Let’s get bored for the sake of creativity

Lately, the topic of “Creativity” keeps finding me one way or another.

What is creativity? How can it be improved? How can it be forced? How creative is someone? What does being creative mean? And so on and so forth, whether we are talking about creativity in advertising, social media, marketing, everyday life, or simply in our daily routine.

Creativity plays an important role – much too important in our lives, and let’s be honest, we often forget to feed it.

Or are we too busy to be creative?

If I look at the marketing industry, I am noticing that most specialists are chasing after impressions, engagement & action. It’s a fierce battle for the user’s eye and for that pressing of the button that hopefully leads to either a follow, a like, or in the best case, to a bank account.

And in the end, is this what creativity’s all about? Do we consummate our creativity (us- marketers, advertisers, social media managers) for the desire and the need of others?

Of course, this is the job of a man who “presents” (markets, sells, advertises, etc.) a brand: to use creativity to reach as many people as possible. And that’s what advertising means, right?

If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative! via David Ogilvy

Right?

But have you ever heard of creative boredom?

It’s that time when you simply do nothing.

That is, you are not connected to anything for a certain time period. Whether we are talking about the music in your headphones, the daily podcast, the phone conversations with your parents/friends or colleagues, the usual social media checking.

Nothing. We are simply bored and doing nothing.
Your brain, eyes, ears, and your whole body is resting. Even creative people need rest, right?

It’s interesting, because I haven’t heard anyone lately responding with “I’m bored” to the question “How are you?” -and that leads me to think that we’re connected 24/7.

Maybe as a marketer you’ll say “Well weren’t you the one saying that we should be connected all the time? Staying up to date with what’s happening on the market or knowing what the next trend is going to be? “

Yes. But not just being connected, but also living in the world and experiencing it.

Our problem is not that we’re too connected, but that we forget to disconnect from time to time.

Lately I’ve started experiencing this kind of creative boredom. I’m making my way to the office without dealing with a particular podcast, without listening to music, talking to someone on the phone or checking social media or the news. On average, it’s a 20 minute walk from my house to the office and I try not to fill my mind with information unless it’s necessary.

I admit, I don’t get bored, but I am succeeding in paying more attention to the people around me, their behavior and sometimes even to their conversations. It’s an interesting experience that I think should become normal behavior for a man who works for people.

I wanted to take the experiment forward and I’m allowing myself to get bored for a few minutes at work too. What does this mean? It means that during my job I stop what I’m doing and simply go for a 5-10 minutes walk.

Sometimes, during these walks I call a loved one, just for the sake of conversation, or to check on them.

A Stanford study from 2014 shows that walks helps develop creativity:

The study found that walking indoors or outdoors similarly boosted creative inspiration. The act of walking itself, and not the environment, was the main factor. Across the board, creativity levels were consistently and significantly higher for those walking compared to those sitting.

“Many people anecdotally claim they do their best thinking when walking. We finally may be taking a step, or two, toward discovering why,” Oppezzo and Schwartz wrote in the study published this week in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.

I don’t want to go too much into psychological or medical details, or any other foreign land to me, but I’d like to give a small warning sign to my colleagues who create every day.

Conclusion

I agree with the notion that our creativity has to be nurtured, but I do not agree with the theory that we have to be doing something every day, every hour, every moment.

And I have been the kind of person who wanted to know more and more and be more plugged in every moment of the day, but I’ve realized that I will not get very far if I keep doing it. I had moments where I snapped and I had to remove myself from all this turmoil just to pull myself together again.

So, dear readers and all those who work in a creative industry-

Don’t forget to get bored once in a while!