Not too long ago, I wrote about being addicted to technology and how bad it is for us to be constantly distracted by our favorite gadgets. Well, maybe it's not so bad after all: research from Northwestern University suggests that in certain creative tasks, people do better if they are distracted and come up with great ideas unconsciously when they are not at all thinking about the problem they need to solve. I am sure most of us have experienced those moments of "Aha!" when we have a great idea seemingly out of nowhere. For example, I have been editing one of my lab-mates' qualifying exam this week. I spent a few hours reading and thinking about it these past couple of days, and then I was going to discuss it with her today. When I was leaving my apartment this morning to come to lab, all of a sudden I had a new idea in the elevator! I was not thinking about her or her proposal but more about whether I had everything I needed for the day with me. And there it was: a new idea. As soon as I got to lab, I wrote it down. I hope it was a good idea and I helped her with it.
In any case, I still think that being distracted by emails, phone calls and text messages all the time is not quite the same as having an unconscious moment when a creative idea can enter the mind. Maybe what's special about unconscious moments is that it leaves space for thoughts to enter while when we try hard to think about something specific, the effort is taking up so much of our brainpower that there is no room left for creativity. The conclusion: we all need breaks from thinking in order to be more creative.
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