Exhaustion kills creativity

It’s late in my work day and I am exhausted. It is almost serendipitous that I came across an article about how exhaustion kills creativity titled “Creative brains need time off” on the Creative Review blog.

We need the time and space to be able to process the ideas and stimulation that are generated through the workday. Our days are filled with rampant collaboration and idea-generation. But most of us get far too few periods for silence and reflection.

The article reminded me about Rich Mulholland’s blog post titled “The thinking gap” and his argument for creation instead of consumption:

It’s like I can’t bear to sit with my own thoughts for five minutes, whether I’m driving, working, or lying in bed – as soon as my thinking gap starts widening, I open Twitter and Facebook and fill it with other people’s crap.

Their thoughts gain strength by consuming mine.

This has to stop. We need to widen the thinking gap again, we need to resist the putty that fills our brain every time we reach for our phones.

Both articles are great reads. Perhaps not right now though, my brain is falling asleep.

Image credit: Pixabay