run, more creativity pays for itself.

But where do we start, if we want to be more creative?

Daydreaming.

A recent study by the Netherlands’ Tilburg University suggests that daydreaming is a more productive way to think than brainstorming.

The researchers assigned participants to five separate five-minute blocks, with half designated “task blocks” where they had to solve the task they were given–things like drawing a picture of an object–and the other half designated “fluid blocks” where they had to spend a minute daydreaming about whatever came into their minds.

By breaking up the time between thinking and doing, the participants had a chance to relax and escape their stresses.

“This allowed their brains to generate novel and original insights that were not available during the work time,” the researchers explain.

The act of thinking can be energizing and exciting, but there are many ways you can take that energy and turn it into concrete actions.

Incorporating a little bit of day dreaming & creative thinking into your everyday routine has been shown to help you accomplish more than you would have ever imagined, so don’t be afraid to take a few minutes out of your day to break out the brainstorm pad.

Let your thoughts wander and let your imagination flow.