Sleep on it.
There’s a segment in Andy Dick’s Bush speechwriter parody right after he pinpoints topics (by throwing darts at stickies with words on them - war, taxes, muffin, etc.) “…then I sleep on them….” he says.
And at that he has the stickies scattered across his bed, then jumps on them in his Uncle Sam boxers, “…and I see what sticks…” only to awake in the morning with Post-its stuck all over his body. Bingo. A speech.
It’s a pretty funny segment in an uproariously funny video. The only part that’s not so funny is that most people aren’t this smart when they approach idea generation or problem solving.
The most prolific idea person in America totally believed in “sleeping on it.” And it led to thousands and thousands of ideas, 1042 of them patent-worthy.
I’m talking about Tom Edison, a guy who had a pretty good idea of how to come up with original ideas.
Need a big idea? Need to think something through? Whatever you do, don’t think it through right then and there. At least, not if you can help it. Sleep on it.
Distance yourself from the issue - the problem, the challenge, the opportunity - and you’re more likely to have a fresh idea than if you address it head on. You see, the direct shot usually involves this really lame creative process called thinking. Thinking with your sane, rational, therefore linear mind is in many ways the worst method to find a truly new idea. Yet it’s the method used by most people.
Of course, most people don’t think very seriously about thinking properly. Most people are actually unconscious thinkers, but that’s a topic for another blog post. Maybe 50 other posts.
In my Do-it-yourself Lobotomy workshop we have a thinking tool we call “Ask a Better Question.” I will talk about this thinking method in detail in other posts, I’m sure. But there’s a variation on this tool that I call “Ask the Question Early” which is really just another way to say, “sleep on it.”
We all ask the question early at different points in our lives. But do we take full advantage of the many benefits it provides and do it consciously and concertedly? Do we make it part of our creative process?
Here’s the proof that you already do this: do you ever get ideas seemingly out of nowhere? Of course you do. Then I guess you asked the question early. I mean you can’t come up with a solution to a problem that you’re not aware of, right? Then you practice the process.
Excellent. Now if you’re serious about coming up with great ideas, you have to be like Andy Dick and sleep on it as part of your process. I mean, why not? It doesn’t cost a dime. It saves time. (Oh yeah, lots of time. More on that in another post. Yeah, promises, promises.) And it’s one of the creative methods America’s greatest inventor used routinely.
Tom Edison took this method of ideation so seriously he had a bed in his laboratory, and he used it many times a day. He used to take naps at all hours, just so he could sleep on it more than the average never-invented-a-damn-thing shmoe. Edison was so into the sleep thing, particularly the just waking REM part, that he often used to take a cue ball to bed with him (and here’s the kinky part), holding it in his hand by his side, so when he nodded off he’d let go of the ball and it would drop to the floor, wake him and he’d be in that half-sleep state when the mind is a lot less encumbered by rational thinking. You know, like when you wake up suddenly with an image of your mailman in a ballet tutu. Accessing the imagination, friends. Your subconscious mind is very good at that.
Tom Edison knew how to sleep on it baby. “Yeah, but he was this obsessed inventor,” you might argue. And I might argue, “Yes, and you are looking to improve your creative game (I mean you are reading this, right?), so why not learn from the master?” Leave out the cue ball if that makes you feel less weird.
When we sleep on it, when ask the question early, we are letting our subconscious mind play a role. Yes, the subconscious mind where 1 + 1 doesn’t have to be 2. Where Shakespeare played when he wrote plays. Where Philo Farnsworth was when he invented the television. Where Grandma Moses journeyed to put brush to canvas. Where Captain Kirk went boldly - “where no man has gone before.” The frontier. The creative edge.
Sleeping on it doesn’t involve the same kinds of preconceptions that make most ideas so “been done.” Sleeping on it doesn’t care about boxes, inside or out. Sleeping on it doesn’t know if it can be done, if we can afford it, if the boss will like it, if it will test well or if will have great ROI. Sleeping on it just allows new ideas to emerge.
It is new ideas you’re looking for, isn’t it?
And, just in case you’re wondering. I wrote the first line of this post about a week ago. That’s seven nights of sleeping on it. When I sat down this evening. The post just kinda wrote itself.
Sleep on it. It will all make sense tomorrow.
© 2006 Tom Monahan, all rights reserved.
