Shower Mode

Who has their best ideas in the shower? *Everyone raises hand*

The shower is incubation time. It’s a time for all the ideas that have been stuck in our heads to develop and surface. Incubation is a crucial part of the creative process, but how often during your day is your mind in shower mode?

Most of the time we’re busy with x, thinking about y and just remembered we have to do z. There’s no room in there for creative thought to arise. Clear some time in your day to just sit for 5 minutes and focus on your breathing. Before you do that, write down all of your to-dos for the rest of the day. I find those are the most distracting thoughts that come up during an exercise like this. Since you’ve written them all down, you can cleanse yourself of your craving for productivity knowing you’ll accomplish them soon. Now, you’ve made room for your good ideas to develop and surface.

You don’t need to consciously think about ideas during this time. That’s not what you do in the shower. Simply rid yourself of the expectation that you are going to get something “done” in the next five minutes. Then, the changes will  happen subconsciously. Your mind has been working in the background and now you’ve cleared the space for it to be noticed.

Your great ideas are in there. Make the time to go into shower mode and let them arise.