One of my favorite marketing blogs, Neuromarketing, recently ran a post about the positive side of daydreaming.
As blogger Roger Dooley notes, when business teams need to brainstorm a new idea, the knee-jerk action is to get people sitting down together to spend a segmented amount of time concentrating on thinking and talking about one topic until something sticks.
Don't think so hard. According to psychologist sources, daydreaming can be productive.
However according to Karina Christoff, psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, this tried and true method is not always the best approach.
It’s not that concentrated thought is a bad idea. But daydreaming, Professor Christoff suggests, isn’t as unproductive as it is said to be. In fact, daydreaming improves your creativity.
Christoff explains: After all that mind-wandering, eventually you start seeing connections that you wouldn’t have seen before, because you would never have logically allowed your mind to make those connections. Now it’s going to make them for you.”
I’m sure that most marketing experts have their own unique take on the creative brainstorming process. Few people can come up with something truly innovative by staying within the lines.
So what’s your approach?
Image source:Â http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4567659/Americans-embarrassed-by-poor-spelling-performance-compared-to-Britons.html
I am most creative over the weekend or when I’m on vacation, so I can say from personal experience that I agree with the message in this post, I am definitely more creative when I leave my brain to its own devices rather than pumping it for brilliance!
I want to make sure I’m productive as possible. I better head over to the bar for a beer and some darts. Smibs will benefit from my dedication to creative daydreaming
I am dreaming of our next app right now
Daydreaming is underrated and usually criticized by those who aren’t that creative. For me, daydreaming has been positive.
I actually find that solutions to problems I’m working on come at unusual times like when I’m doing some kind of routine, repetitive task that doesn’t require a lot of thought (like maybe washing dishes, mowing the lawn, etc).
That’s why it’s always handy to have a notebook nearby. Just in case! Make it a waterproof notebook if your ideas come to you in the shower!
I get the best ideas when I am on my bike or running out in nature – does that mean that I have to become a super athlete?
As someone who really struggles to be creative when I am making a concerted effort to focus on one item at a time, it is a comfort to know that daydreaming might be a solution. All I wonder now is if my coworkers will accept my new tactic of staring blankly into space…
@Stephanie
As long as you keep looking as good and smart as you do when you are productive, all will be fine
@ Alain Staffel
I, like the idea of the waterproof notebook
@Stephanie
Your coworkers are to busy starring off into space to notice
You can get small waterproof notebooks at Mountain Equipment Co-op.
We sure like using smiley and winkey faces in our comments