Bear with me, because I have a theory. But then I also have something exciting to share. (I suppose you can just scroll to the bottom for that part...I'm not here to tell you how to live.)
Inspired by my colleague Robert Klara's excellent coverage of Lego global CMO Julia Goldin's presentation at this year's AMA Masters of Marketing virtual conference, I've been thinking a lot about one question:
How do we distract our brains without turning them off?
I've always felt, and especially feel in 2020, that the key to solving a creative problem is to turn down the volume on all the noise that's cluttering our brains at any given time. Coming up with big ideas is a tough task anyway, but especially so when you're anxious about your family, political turmoil, unfinished other tasks and just the pressure of self-doubts like impostor syndrome.
When I was a copywriter, I was blessed to have a very zen art director partner. He once told me: "The key to solving a problem is to first have the confidence that you WILL solve it. Then you can stop wasting mental energy on doubts and just focus on the problem."
That's harder than it sounds, though, and here's where Lego comes in.
I firmly believe play and crafts (with Lego being a perfect example of how both can overlap) are the perfect ways to muffle the noisiest parts of your brain without turning your mind off altogether.
As much as I love video games, they're not the right fit for this. They're typically too immersive and require much of your conscious mind to play. Ditto for chess or mental sharpeners like Sudoku and crosswords.
Assembling Legos (with or without kids), coloring books, painting, putting together models and similar pastimes are all great ways to relax the "head on a swivel" parts of your mind and truly think about things.
For me, yard work and cross stitch have proven especially useful in quarantine for helping me think about things we're normally too distracted to focus on.
What's your semi-distraction of choice to get past problem-solving roadblocks and hit the mute button on the anxiety-fueling aspects of daily life that cloud our creativity? Let me know at the email below or at @Griner on Twitter.
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David Griner
Creative and Innovation Editor, Adweek
David.Griner@Adweek.com
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