If you’re like me sometimes you get writer’s block…but for everything. It’s hard to come up with new ideas for your business, things to keep your kids entertained, maybe you have an artistic hobby.

I read the coolest study a few months ago by a professor who focused entirely on the science of being creative. Apparently, your brain has two “mindsets”. There’s a logical creative mindset, where you think through things in a progressive, strategic way.

Then there’s a creative mindset, where you lose track of time, get absorbed into what you’re doing, and new ideas just flow.

The hard part is getting your brain to switch in-between the two mindsets.

Turns out, the easiest way to switch into the creative mindset is when you’re really, really, really bored. This study had people read out of a phone book, and then tested them on their creativity. The people who had to read out of the phone book all scored higher than the control group that didn’t.

So there you go. It’s good to be bored sometimes.

After learning about this, I wanted to try it out, see if it really worked. Every morning while I eat breakfast, I normally read from phone. I decided instead of that I was going to do…nothing. I was just going to sit there, stare at my bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios wondering if Buzz was friends with the guy from the Bee movie, and eat.

And ya know what? Really good ideas started popping into my mind; an idea for a church activity coming up, a birthday present that I needed to get my sister, an idea for a blog post. It really worked!

So there you go, if you’re stuck on something, get bored to get creative.

Have a great week!