Unleashing the power of the mind often requires juggling multiple tasks. Explore how multitasking, contrary to popular belief, can actually spark original thinking and ignite the creative process, transforming ordinary ideas into extraordinary innovations.
Multitasking is generally seen as a stressor that reduces performance
But busy periods of juggling tasks can actually fuel our creativity
- Thanks to a “spillover effect”, the energy and excitement of hectic jobs can lead to more original idea generation
- The findings show that we can all be more opportunistic in the way we use multitasking
- Perhaps we’ll come to see our busiest moments as a force for innovation, rather than a cause of stress
- Creativity often involves tying together disparate thoughts and ideas, and that can benefit from a more diffuse mindset
- For optimum accuracy, you should devote your full attention to each activity in turn
Opportunistic ideation
Melwani and Kapadia’s final experiments aimed to tease apart this mechanism in more detail
- They surveyed 105 waiters and waitresses at their local restaurants, on both busy (Friday and Saturday) and sleepy (Tuesday and Wednesday) evenings
- The busier the restaurant staff had been, and the more they had needed to multitask during their shift, the more energized they felt
- This increased the flexibility of their thinking on the AUT and the novelty of their aliens
- Exactly the same “spillover effect” could be seen in business school students designing toys
- It is possible that the regular juggling of multiple media could lead the brain to be a bit more flexible in its thinking, he says
The more you multitask as you cook, the more creative your dishes are likely to be
Chopped
- Professional chefs are given sets of “mystery ingredients” and asked to design and cook appetisers, entrees, and desserts based on what they are given
- Cooking each dish requires a certain amount of multitasking
Experimentation
To test their hypothesis, the researchers recruited professional chefs to judge the contestants’ multitasking and the creativity of their recipes.
- The results were exactly as they had predicted: chefs who multitasked more during the appetiser round designed more original entrées, and those who multittasked more in the entrée round tended to make more inventive desserts.
