Name: How boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas
Uploaded: 2017-08-15T14:47:23Z
Duration: 16 min 3 s
Description: Do you sometimes have your most creative ideas while folding laundry, washing dishes or doing nothing in particular? It's because when your body goes on autopilot, your brain gets busy forming new neural connections that connect ideas and solve problems. Learn to love being bored as Manoush Zomorodi explains the connection between spacing out and creativity.

Do you sometimes have your most creative ideas while folding laundry, washing dishes or doing nothing in particular? It's because when your body goes on autopilot, your brain gets busy forming new neural connections that connect ideas and solve problems. Learn to love being bored as Manoush Zomorodi explains the connection between spacing out and creativity.

How boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas

Journalist, host of NPR's "TED Radio Hour"

Periods of boredom give the brain space to connect ideas and solve problems, leading to creative breakthroughs. When every spare moment is filled with phone time, opportunities for deep thought disappear. In one experiment, 20,000 people tried reclaiming their idle moments and found they slept better, felt happier, and gained clarity. Even a six-minute reduction in daily phone use helped people transform their relationship with technology and rediscover inspiration.