{"id":11027,"date":"2016-09-27T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hatrabbits.com\/?p=11027"},"modified":"2016-09-26T19:30:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T17:30:41","slug":"creativity-is-hard-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hatrabbits.com\/en\/creativity-is-hard-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Creativity is hard work (but not harder than that)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking for creative ideas? Then surely you should not push your team too hard. Creative ideas are born out of freedom instead of hard work, right? Well… no.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When managers are looking for creative ideas, one thing they love to do is organising a \u2018feet on the table\u2019 session. A light-hearted, fun afternoon in which participants can freely fantasise about possible solutions. The idea seems to be that generating creative ideas can\u2019t possibly be serious business. Hard work, rules and structure are rarely associated with creativity. Unfortunately, this complete\u00a0misconception of creativity leads to many\u00a0wasted hours …and very few feasible ideas.<\/p>\n

Hard work<\/strong>
\nContrary to popular belief, generating creative ideas is hard work. In the advertising classic \u2018A Technique for Producing Ideas<\/a><\/span>\u2019 (first published in the 40\u2019s, but still every bit as relevant today) James Webb Young already explained why you should think long and hard when you\u2019re looking for creative ideas.<\/p>\n

You should collect information about your challenge and think about solutions until you are completely stuck. Don\u2019t give up too easily. Keep on trying to find brilliant ideas, until your head starts to hurt. Then, and only then, let go. Stop thinking about your challenge altogether.<\/p>\n

Relax<\/strong>
\nIt won\u2019t be productive to keep tormenting your brain, trying to solve the challenge. Doing so will only lead to frustration. Instead, let it go. Find something else to do. Go to the cinema, go for a stroll in the woods or do the laundry. Anything to keep your conscious mind occupied.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t do anything too demanding. The trick is to do a small and easy task. This will make sure that your unconscious mind is free to start working on the challenge, while you are consciously busy with something else.<\/p>\n

Eureka!<\/strong>
\nThe result? The famous Eureka-moment. You\u2019ve probably experienced it before; you are standing under the shower, doing the dishes or walking the dog… and suddenly it strikes you. A brilliant idea, seemingly out of nowhere. Of course it didn\u2019t come out of nowhere. It came from your unconscious mind, picking up where you left off. The moment you stopped the hard work to relax, a hidden part of you continued the process.<\/p>\n

Research<\/a> has confirmed what James Webb Young already knew a long time ago. Creativity is hard work …but not harder than that.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to know more about this curious process, known as \u2018Incubation\u2019, check out the BBC documentary \u2018The Creative Brain; How Insights Work<\/a><\/span>‘, or read the article \u20185 Steps To Reach Your Breakthrough Idea<\/a><\/span>\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like this article?<\/strong>
\nIf you enjoyed reading this, feel free to share it with your network by hitting the Tweet, Like or Share button. This way the people in your network can benefit from this post as well.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contrary to popular belief, generating creative ideas is hard work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,315],"tags":[846,94,62],"class_list":["post-11027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-creativity","category-problem-solving","tag-creative-process","tag-creativity","tag-incubation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCreativity is hard work (but not harder than that) - HatRabbits<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Contrary to popular belief, generating creative ideas is hard work.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hatrabbits.com\/en\/creativity-is-hard-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creativity is hard work (but not harder than that) - 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