Quitting isn't lazy - it's your creative superpower
CreativeRx: Why creative "work" doesn't look as linear as we're taught; AI isn't the productivity-saver we've been promised; a peek into Field Notes šø
PSYCH! CREATIVE THINKING DOESNāT COME FROM āHARD WORKā š¤Æš«
As much as we all hate to admit it - we are obsessed with looking busy.
With feeling busy. With filling our plate with meetings, to doās, even hobbies that end up becoming more of a chore than a restorative outlet.
I know, of course, that this isnāt always by choice. Our world is structured to make us endlessly available: Systems, workplaces, families, even our own personal well-being constantly demands more, more, more.
When I say I am constantly thinking about this tension - our robotic, almost obsessive hamster wheel - Iām frankly under exaggerating. And, itās not only because I reject the premise of it with every fiber of my being. But as a Creative Health Scientist, it weirds me out.
When are we going to realize that constant ābusynessā goes against everything we know about how our creative brain really works?
CreativeRx is your dose of creative thinking in an exhausting world. Every week, I share observations on how creativity, play, and wonder interact with the world - think of it as a peek into my brain as a Creative Health Scientist.
Iām personally in a busy season of my life, but Iām trying to approach it differently than I ever have.
So, last week, I decided to give myself a creative challenge. A mini act of rebellion in an endlessly productive, depleting world: Purposely quit something.
I knew if it was really going to mean something, in my case, it couldnāt be something silly. It needed to be meaningful. Painful even. I wanted to really feel the impact of it.
So, I chose something casual (!); something tied to my income, āsuccess,ā my personal fulfillment. I didnāt write last weekās newsletter - something Iāve been religiously sending every Sunday for over a year.
Not because I was unmotivated or uninspired.
Because I wanted to see what came up when I wasnāt consistently producing, exporting or optimizing. I wanted to see my creative brain work in action.
At the core of what I discovered lies what first got me obsessed with creativity in the first place: Our creative brain literally cannot think creatively at the same time as itās executing tasks.
Thatās because our brainās Default Mode Network - the birthplace of where creative ideas are born - requires literal space to come online. And when weāre in execution mode (producing, optimizing, grinding) your DMN shuts down.
Even more, when neuroscientists study what happens in our brain during creative breakthroughs, they see the DMN light up during incubation periods - the time in between active work. Not during it (*this is exactly what we will dissect in our next Field Note, btw!).
Which means: Quitting isnāt lazy. Itās not even just an act of creative resistance. Itās where our creative brilliance comes online.
When we stop producing, our brain finally has space to make the connections youād never be able to force through effort.
The coolest part about my own experiment is that it actually did generate new ideas. Youāll see them sprinkled throughout this newsletter, our About page and next weekās Field Notes (fka Deep Dives!).
But, they didnāt come to me while sitting in front of a computer - forcing myself to ābrainstorm.ā They popped into my head during an Awe Walk. While looking out the window daydreaming. Before I was falling asleep. In the space, moments and time in between what weāre supposed to value as āwork.ā
That is when our Default Mode Network comes alive. Where our creativity runs wild. Where our brain actually has room to connect the dots that donāt āmake senseā on the surface - during the in-between moments we often categorize as āwastedā time.
So, this week, try running your own quitting experiment. Report back with what you notice! And remember: Even if everyone else thinks itās lazy, our community here doesnāt.
Weāre building a new world where creativity - not busyness - is the ultimate goal.
You in?
From my brain to yours,
Katina, Creative Health Scientist & Daydreamersā Co-founder + Chief Science Officer
Tell me what you think: Did this resonate? Comment below or hit reply - I read every response š«¶š½
New research paper that shows AI makes us work more, not less (HBR): I think we all could have called it - this 8-month study found that AI tools consistently intensified work, not reduced it in all the wrong ways: more multi-tasking, less boundaries. Definitely worth a skim (and a long ponder).
āThe breakthrough of ideas come from some depth below the level of awarenessā (pg. 55, Courage to Create): Thereās psychology behind the āCreative Incubation Period.ā Itās not random - itās been well documented for decades in psychological research and now through fMRI studies that measure brain activity. Rollo May outlines the early science beautifully in his 1975 book (one of my fav creativity reads).
Trend: Why does it feel like Hustle Culture is back in full force? šµāš« Iāve been hearing the rumblings of what feels a (new) breed of hustle culture talking shape - bragging ab 80+ hr work weeks, 6-6-6 culture. It feels like weāre back in 2014 (not in a good way). Are you noticing it, too? If so, what do you think the counter-reaction is/will be? Iām personally feeling a creative rebellion on the brinkā¦
Things might look a little different around here š Field Notes (fka āDeep Divesā) is the behind-the-scenes world where Iām shaping the field of Creative Health in real time - and how we all interact with it.
This month, weāre exploring a topic that feels both incredibly urgent and deeply fascinating: Thinking as a (radical) Creative Act.
As creative, critical thinking becomes one of our most important assets - I want us all to understand the entire process of how our brain forms thoughts, makes connections and develops opinions in a world that's constantly demanding us produce, optimize, and outsource our thinking.
The questions I'm exploring this month center around:
How do we actually come up with creative ideas? (yes, thereās a real cognitive process everyone can follow)
How do we restore our creative brain in an attention-seeking, endlessly producing world?
How do we formulate real opinions - not just copies of trends?
How do we stop outsourcing our critical thinking to machines - and what happens when we do?
If any of these pique your interest and you want to shape what I research next: Reply to this email or comment below with a question/idea on our creative brain, thinking and ideating.
(BTW - last month, a member asked why me creative breakthroughs happen in the shower. That became our next 2,000-word deep-dive on incubation periods. Your questions really do become my research agenda š§ )
