Go on an idea walk

A surefire way to boost creativity

Do you need to come up with a lot of ideas? It can be hard to be creative on demand. But there is one technique that I have found to be quite effective.

That’s to go on an idea walk.

An idea walk is a little different from a normal walk. The goal is to let your mind wander. Ideally you go in with a particular problem you are trying to solve but you occupy your conscious mind just enough to let the problem-solving run in the background.

There really is a Goldilocks spot of how to make this work. First, you can’t be physically uncomfortable, so you need good shoes and weather that’s reasonably cooperative. I do get ideas on runs, but I get more on walks, because I’m not working quite as hard. At some point on a longer run, my mind shifts from problem solving to thinking that I’d really like to stop running.

You can’t be too distracted — so no podcasts. No companions unless you are solving a problem with someone else. No completely new routes where you might get lost so you have to pay close attention to your surroundings.

On the other hand, you can’t be under-distracted. I’ve found that walking on a treadmill doesn’t work because it’s too boring. Inevitably, I have to listen or watch something to make it tolerable, and then that doesn’t allow sufficient mind-wandering.

And then the final key — you need something to record your ideas. I do take my phone but the goal is not to look at it except to email myself.

An idea walk doesn’t have to be long but I would budget at least 30 minutes. That might feel profligate, but staring at a computer screen isn’t particularly productive either. In one version of wasting time, at least you get some steps in!

In any case, you might try it as an experiment. Go on two 30-minute idea walks this week and see what happens. Do you come up with anything interesting? If so, I’d love to hear about it. Let me know in the comments!