Featured Articles:

David Burkus
cSchool Faculty

Most of us have a grueling view of productivity – getting things done at work is a daunting task and its best to put our nose to the grindstone and churn it out. We hear experts tell us how to rigidly structure our calendar to make time for the serious work of completing a project or task. We are told that, when it comes time for serious work, we need to shut off our phones, close our doors and switch off our email function – better yet unplug the Internet connection entirely. While this approach may be true in certain circumstances, it’s possible that occasional, well-timed interruptions might actually enhance the quality of our work – especially when that work is creative.

A team of researchers led by Sophie Ellwood wanted to examine the effects of a short break on individual creative output. Ellwood and her team assembled 90 undergraduate psychology students and divided them into three groups. Each group was tasked with completing an Alternate Use Test – a common measurement of divergent thinking. Each group was given four minutes to think of as many possible uses for a sheet of paper as they could, but how those minutes were structured varied. The first group was able to focus on the problem for four continuous minutes. The second group was stopped at the two minute mark and asked to complete a different but similar creativity test, before being given their last two minutes to focus on the uses of paper. The last group was also interrupted, but instead of a related test, they were asked to complete the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which was considered unrelated to the creativity test.

When Ellwood’s team analyzed the results, they found that the continuously focused group actually scored the lowest, generating only an average of 6.9 ideas. The group given the other creativity test during their break generated 7.6 ideas. Surprisingly, the group that was interrupted and asked to fill out an unrelated inventory actually generated the most ideas, averaging 9.8 ideas in their four minutes.

One possibly explanation for the results is the concept of incubation, specifically the notion that, during incubation periods in creative tasks, the mind “selectively forgets” what was tried before. Often when we’re told to put our head down and focus on a task, we arrive at the same wrong solution of inappropriate options again and again. Taking a short break and focusing on something unrelated allows our minds to relax and makes it more likely that, when we return to the original work, our mind will explore new possibilities and abandon the old, wrong ideas.

In the modern world of work, interruptions are inevitable. Despite our temptation to fight against them and shut ourselves off from the world to focus, Ellwood’s research suggests that we work with our interruptions – checking emails or engaging in casual chats whenever we’ve hit an impasse and need to let our minds lose focus and gain creativity.

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Note: This article originally appeared on Creativity Post.]

“Lifelong Creativity”

Kathy Goff, EdD
cSchool Program Director

The proportion of people in the upper end of the life cycle is steadily and dramatically increasing.  Aging is one challenge of a continuous life cycle, a cycle in which growth and change are the norm from conception through all ages.  A vital component of a life filled with growth and change is the conscious effort to think creatively.  Creative thinking is a lifestyle, a way of perceiving the world, a way of interacting with others.  Living creatively is developing your talents, tapping your unused potential and becoming what you are capable of becoming.  Being creative is exploring new places, new ideas.  Being creative is developing sensitivity to problems of nature and mankind.

Creativity

Creativity is an ability too often submerged or lying dormant in many adults.  However, the creative spark remains alive and can be activated at any time.  Large numbers of older adults are inhibited from achievements that provide life satisfactions because they believe the negative misconceptions of aging.  Older adults possess many of the qualities necessary for creativity – time, accumulated experience, knowledge, skills and wisdom.
Creativity is facilitated by a healthy sense of change.  Change is like a mobile – change one part and the mobile is out of balance.  Many times people fear change or unbalanced.  However, all that it means is that the old balance has been disturbed and there is new balancing to do.  Change the way we look and act and the outcomes become different.  Creative activities give us new experiences, new ideas, new pleasures.  Torrance (1982) provided the following bits of advice:

1. Don’t be afraid to “fall in love with something” and pursue it with intensity and in depth.  You are motivated most to do the things you do best.
2. Know, understand, take pride in, practice, develop, use, exploit and enjoy your greatest strengths.
3. Learn to free yourself from the expectations of others and to walk away from the game they impose upon you.  Play the game in such a way as to make the best use of your strengths.
4. Don’t waste a lot of expensive, unproductive energy in trying to be well-rounded.  Learn the skills of interdependence, giving freely from the bounty of your greatest strengths.

Ultimately, we are the source of our experiences.  The kinds of people we are, the kinds of work we do, where we live, the nature of our relationships, our sense of happiness or unhappiness – all have their origin in ideas, images, decisions and orders we made.  Our parents, teachers, and friends played a big role in shaping our lives and influencing us.  Still, we are the ones who make interpretations and decisions about their influence.  These ideas and their related images guide our lives.