Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to get new ideas. Everyone
Speaker 1: likes to talk about innovation as this big, fancy concept,
Speaker 1: but if you think about it, innovation just means coming
Speaker 1: up with new ideas, preferably lots of new ideas. Because
Speaker 1: creativity turns out to be a numbers game. Some stuff
Speaker 1: will work and some stuff won't, so we've got to
Speaker 1: throw a lot of stuff at the wall to see
Speaker 1: what sticks. But very few people build much thinking time
Speaker 1: into their lives. Instead, most of us spend our days
Speaker 1: responding to emails, tramping to status meetings, and leaving precious
Speaker 1: little time open. Then we wonder why our brains feel
Speaker 1: so fried. Unfortunately, the cycle of reactivity is incredibly counterproductive.
Speaker 1: By responding to everything immediately, we don't carve out the
Speaker 1: space to come up with the ideas that make people
Speaker 1: want to email us in the first place. Some people
Speaker 1: might be able to go off into a it in
Speaker 1: the woods for months at a time, but I think
Speaker 1: most of us need to come up with more realistic
Speaker 1: ways to build strategic thinking into our lives. Fortunately, there
Speaker 1: are simple steps we can take to get our brains
Speaker 1: into churning mode quickly. In my time management fable Juliette
Speaker 1: School of Possibilities, Riley, the heroine comes up with her
Speaker 1: career saving idea while she is biking on the boardwalk.
Speaker 1: She's so busy, but she's reluctantly pulled herself away from
Speaker 1: her inbox. Then, almost by magic, she figures out an
Speaker 1: answer that had eluded her before. That scene is fiction,
Speaker 1: but I wrote it because it feels so true to life.
Speaker 1: How many of us get our best ideas while driving,
Speaker 1: or in the shower, or while hiking or biking somewhere.
Speaker 1: I can sit at my desk and feel like I'm
Speaker 1: banging my head against the wall for hours, But then
Speaker 1: I get up and go run. I don't listen to music.
Speaker 1: I just let my mind go, and I almost can't
Speaker 1: stop the ideas from coming. Indeed, I figured out a
Speaker 1: lot of the major points for Juliet's School of Possibilities
Speaker 1: while I was running around my neighborhood. The key is
Speaker 1: creating space in our lives. When we aren't in reactive mode,
Speaker 1: our minds are free to wander. Then our brains prove
Speaker 1: pretty smart. They wander into some amazing places. So figure
Speaker 1: out how you might build in some brain breaks into
Speaker 1: your life today. Maybe after you're done listening to this podcast,
Speaker 1: you don't listen to anything else in the car. In
Speaker 1: the silence, you let your thoughts go where they will.
Speaker 1: Or when you find yourself stumped at work, you get
Speaker 1: up from your desk and go walk outside. I'd say
Speaker 1: don't bring your phone but you might need it to
Speaker 1: send notes to yourself about all the great ideas I
Speaker 1: promise you're going to get. And here's the thing. Our
Speaker 1: brains are creatures of habit, like anything else. If you
Speaker 1: go into each bike ride or shower thinking I get
Speaker 1: my best ideas here, then your brain will start doing
Speaker 1: what it knows to do, and soon you'll find yourself
Speaker 1: feeling very innovative, or at least cleaner and in better shape.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's b E the number four then Breakfast Pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot Com that before breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch