Building Better Breakthroughs

Most of us know the feeling. You step away from a hard problem, and the answer just shows up. What I didn’t know is that some kinds of breaks work better than others.

It turns out a light, easy activity can even beat resting. Switching to another demanding task, on the other hand, can shrink the benefit. That’s the takeaway from a meta-analysis of 117 studies on breaks and problem solving.

In the studies, 'light' meant things like reading or drawing. Video games counted as 'demanding'.

It’s a fascinating twist on what psychologists call the incubation effect, and it may explain why some of our best ideas show up while we’re folding laundry.

For marketers, this has some interesting implications. Whether we're developing a new campaign, refining a brand's positioning, or trying to find just the right message, creative breakthroughs don't always happen while we're staring at the problem. Sometimes stepping away is part of the process

Want better odds of a breakthrough?

Put in a solid effort up front. The break paid off more when people had wrestled with the problem longer beforehand. So think long and hard, and then let the laundry finish the job.