Make Friends With Your Inconvenient Inner Genius
Have you ever noticed how great ideas come at the most inconvenient times?
Earlier today, I was riding my exercise cycle, listening to a podcast, and it occurred to me that I have great ideas all the time, yet I don’t capture most of them (The podcast, Hidden Brain, was focusing on humor and how it often is based in those simple observations about the truths of daily life, hence my thinking about ideas.) I’ll be driving down the highway, zoning out a bit, and have a thought about how placing constraints on the creative process can be a real catalyst for innovation and interesting work, or I might have an idea for a group that I’d like to start, connecting interesting people to brainstorm ideas about this or that.
But it seems like these ideas come when I’m doing something other than sitting at my desk. I think there is probably some aspect of activity that allows these ideas to come up. I am usually doing something that requires that automatic kind of engagement, washing dishes, driving a familiar or predictable route, but not a lot of creative thinking. Maybe this distracts my inner critic but allows my creative mind to go nuts. I don’t know.
What I do know is that it generally happens when taking notes or journaling about the idea is inconvenient. And I think there’s something to that.
When I’m out on a walk in the woods, far from my desk, ideas come easily, and words seem to flow in all sorts of clever ways. But I get back, take off my hiking boots (and knee braces!), have a drink of water, and forget all of the wonderful insights I’ve had.
Or I’m in the shower, and by the time I’m out and dried off, the idea has faded. Or I’m on a call with a friend and think of something I should send them, a task I want to do, whatever. Then I hang up and forget about it.
I think maybe there’s an element of freedom; perhaps deep down I know that I won’t capture these thoughts, so I can be free to imagine all sorts of things.
But I also think there’s just a bit of context switching at work. Anytime we move from one context to another (outdoors in the woods to back at home, for instance), our minds recalibrate to the new context. If you’ve ever gotten up to get something from the kitchen, walked into the kitchen and drawn a blank as to why you’re there, you know what I’m talking about.
So, what is the solution?
While there are many ways to implement it, the basic idea is to capture your idea in the moment. If you’re on a walk, use your phone to take a note. I’ve written entire articles while on a walk using voice to text. It’ll require some (heavy) editing, but the ideas are there.
If your idea comes while you’re on a call, pause the conversation for a moment. Just say, let me write that down, then do so.
Ideas in the shower are a bit harder, I’ve always thought it’d be cool to have a grease pencil to write on the shower wall, but I’ll leave that one for you figure out.
The important thing to see here is that there are times when your mind is most free, most creative, most open to the new and original. And if you’re like me, those times may be times when taking action (or even notes) is difficult. So give yourself permission to pause your workout, your meditation, to pull over to the side of the highway, to step out of the shower, and to capture those ideas.
Then, make a second habit of reviewing those notes as soon as you can, to expand on them, elucidate them further, and to share them with people in your life.
There’s a shy, quiet genius in you, you just have to coax them out, and treat their ideas with the respect they deserve.
If you’d like to read more about creativity and your inner genius, you can at jpmckay.com
