Ever get stuck on a problem and think the solution is to grind harder? Lock yourself in a room, stare at the screen, and power through?
Yeah… no. Just imagining that makes my eyes water 😢.
It’s not only miserable - it’s actively worse for solving the problem.
Here’s the counter-intuitive truth: walk away. 🚶♂️💨
Literally leave the task and come back later. And the tougher the problem, the more it benefits from that break.
But Agoston, this sounds like something you made up.
Nope. This is one of the most robust findings in creativity and problem-solving research: the incubation effect - stepping away improves solutions 🧠✨.
But Agoston, you haven’t been in uni for a decade.
Fair. So here are two solid studies from the last 10 years:
- Henok et al., 2018 - Incubation and interactivity in insight problem solving
- Gilhooly et al., 2016 - Incubation and Intuition in Creative Problem Solving
Don’t be scared by the word incubation - it’s science-speak for “leave the problem alone for a bit” 🌱.
And if you want more studies (there are plenty), just ask ChatGPT 🤖.
Originally posted on LinkedIn.