Keeping the left brain distracted aids creativity – honest!

The other night one of my deep suspicions was confirmed by the ‘father of advertising’ himself. In a biographical TV program David Ogilvy was talking about how great ideas for copy headlines often came to him while he was doing the garden or walking the dog – in fact, anywhere other than sitting in his office.

I’ve often experienced this myself with some of my most productive creative sessions occurring while driving on a long journey, ironing an unending stack of shirts or out on the golf course. The strapline or product name you’ve spent hours brainstorming just suddenly breezes right into your head like the answer to a crossword clue.

But that’s the way it is with your right brain, the creative and artistic, non-logical side. It doesn’t respond obligingly with creative solutions when you tackle it like you do Sudoku – methodically working through the options until you narrow them down to the logical and correct answer. Oh no, it sits there metaphorically drumming its fingers on the desk until you give the left brain something simple to do, like weeding or chopping up garlic or taking Fido out to do his stuff, THEN it zips into action. It’s as if it’s been dying to show off in front of its dopey sibling.

Of course this gives creatives the golden excuse to toddle down to the pub in order to come up with the next campaign theme, but now that I’m allowed a bit of creative slack myself I can see their point. I sigh with desperation when clients announce that the new product naming session will take place by brainstorm at nine in the morning in their stuffy meeting room that kills imagination as soon as you enter. It’s soooo much more productive if you put everyone in a completely new space, preferably one with plenty of distraction (a cross-Channel ferry works a treat), don’t start before at least eleven in the morning and if it’s late in the day feel free to pep things up with a tincture or two.

Creativity can’t be switched on and off. It needs to be invited in like a wild animal with little treats to tempt it and no sign of the noisy left brain to scare it away. According to one of the apps on Facebook I’m a left-brain type – scarily so, but I guess that comes with the territory of also being a Completer Finisher. Being right brained sounds so much more fun, but they need people like me to look after them

No wonder that old people are encouraged to play Sudoku to keep Alzheimer’s at bay rather than playing right-brained crosswords. It’s not a great outlook for your old age if you decide to cross the road now just because the idea sprang into your head from nowhere like a crossword solution.

BTW – it’s nearly 9.00pm, I’m sitting here with a glass of wine and I’m enjoying writing this. To do it in the morning would be torture and take twice as long.