What's In Your Unique Marinade?

Back out now if you're looking for a sensible recipe for your dinner.

How often do you add new flavours into your unique marinade? The magical part of the brain that holds all the juicy ideas and that stores up all the random things you encounter throughout daily life (very scientific).

I mentioned in my post about 'idle time' that it's important to spend time with ideas and with our creative tools nearby to allow the brain space for new ideas to develop and come to the surface.

This time, I'm thinking about the information that we feed into our brains before they get to work.

Think of an overnight oats recipe or a tasty marinade (bear with me on this one)... As you move around in your world, you collect tasty flavours from your unique hobbies / interests / likes / journeys / environment. You pop these ingredients into your mason jar of a brain and then you pop it in the fridge (your subconscious brain) to work it's magic. After a bit of time, you have a tasty breakfast or marinade that's 100% unique to you. This tasty marinade can help to flavour (not sorry) your creative problems and help to spark new ideas.

I'm a firm believer that the more random the flavours you smush together, the more exciting the marinade will be.

Sometimes if I'm really stuck and can't make an idea work, I'll pop it back into the 'jar' to collect some extra flavour, usually when I start to think about something else, an idea will pop up.

(Is it obvious that I was hungry when I was writing this?)

What ingredients do you have in your marinade? Horse riding? Jazz music? Your favourite part of the M56? Victorian Architecture?

________________________________________________________________________

More Interesting bits:

Blog post by me : How Important Is Idle Time?

Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction by Chris Bailey

Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide by John Cleese

More random food and creative ideas related chat happens monthly in my Round Ups - sign up to get these straigh to your inbox.

Is 'Idle Time' Important To The Creative Process?

Our Busy World

In our busy world where you could and probably feel like you should be doing something to achieve your absolute best, is it possible to find the time and space to switch our brains off from the noise? And why would that be important to the creative process?

'Idle time' and 'Productive Meditation'

I first heard of the idea of 'idle time' from singer James Bay on the Diary of a CEO podcast (9 mins in). Being creative whilst doing nothing sounds a bit like cheating the system- tell me more!

Bay talks about how to 'sit around with the tools nearby and just exist... and think... and dream... and play.' Gaining permission to make that creative brain space in our busy day to day life.

In another way, Cal Newport talks of 'productive meditation' in his book Deep Work. To sit and purposely thinking about an idea, whilst giving it the attention and space to develop. At the same time, being aware of when your attention drifts away, so that you can pull it back to the problem you were trying to solve.

Whether you decide to take your ideas out for a walk or sleep on them to come back with fresh eyes in the morning, letting go of the guilt of 'not doing anything' is sometimes easier said than done.

Be 'Weird' About It.

In 2008 (just before smartphones and Facebook became as widely used as they are today - in 2023) Finnish artist Pilvi Takala created an art installation called The Trainee. The artist spends time at a desk 'doing brain work'- to her colleagues it looks as if she's seemingly not doing anything at all and that starts to make them uncomfortable. The installation quietly threatens social norms and questions how 'masking laziness in apparent activity and browsing Facebook during working hours belong to the acceptable behavioural patterns of a work community'.

Taking part in your idle time might just question social norms, it might frustrate others that you're not doing something in particular. Guard this idle time and be weird about it. Try to get as much of it as you can, it's very important to the creative process.

Do you have a favourite place or time to squeeze in some idle time? In the car? On the bus? In the bath? Just in the middle of the afternoon, in your favourite chair, just because you can?

If you have a friend who might enjoy this kind of discussion, feel free to share this with them or if you have any thoughts on this subject please do leave a comment or drop me an email. To keep up with the latest blog posts, join my monthly round up here.

______________________________________________________

More interesting bits:

Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less book by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the attention economy book by Jenny Odell

The Guardian article by Elle Hunt. 'Jenny Odell on why we need to learn to do nothing: ‘It's a reminder that you're alive’

Creativity, book by John Cleese

Pilvi Takala Challenging more social norms in The Stroker

'Single-Tasking'

(audio coming soon)

A busy brain jumping from one thing to the next. Walking the dog and listening to a podcast and Googling something whilst avoiding that puddle. Eating a meal and watching something on Youtube and writing a shopping list whilst watching the neighbour outside. I'm guilty of these things, you'll have your own set of favourites to juggle. Simply put, doing all of the things, but not necessarily doing any of them well.

We've become accustomed to cramming more and more into our day either by allowing distractions in or actively adding more to our list in search of being 'productive'. BUT none of that really helps our attention span. Frustration kicks in when we're working on something important or creative for longer than 5 minutes and it all seems like an impossible task.

I heard of the term 'single-tasking' in Paul Jarvis' book A Company of One and now I can't un-hear it. Where meditation is to bring your attention back to your breath, single-tasking is to bring your attention back to just one task. It sounds stupidly obvious... and it is. Sticking to it long term is where the real work is done.

Have you ever been in the car and you can't concentrate on the road names or house numbers because the music/radio is too loud? Think of the mental clutter and noise, turn it right down and allow your brain the space to think, if you make enough space, your brain can wonder off a bit too - and if you're extra lucky, you might be rewarded with an 'ah-ha!' moment.

Where do you have your best thoughts? The shower? Driving somewhere familiar in the car? Doing the washing up?

More on being productive:

4 Hours. An Experiment

Is There A Better Way to Use A To-Do list?

____________________________________________________________________________

If you have a friend who might enjoy this kind of discussion, feel free to share this with them or if you have any thoughts on this subject please do leave a comment or drop me an email. To keep up with the latest blog posts, join my monthly round up here.