The Productivity of Distraction

There is a wonderful blog called Distractivity that focuses on the benefits of distraction to our everyday lives. These insights, sometimes scientific, can apply to lots of things, but we also take them to heart when it comes to the creative process.

One of the posts that stands out:

Harvard University researcher and psychologist Shelley H. Carson, author of “Your Creative Brain,” says distraction isn’t always a bad thing.

If you are stuck on a problem, an interruption can force an “incubation period,” she says. “In other words, a distraction may provide the break you need to disengage from a fixation on the ineffective solution.”

Carson’s studies show that not only are creative people more susceptible to “novelty,” and thus distraction, but that mind wandering itself is associated with highly creative people.

– Jan Brogan in the Boston Globe.

So does this mean we can write off the Xbox as a creative tool?

posted by Danny Davis