This spewed forth from my mind just now so I decided to put it out here…
*Best thinking is not done when you are staring at paper holding a pen. It’s done when you’re not really expecting it. When you’re relaxed and your senses are on autopilot. My best thinking is done in bed when I am not far away from sleep.
Never put a plan on paper or carry it out until all the important bits have been worked out and refined during those times when you are in a state of physical relaxation and your mind is doing it’s best, freeest, most efficient, most rapid and most constructive thinking.
Clever solutions can come in times of stress, pressure, bombardment of the senses. But the most elegant solutions come when you are in your true best thinking state - when you are relaxed and your mind is free to work unhindered by guilt, ego, self-concience, distraction and/or anxiety.*
of course it helps to have pen and paper (or in this case a wireless enabled PDA) handy to get the ideas out before you forget them.
Feel free to share your insights on best thinking states… In fact please do share. Help make this a hive-mind of how best to think.
I do that quite a lot–something suddenly strikes me and I whip out my Palm and start writing it down. Of course, whether or not it survives my frustrating wrestling match with Graffiti 2 is often another story; if anyone’s curious, I’ll see if I can dig up some of the things I’ve thought about this way.
Once upon a time, when I had the leisure to do such things, my best thinking was done at night. Very late at night, often well into dawn. It was quiet, no interruptions or distractions, no bright sunlight, just peace and quiet so I could think and work stuff out. Coding, writing, composing, whatever, I always did it best at night.
EXACTLY. I start mulling a problem, do other stuff and let it kind of steep in the back of my mind and then during a walk or the shower it just comes to me. Then I release the flying monkeys and get those shoes back.
I liken active thinking to sailing on the ocean–you’re moving, you have a destination in mind, and you’re in a largely static environment. Relaxed, semi-passive thinking is more like floating in the surf–you’re still moving, but not necessarily heading anywhere, and there’s no telling what the next wave will wash up in front of you.
In that relaxed state, I find that odd things–scenes, characters, bits of dialogue, snatches of music, and the like–simply pop into my mind. Some of those near-random impressions strike a chord, and I file them away in the back of my mind for later use.
A lot of my most elegant technical ideas, on the other hand, come when I’m under pressure, but also relaxed. It’s a peculiar mental state I occasionally shift into when I’m in crunch-mode. The pressure, speed, and excitement stay, but all the distracting parts of the strain go away. If I’m working with someone, I start talking very fast, asking questions and answering myself, stepping through the logical/creative process. My movements speed up, too–typing, tapping things into a calculator, everything.
It’s not so much Zen as the intellectual equivalent of a berserker fit.
My high school drama teacher did a lot of philosophizing. One of his favorite topics was “inspiration.” I.e. how do we get inspired; whence does creativity arise; where do good ideas come from…
He had it boiled down to a simple alliterative phrase: bed, bath, and bus.
Like the OP says, states where you are relaxed and open to mental wanderings. States that, by their nature, require you NOT to be intensely focused on a specific task.
Bed: Duh. Bath: Includes the shower and toothbrushing, etc. The routine is so fixed that you need devote little mental energy to it, freeing your mind to wander. Bus: Well, what he meant was really “commute,” but that doesn’t start with B. When you’re driving to work/school, again, you’re forced to spend time in a situation that requires little mental focus, allowing you to muse/ponder/ruminate.
I often come up with an idea for my thesis or for a song or what have you when I’m on the bus or wandering through town. I usually take a small note on my mobile phone.
Along with the typical situations (almost asleep, walking), my thinking time tends to cut heavily into my reading time. I’m an incredibly slow reader, the sole reason for which being that I get distracted by my own thoughts very easily, even if I’m really interested in whatever I’m reading. And there’s always an earworm ready to underscore my thoughts. I am my own entertainment.
It would be cool if people expanded on their insights for best thinking states… Such as giving anecdotes.
Anyway - Toilet. I would like to add toilet to the list. Sometimes I can still be sat on the toilet long after the purpose of being on it has been fulfilled - thinking through a subject.
And the Bath. I don’t have baths, but I do sit in an ‘empty’ bath to shower myself. The number of times I’ve been lathering soap into a leg and my mind has been somewhere else entirely.
I agree. Slightly stoned, nearly asleep.