When is it a Good Idea to Have a Good Idea?

Now or tomorrow?

When is your best time to have a good idea? Maybe you’ve taken a quiz to determine if you’re a morning person or a night owl?

Although why you’d have to take a quiz to find out something that you probably already know, I have no idea?

I used to think I was a night owl. I wanted to stay awake until the early hours because I believed I got more done this way, but I’ve done a complete about-turn now and find that I get my best ideas in the morning. I prefer to sit and stare or write before the day starts properly.

When do you get your best ideas?

A few years ago, a colleague of mine presented a two-day wellbeing programme to a group of high-level executives in a corporate company. He asked the group where they got their best ideas.

A few attendees said that they got their best ideas in the shower. Nothing unusual about this answer, and my colleague was surprised when, in the debrief, the CEO asked how he could insist on the executives having longer showers in the morning to keep them insightful?

My colleague had to explain that the ideas didn’t come from the shower but from the quiet mind and fresh thought most people experience in the shower when old thoughts disappear along with the water down the plughole.

There’s no good time for a good idea. It can strike at any time, in the most unexpected places. In the middle of a crowded room. While you’re doing the dishes. Good ideas don’t care about timing.

Showering, walking, running is often when you let go of the thousand thoughts about what you have to do that day, what you said to your partner last night, how well the children are doing in school etc.

And, once you have allowed your mind to settle, there is space for a new idea.

This is also why some people like to have a pad and pen next to their bed in case they wake up in the middle of the night with the idea that has just popped into their mind, and if they don’t write it down immediately, it will have disappeared by the morning.

Of course, you could do this and find in the morning that the idea you had written down is bizarre and involves aliens, but what the hell?

There isn’t a good time to get a good idea. This is a little like trying to diarise quality time with children. If you’ve ever done this, you’ll know that your idea of the right hour to have some quality time doesn’t gel with them at all.

If you put time aside to get a good idea, it’ll be as unproductive as meditating on a problem. Although if you can successfully meditate on an issue, kudos to you.

So if there isn’t a good time to get your best ideas, where do you get your best ideas?

Where do you get your best ideas?

The best ideas often come when you least expect them. That’s why it’s important to keep your mind open to new possibilities and to be ready to act on impulse. The next time you’re stuck, try taking a break from whatever you’re working on and doing something completely unrelated. Go for a walk, take a nap or just daydream.

You may find that the best ideas come to you when you’re not actively searching for them. Are they more likely when you’re in a thought storm about something? Or when you’re walking the dog or stirring a sauce?

There is no particular place for a good idea. As we spoke about earlier, showering is often a conduit for your best ideas, but using the shower as a strategy for an idea isn’t going to work.

Nor is trying to devise a strategy like going for a walk or a drive. Sometimes these things will work, and sometimes they won’t. One person might experience a quiet mind meditating, and another will have the same experience listening to a book.

When someone looks for a place to get a good idea, they might turn to whichever guru is the flavour of the month, read a book by an expert, buy a course, or look outside for an idea. But when you fill your head with other people’s wisdom, there isn’t space for you to hear your own wisdom. So rather than looking toward others for solutions, quieten your mind and listen to yourself.

What is a quiet mind?

A quiet mind is a bit of an oxymoron, isn’t it? By definition, a quiet mind is free from thought. But to achieve a quiet mind, you first have to think about not thinking. It’s like trying to not think about a purple elephant. The more you try not to think about it, the more you think about it.

So how do you achieve a quiet mind? The answer may be more straightforward than you think: stop trying. Instead of trying to silence your thoughts, observe them without judgment. Thoughts are just like clouds passing through the sky. They come, and they go.

You know, when you have a quiet mind because of the feeling you’re in, it might be a feeling of lightness and space. It’s almost impossible to find your best idea when you recognise that your head is busy and your mind is racing.

This is because you’re not in this moment; you’re thinking about the past and the future and having imaginary conversations in your head, and you’re busy, busy.

It’s equally impossible to have your best ideas while trying hard to have them. If you’re trying to think your way out of a problem, notice what you’re using to think — yes, more thought!

You’re free to have your best ideas in the middle of a crowd, at a concert or in a field. The circumstances aren’t important, but your state of mind is.

I was amazed when I read that Shondra Rhimes says she can write anywhere, even in a busy airport, as long as she’s wearing her noise-cancelling headphones blasting out heavy rock music. But that’s when her mind quietens, and her ideas arrive.

So now we’ve established that there isn’t a good time or the right place to have a good idea. Your ability to have ideas pop up rests entirely on your state of mind.

Just like looking for your car keys, you can’t find them no matter how hard you look, but when you stop looking, they turn up right in front of you. Stop looking for a good idea and let it come to you.