By Sue Shellenbarger
- Dana Brownlee figured out how to add more time for “aha” moments into her busy day.
Many people get their best ideas at unpredictable times, as this week’s Work & Family column shows – in the bathtub, driving home or sipping whiskey late at night in the office.
But those who juggle numerous work and family roles face an added obstacle, research shows: All the multitasking they do tends to block out new ideas.
Managing multiple tasks at the same time requires a lot of working memory and “executive control” – the ability to direct and focus your attention, says a 2010 study in the journal Intelligence. But working memory and the ability to focus actually work against the cognitive processes that generate light-bulb moments, says a 2012 study at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“Too much focus can actually harm creative problem-solving,” preventing the diffuse, open thinking required to come up with new approaches and novel connections, the study says. Multitaskers may have to work harder than others to block out time for the daydreaming, exercise or mind-wandering that generate “aha moments,” the research suggests.
Dana Brownlee, a mother of two preschoolers and a corporate trainer and speaker, gets many of her best ideas jogging, showering or sleeping. Last fall, she knew she needed a light-bulb moment. She was feeling overwhelmed by all her roles – “wife, mother, entrepreneur, friend, sister, keynote speaker, consultant, corporate trainer, etc.,” says Ms. Brownlee, president of Professonalism Matters.
The solution was probably lurking in her subconscious mind, Ms. Brownlee says, but it didn’t emerge until she broke away to take a run. She frequently made contracts with her clients, defining boundaries and responsibilities, she says. And “as I started my jog, it just hit me almost like a bolt of lightning,” she says: “Stop and make a contract with yourself. Decide what you will do and what you won’t do, and let everything else go,” she says. She ran home and jotted down a five-point list of priorities that have guided her ever since, including “family trumps work” and “don’t sweat the small stuff.”
The list, which she calls “the Mommy Contract,” has helped her stick to a principle she believes in, she says: “First, decide what’s important. Then, live a life that reflects that.” Since she wrote it, she has been picking up her children, ages 4 and 18 months, from school almost every day; spending weekends with her family instead of running errands, and taking family vacation time every other month.
Readers, when or where do you get your best ideas? Does your juggle help or hinder your creativity?
