The Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review

 

November 14, 2014 Get Creative the Next Time Boredom Strikes Studies suggest that boredom can actually help you get your work – at least your creative work – done better. Boredom felt during passive activities, liking reading reports or attending tedious meetings, heightens the "daydreaming effect" on creativity and motivates people to approach new and rewarding activities. So the next time you need to dream up new ideas, start by spending some time on humdrum activities, such as answering emails, making copies, or entering data. Afterward, you may be better able to think up more (and more creative) possibilities to explore. Likewise, if you need to closely examine a problem and produce a solution, schedule that task after a routine staff meeting. By engaging in less interesting activities before problem-solving ones, you may be able to elicit the type of thinking needed to find creative solutions. Adapted from " The Creative Benefits of Boredom" by David Burkus.

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