Schedule A Week Unplugged
In a fabulous conversation with Adam Grant, Lin-Manuel Miranda shared a key insight his wife discovered as she observed the Hamilton writing process up close: "The best idea you had (the idea to make a musical Hamilton) actually happened when we were on vacation -- on a pool float with a margarita in your hand -- and you had a moment when your brain could kind of unplug from your day-to-day concerns and really drift."
Rather than allow that to be a loose observation without implications in their lives, the Miranda’s operationalized the insight, and turned unplugged time into a tactic to fuel creativity in the future. As Lin-Manuel says, "She just started booking us vacations. We would borrow a friend's house out of town. She'd stay the first week with me and leave me alone for a week... To me, the creativity part doesn't happen without daydreaming. In my line of work, I need to daydream."
It's easy to dismiss the tactics of wildly creative and inventive individuals, but in so doing, we fail to benefit the very tools that could set us on an unexpectedly fruitful path. For all the emphasis we place on connectivity in the workplace, it’s never been more critical to create to recover, incubate, and reflect.
Bill Gates famously takes "Think Weeks" twice a year. These have led to some spectacular advances, like Internet Explorer (I know, I know, “spectacular???” You get my point - it was indeed a timely innovation). Jeff Bezos borrowed Gates’ tactic and ended up formulating a radical new organizational model.
Why not steal the strategy ourselves?
The fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda has wielded the same tool deliberately — despite his distance from being a tech titan — only serves to reinforce the importance of such seasons in providing perspective and space to explore new territory. Maybe start with one day per week, and work your way up to a "Think Week."
I, for one, feel the need to unplug myself!
Related: Block Recovery Time
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One of the defining contributions the d.school is helping teams ask themselves, “What kind of thinking is appropriate, when?” We call such clarity being “Mindful of Process.” And it can seem like semantics until you realize we need to show up in different ways.