Use Mind-Wandering to Fuel Your Creativity

A semi-structured approach to unstructured brainstorming

I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering
—Steven Wright

Cultural norms tell us daydreaming is a sign of laziness, unproductivity, lack of self-control. At times, all those things can be true. But it’s totally normal and natural for the mind to wander. For a creative person, mind-wandering is vital. It’s also a sign of smarts, science has shown.

Letting your mind wander—better yet, encouraging it to wander, as I do—allows the brain to cogitate subconsciously on what you know, what you wonder about, and what you might do about it all—all without you realizing how proactive and productive you’re being.

I’ve written previously about the science of this from a general perspective:

Einstein is said to have come up with his theory of relativity while daydreaming. You may not be an Einstein, but surely you’ve experienced your own little unexpected epiphanies, those light-bulb moments when you’re not thinking about the thing you were trying to think about and suddenly the answer pops into your head. Maybe in the shower, while walking or driving, or during a workout.

Whether Einstein did or didn’t have his most profound breakthrough while daydreaming, there’s solid science showing the benefits of a wandering mind. When scientists hooked people up to brain-scanning machines and tested them on cognitive and creative skills, they found daydreaming was associated with intelligence and creativity.

“People tend to think of mind-wandering as something that is bad. You try to pay attention and you can’t,” study team member Eric Schumacher, PhD, a psychology professor at Georgia Tech, said at the time. “This isn’t always true… People with efficient brains may have too much brain capacity to stop their minds from wandering.”

However, sometimes the mind wanders for the wrong reasons. This is called maladaptive daydreaming. You’re in a bad mood, brooding or depressed, and the negative thoughts spiral. (Gee, I wonder if this ever happens to writers….). 

Inside the wandering mind

Creative mind-wandering engages parts of the brain that are also activated during mindfulness meditation, a study of brain scans earlier this year revealed. It’s called the default mode network, because it deals with “patterns of thought that happen in the absence of specific mental tasks.”

“Unlike most of the functions that we have in the brain, it’s not goal-directed,” said the study’s senior author Ben Shofty, MD, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at University of Utah Health. “It’s a network that basically operates all the time and maintains our spontaneous stream of consciousness.”

Most of the research on mind-wandering focuses on why we do it and how it happens. I’m more interested in making it happen—leveraging it for creativity. And yes, it’s possible to cultivate positive daydreaming and productive mind-wandering to a) provide a much-needed break when the creative juices aren’t flowing and b) dream up project ideas that will never emerge from intense focus.

I practice active mind-wandering often, to help me generate story ideas or broader projects, as if pulling them out of thin air. It also helps me get me out of a tough spot on an existing story or project. Sometimes I need to daydream on purpose just to clear my head and see what else might bubble up.

Me daydreaming. Or doing nothing. Probably both.

How to activate creative mind-wandering

My typical daydreaming session is pretty unstructured, but there’s a pattern to it that gets me out of the daily routine in a way that frees up my mind. The main thing is to get away from your computer and do nothing for a while (which, by itself, is good for you, science says) and let your mind go wherever it goes. If that doesn’t come natural to you, try this stepwise approach: