OPEN Forum:
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.