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Here’s Why You Might Be More Innovative After Lunch, According To Science

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Innovation is hard. In tech circles, you’re competing with millions of apps that probably already meet the needs of the general populace. While you want to differentiate and do something new, if you create something truly unique (I’m looking at you, TikTok) people might wonder why it even exists. A bright idea becomes a dim bulb of sameness and obsolescence when you try to build a new website, create a gadget that people will want to use, or make an app.

One mistake I’ve been making when it comes to brainstorming is that I tend to formulate plans and add flesh to the bone of a new idea in the morning. As I learned recently, I’m more of a morning person than I ever imagined.

My metabolism is wired for “getting things done” before lunch. Experts say we only have about four hours per day of hard work in us. My miracle morning leads to high productivity, and then I’m usually exhausted and need to take a nap shortly after that burst of energy (now possible during the stay-at-home period).

By the afternoon, I’m not as focused. I can’t seem to string together my words as easily, so I sometimes switch to web research or conduct interviews. I avoid brainstorming in the afternoon mostly because I want to stay focused and track all of the details. I often relegate my afternoons to more tedious work.

Recently, I spoke to a neuroscientist and book author named Shane O’Mara and, it turns out, I might be doing it all wrong.

O’Mara is a Professor of Experimental Brain Research at Trinity College Dublin and a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator. He wrote the wonderful book In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration that explains how walking can help us daydream and explore new ideas.

He mentions how there are two types of thinking — active mode and default mode. According to network studies of the brain, we now know that active more is helpful for task-oriented work (say, finishing an article) and default mode is more for daydreaming and coming up with new ideas (the next TikTok).

“It’s the idea that the core online function of the brain has these two flickering modes, one where we pay close attention to the task, sometimes called the dorsal attentional network, and it turns off the big picture network,” says O’Mara. “When you focus on the detail it is very hard to focus on the big picture. Our waking life is predominated by flickering between these states.”

During the pandemic in particular, it’s been more important than ever to be aware of this constant switching and the need to get outside and find stimulating activities.

O’Mara says we spend 30-40% of our time in big picture default mode. The flickering between states is also required for the detail work — we need to be able to step back and make sure the details match up with the bigger goals. Switching helps us evaluate a new idea as well and apply some focused thought.

“The mind focuses and defocuses regularly,” he says. “Time off the task is just as important as time on the task.”

What was eye-opening to me is that the off-loading process — finishing my task in the morning, then switching to daydream mode — might be more important than I think. For me, the morning is when I’ve always focused on details but after lunch is likely when I'm more innovative. I need to stop trying to cram brainstorming into my mornings. (By the way, Jeff Bezos does just that.)

O’Mara says my chronotype and circadian rhythm, something I wrote about recently in relation to finishing tasks, might be geared for tedious work in the morning but brainstorming and innovation in the afternoon, after my mind is worn out from all of the active mode thinking. My internal battery becomes a little depleted — my brain balks at the task-oriented work. It's time to think out of the box.

“I like writing when I’m just a little bit tired,” says O’Mara, agreeing that I might be better at brainstorming after lunch, and maybe that's true for many of us. “I feel my defenses are down a little and I can rabbit on a little more and be a little less inhibited. You have to figure out what your kind of method is during the day.”

I made a challenge for myself in that regard, that I’d start writing more creative works after lunch and see what happens. I’ll report back on the results in a few weeks.

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