Why Distractions are Good for Creative Thinking

A study was recently published featuring distractions and their impact on creative thinking. The study found that "your optimal productivity times are actually suboptimal when you need to use your brain in new and different ways," according to the article on Lifehacker.

This is because when people are focused, they have more difficulty thinking outside of the box, but when slightly distracted your mind is more open to new ideas. Participants in the study were more successful in solving insight problems when slightly distracted than they were when focused.

So if you're having writers block, or can't come up with a solution to a problem you've been working on for a few days, try going somewhere where you have a few simple distractions to improve your creativity!


To see the full article from Lifehacker, click here.
To see the Scientific American article featuring the published study, click here.

Image via quite-rightly.