Mindless tasks that allow our thoughts to roam can be catalysts for innovation. That’s the conclusion of a research team led by Benjamin Baird and Jonathan Schooler of the University of California, Santa Barbara’s META Lab (which focuses on Memory, Emotion, Thought and Awareness).
Their research, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests putting a difficult problem in the back of your mind won’t, by itself, lead to creative thinking. The key seems to be performing some simple chore while it’s lodged there.
The researchers can’t be sure why, but they point to neuroimaging studies that suggest that, while the mind is wandering, several different brain networks interact. They speculate that this “relatively rare” state may enhance creative thinking.
But why did those stuck with a boring task do better than those who had simply rested for 12 minutes? It’s impossible to say for certain, but being free to think about anything, their minds presumably drifted somewhere else entirely—perhaps to a pleasant (or challenging) subject that occupied their entire attention.
From personal experience, there may be something to this. I used to clean restaurants and hotels after hours, and my mind would be occupied with solving programming problems. This was quite effective. It also explains why sometimes I come up with interesting ideas while having a shower or doing the gardening.