

She does this by cleaning her house, reorganizing her pantry, going through her closet-anything that’s especially mundane and boring.


Those who did the boring exercise performed better on the test of creativity than a control test who weren’t primed by being bored. (Not that rest isn’t important- it is!)Īnother study used a similar creativity test after asking participants to do a boring exercise, like copying numbers out of a phone book. Other research has also backed up this finding by showing that undemanding tasks are more likely to induce a wandering mind than when we do nothing at all. Researchers believe this is because an undemanding task encourages your mind to wander. When resuming the creative thinking task, those who had done an undemanding task (think unpacking the dishwasher or walking the dog) performed best. After working on this task for a short time, participants were given a break to either do a demanding memory task, an undemanding task, or sit quietly doing nothing. One study showed how allowing the mind to wander can improve creative thinking by having participants come up with unusual uses for familiar objects, which is a commonly-used task to measure creativity. It’s these times when we move away from focused thought and let our minds wander that new ideas and solutions occur to us. Most of us have had the experience of coming up with a new idea or solving a problem when we’re in the shower, or walking the dog, or unpacking the dishwasher. There’s a reason the subreddit Showerthoughts exists. The benefits of boredom for creativity, productivity, and focus How a wandering mind can improve your creativity
