Over the past nearly three decades, I have written around 600 articles for Farm Journal and Top Producer, and about 800 commentaries for U.S. Farm Report. On all too many occasions, I have found myself staring at the computer screen or a wall or off into to space trying to come up a topic somewhat close to fresh and interesting.
This small act of creativity seems to be getting harder, and it is compounded by an increasingly troublesome factor. Good, even great, original thoughts pop into mind only to slip away if a shiny object goes by. Sadly, I suspect those may have been my better ideas.
This probably doesn’t happen to you, but if this predicament sounds familiar, I have some science you can throw at it: go for a walk. I have noticed that low level physical activity that can be accomplished by 8 brain cells helps the rest of my dwindling intellectual resources wander freely to stumble across an original thought. Noted psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly calls this a state of flow, and I think he’s on to something. Activities like tillage or sanding a wood project seem to work for me.
Recently researchers have found ways to measure this boost in creativity and identify ways to make it happen more often. It turns out maybe the best activity is walking. The formation of ideas, called ideation, is boosted by this most basic human motion.
I have been walking a couple of miles most days for years in a questionable effort for weight control and so I don’t have to fib to my doctor about exercise. The ideation research indicates I haven’t been taking advantage of all the benefits. Perhaps the biggest step has been to break myself of the habit of thinking I’ll remember the inspiration when I finish. It hasn’t been easy to stop to make a note on my phone when those gifts of insight pop up, but I’m doing better and my cerebral harvest loss is dropping. I’m also slightly more enthusiastic about doing the walking itself. Of course, the thrill of marching into a bitter wind or any kind of precipitation has long gone, so I resort to a treadmill more than I used to.
Best of all, armed with this new study about walking and ideas, I realized this isn’t a recreational device, this is a writing tool - a legitimate business expense. I am sooo deducting this baby.
