Come Up With Innovative Ideas–By Sleeping
Have you ever solved a gnarly problem after sleeping on it? I know I have. In fact, I’ve been known to sit down before bedtime and review a particularly challenging problem, just to tee it up for my mind to “work” on overnight.
An important part of developing creative ideas is to “incubate” the beginning crumbs of your ideas. You have to allow your subconscious mind to work on them, and to do that, you have to quell your conscious thought on the problem. As he says, “you can’t listen if you’re talking.”
So instead of sitting down at a desk and saying ‘I’m going to solve this problem’ you stop trying to make a conscious effort to solve it. You sleep on it. You go for a walk. You pause your conscious thinking about the problem. That in turn allows your subconscious to go to work.
Photo by Sunchasers.
Jaclyn Wells on September 27th, 2009 2:56 pm
I personally think it is a great idea to “sleep” on problems, ideas and more. It has been proven for many of years that the mind work’s in wonderful ways while sleeping, i mean think about it…what else is a better time then to solve a problem or come up with an idea than in your sleep? You are the most at rest when sleeping and there for able to think much clearer.
Angela on September 28th, 2009 4:34 am
I “sleep on it” a lot. Any problem I have usually gets worked over while I am sleeping. It’s much easier to sleep on something then come back with a fresh perspective, than it is to struggle for a solution on the spot.
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