A cheeky title I know... But it's true that to be creative, you need to take time to step back from the day-to-day activities that consume us and build downtime into our lives...
“Downtime is an opportunity for the brain to make sense of what it has recently learned, to surface fundamental unresolved tensions in our lives and to swivel its powers of reflection away from the external world toward itself."
Raise your hand if you’ve ever solved a problem while in the shower. (I’m going to assume you’re raising your hand.)
The shower epiphany is a classic example of reaching a practical or creative solution through distraction and relaxation, rather than burning the midnight oil at your desk. To work through an issue, sometimes you need to get your mind off of it and take some downtime.