Protect Your Creative Daydreaming Process To Be An Innovative And Problem-Solving Hero

Use the 'Shower Effect' to help your brain find solutions

Photo by Jonathan Mabey on Unsplash

Stop daydreaming and focus instead! Did you get told this as a child? I know I did.

However, daydreaming is fundamental to how our brains innovate and find solutions - ignore that and you’ll be stuck repeating the same, boring patterns for years.

We daydream way more than we think.

A 2020 study asking people to self-report their activities at different points during the day, found that people spontaneously mind-wander 47% a day.

That’s a lot of time allowing our minds to wander!

Next time you think you’re being super focused, step back and consider how many times your mind wandered off down tangents and you got distracted.

Be honest with yourself.

It’s going to be more than you think.

The Shower Effect doesn’t just happen in the shower

It was whilst reading an article about attention and focus that I noticed the ‘Shower Effect’ and why we end up being more creative in the shower or doing basic activities.

Ironically, I lost focus and started daydreaming about:

• where I’d heard about the Shower Effect before?

• whether I get more ideas in the shower?

• what could be going on in the brain to make it happen?

• whether I could improve how I create ideas?

Eventually I got back to the attention and focus article but the Shower Effect idea lingered.

What is going on when we get those creative moments at seemingly random times of the day, and on autopilot?

The ‘Shower Effect’ describes:

…the effect that people seem to generate creative ideas during moderately engaging activities such as showering and walking.

Irvine et al., 2022

Now it made sense why all the massive online writers keep going on about taking a 30m to 4 hour walk a day (would love to be able to do this consistently!).

They’ve tapped into the benefits of the Shower Effect and how a relaxing or moderately engaging walk gets ideas flowing into their content creation empires.

Your brain is built to daydream

Positron emission tomography (PET) studies of the brain show that certain brain networks or circuits become active when we aren’t totally engaged in a task and are daydreaming or mind-wandering.

The key circuit involved is the Default Mode Network (DMN), connecting about a dozen different brain regions.

The DMN activates when we’re doing passive tasks but also when we remember past events or have self-referential thoughts and experiences.

How do you think the world works? The DMN is involved in your knowledge of the world as well.

It’s not the only network you need for innovation but it’s key to generating ideas. You still need the Central Executive Network (CEN), other brain regions connected in a circuit during task-positive and decision-making activities.

The CEN kicks in to assess the validity, usefulness and practicality of the ideas you’ve generated. It’s the manager that tells you 97% of your ideas are rubbish, but the other 3% might be passable.

As a new online writer, I still struggle with coming up with content ideas and topics to write about.

When I’m sat there with my phone or notebook and pen, I’m wracking my brain to work out what you might want to read and what I want to write about that week.

Typically, when I’m making a coffee, looking out at the garden and watching the foxes play, that’s when a curious idea appears out of nowhere.

I get excited, but often forget to write or note it down. I’m still working on my system...

I started to think about what would boost my idea generation and problem-solving opportunities more effectively to meet my creative goals.

Protect your boundaries, fiercely

I put an experiment into action. It was a glorious winter day and I had a gap in my diary.

I went on a walk to daydream, let my mind wander and create different ideas and solutions for articles I wanted to write and how to approach them.

I picked a local route, a bit longer than my usual short during-the-day-jaunt so I could deepen the experience.

I made sure I wasn’t listening to music or a podcast or YouTube video to keep me occupied. I’d read that you need to keep things as natural and simple as possible for it to work better.

I immersed myself in the environment. I noticed the colour of the sky. Sun on my face. First blush of Spring in the gardens as I walked past.

Then I got distracted and started taking pictures on my phone. Uh-oh.

I get easily overwhelmed by beauty and awe at nature. I wanted to capture the moment so I allowed myself some short device time.

I shared them with a friend and merrily carried on along my walk realising my mind was starting to make abstract connections.

It was happening!

To be in the moment gave me the space needed to reflect and contemplate on what I wanted to explore, what worked and areas to improve.

RINNNNGGG. RIIINNGGGG. RRIIINNNGGG.

Gah, daydreaming zone broken! My friend was calling me.

I thought to myself, “oh no - why did I send them those photos; they think I’m available”!

I answered and immediately felt resentful. They’d broken my enjoyable escape from DOING just as I deepened my daydreaming experience.

I realised it wasn’t their fault. I’d answered the phone, after all.

I half-listened but the moment was gone. I got grumpy.

Then I got another call at the same time. I dropped the first one and answered the second in case it was urgent. It wasn’t!

I shuffled off home, trying to bring back the lovely day dreaming experience I’d had.

It wasn’t working. I tried to force it but there was too much resistance.

It wasn’t the outcome I wanted, but taught me the importance of protecting boundaries for this process to work.

Create the right conditions to get ideas flowing

Walking or showering works because they give time for mind-wandering with a moderate level engagement but also some mental constraints.

The ideas bounce around but also create new connections and forms within those constraints.

Structure these conditions to tap into your daydreaming genius:

1. Pick the Goldilocks of activities - not too engaging and needing effort and attention, but not so dull you’re catatonic.

2. Look for boring tasks that are more habitual, so you’re moderately engaged but almost on auto-pilot. Boring tasks help you generate quite different and abstract types of ideas, and the longer you allow yourself to be in that state, the more problem-solving time you give yourself.

3. Don’t use devices, movies, music, podcasts, or other sounds etc. Allow your inner experience to create the space it needs to explore and create, rather than overload it with more input.

4. Get good quality sleep. This supports memory formation, taking them from fragile to more stable ones during the sleep process, so you can recall them better during daydreaming.

5. Protect your boundaries! Distance yourself from devices and demands from others. This is your space to be creative and you need it to reach your goals, not everyone else’s.

6. Find ways to introduce nature, experience awe and promote relaxation. If you’re going for a walk, pick a safe and familiar route so you go into mind-wandering mode and not threat-detection, alert mode.

7. If you choose the shower to foster the Shower Effect, keep a waterproof whiteboard handy to jot down your ideas!

Enjoy the process, but remember to filter and assess if your ideas are decent.

Create the right environment to support natural daydreaming and mind-wandering, and you’ll be amazed at how many ideas and connections you make.🚀

What helps you generate innovative ideas and solutions? Tell me in the comments!

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