With over 9 million UK workers now furloughed (according to latest figures from the British Chambers of Commerce) a significant proportion of us are staying home, and trying to stay healthy to help our health service. But this enforced work pause needn’t bring our brains to a full stop. Furlough doesn’t have to mean ‘fallow’…
In fact, for anyone wanting to get generative, we couldn’t have been delivered a better ‘stimulus package’: free time, physical disconnect from work and a host of new experiences. Who hasn’t come back from an extended break bursting with bright ideas and new resolutions they’re keen to try? Granted, this is a lockdown, not two weeks in Lanzarote. But even if you’re not feeling the holiday vibe (stuck with small kids / hysterical flatmates/ your increasingly agonised id) your brain will already be reaping the benefit…
In scientific terms: Latest research links creativity to the neuroplasticity of the brain, ie the way our neural pathways flex and adapt to stimulation. The more we are exposed to new sounds, sights and sensations, the more connections are sparked inside our brains – allowing us to spark ideas and solutions. Crucially, this neuroplasticity is capable of generation and regeneration throughout our lives – we only need to stay stimulated.
In real-life terms: The simple fact of furlough is already growing your creative capacity. Forced to switch your daily commute to the kitchen, then watch your partner ‘do’ their cardio in the living room, you’re already sending up sparks! So what rewards could you reap if you actively tried to work your creative ‘muscle’?
Try these evidence-led experiments to maximise your creative ‘fertility’ in furlough, so when you do return to work, you’re primed to be your most productive.
Get yourself primed for the challenges ahead
Hunch
You may be constrained from working, but you are free to think. Gifted with time and headspace, you are more receptive to the creative power of your subconscious. (To give this some context, neuroscientist David Eagleman compares our conscious brain to our subconscious as “a broom closet in the mansion of the brain.” Stuck in the house, I know where I’d like to hang!) If you prime your subconscious by consciously reflecting on challenges you need to solve, your brain will work on them, even when you’re relaxing/home schooling the kids.
Experiments
Keep refreshing your stimulus
Hunch
We all like to huddle in our comfort zone – especially in a time of crisis – so it takes active effort to get more creative in our choices. If we actively structure time (and tech) to try new things then we’ll soon have lots of new ideas.
Experiments
Build your network
Hunch
When busy with work, it’s our human network that goes out of the window (to our detriment: research shows that people with more social ties are happier and more successful). Now finally we have time for friends – let’s use it. The more diverse – and active – you can make your network, the more opportunities and creative input you’ll reap down the line. Re-igniting old friendships and forging new ones can stimulate your way of thinking.
Experiments
Diligently Distracted
Hunch: Researchers have found that when we distract our conscious brains with something that isn’t too new or difficult (knitting, exercise, gardening, playing a video game) then our subconscious brain works on the problems we’ve set it – and comes up with more ideas, and more novel ideas. Spending time cooking dinner, painting a room or doing a jigsaw will help you put the pieces together.