Take a walk and increase your creative output by 60%

The history of innovation is replete with stories of good ideas that occurred to people while they were out on a stroll. The stroll removes you from the task-based focus of modern life and deposits you in a more associative state. Given enough time, your mind will often stumble across some old connection that it had long overlooked, and you experience that delightful feeling of private serendipity.”

Steven Johnson
Where Good Ideas Come From – The Natural History of Innovation

After a period of intense struggle, get up and go for a walk. Leave your phone at your desk and walk at a brisk pace. Don’t think, just let your mind wander. Look around at your surroundings and take it all in. If you can, go for a walk in a park or in nature. Fresh air, sunlight and an increased heart rate will make you feel so much better and will help breed serendipity.

When to go for a walk?

The best time is right in the middle of your struggle. This helps bring on the Zeigarnik effect.

In 1927 Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik demonstrated that people have a better memory for incomplete than complete tasks. Once a task is finished, we stop thinking about it. But when it is interrupted and left undone, it stays active in our minds.

Adam Grant
The Originals

Stopping in the middle of a task and leaving it incomplete allows your subconscious to continue to percolate on it. You minimise the window of your struggle but it is still working in the background. It is also working in the background with more information to draw from. Too often, we take a break when a task is complete. This works well but your brain will not continue to work on it. Put the breaks on in the middle of a struggle and get out for a walk. You’ll be amazed at the difference. When you are walking, let go of thought and allow your brilliant brain to continue to do what it does best.

Another great time to go for a walk is when you need to know more about a problem or find ways to solve a problem. Genchi genbutsu is a Japanese saying made famous by Taichii Ohnofrom Toyota, grandfather of the Lean Manufacturing process, and it translates to “actual place, actual thing” or to “get out of the building and see”. Instead of trying to solve the problem from afar without all the information, get out of your seat and go see it for yourself. See the problem with your own eyes. Talk to the people who are impacted by the problem. Get the information first hand and this will lead to more informed solutions. Too often, we hide behind an email or in a meeting and work with assumptions. Seeing it with your own eyes allows you to deal in truths and this makes for better solutions.

The Release is necessary to allow your brain the opportunity to develop and grow. We have put in the hard work during the Struggle phase and now we must allow our body time to recover and grow. Creating breaks in your day or week allow you to be a better thinker and work towards getting in the optimal performance state of flow.