Reset Your Flow State and Extend Your Creative Work Each Day

I’m recovering from surgery and the only physical thing I’m allowed is walking. Not speed walking, or long-range reconnaissance patrol walks, either; just walking.

The good news is that I’ve come to love walking because of it’s use as a creativity hack. It’s one of the most important things I do for my creativity, after sleep, reading, and creating. Top five for sure.

But you have to do it the right way or it loses its power to help you.

I’ve written elsewhere about walking as a form of meditation. This doesn’t change that. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use walking meditation if you enjoy it.

To use walking as a creativity hack, you just have to get up from whatever you’re doing and go for a walk. The less you think about it the better. Don’t make a plan for the walk, or try to connect with a neighbor for company while you walk. You pretty much drop what you’re doing and go out the door.

Granted, if you’re in charge of the kids, or have bacon sizzling on the stove top, you can’t do it. That’s no the time for this.

Free of other obligations, you take a break and walk around the block, or to the park and back, or whatever works for your situation. The idea is that you’re working on some creative effort and you either complete some unit of work, or hit a snag and you’re not sure what to do next.

If you’re in a flow state, and the creativity is pumping from your brain to the desk through your hands, don’t you dare take a walk. When you’re in flow state, you ride it until it stops.

When flow state breaks, you take a walk.

Walking alone, just you and your footsteps, gives your brain a chance to calm down. The low-key stimulation (assuming you don’t live on Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn) and rhythm of your feet on the pavement allows your subconscious a chance to catch up with you.

If you listen to music, a podcast, or a book, you’ll take in information, and your mind will be dealing with it somehow, if only conjuring up old memories, and having new ideas. That’s fine, but it won’t be a hack for your current creative project.

What you’ll find is that you return refreshed, the challenge of your creative project still on your mind, and either a solution to your problem in your mind, or a refreshed energy to work yourself back into a flow state.

Keep walking shoes and a hat at the ready, and a jacket as needed. You probably have this already in a closet by one of the doors. That’s all you really need. When you need a break from a creative project, go to that closet, put on this minimal gear without a lot of fuss and head out the door.

If you live with someone, just say, “Going out for a few.” Don’t tell them it’s a walk, don’t tell them why you need to go out. In an ideal situation they’ll think you’re gassy and need to do some crop dusting.

Don’t even take a notebook to jot down ideas. That’s too much pressure. If you do have a great idea, return home immediately and keep repeating the idea aloud until you’re back at your desk.

The question of how long should this walk be? I’d say at least five minutes, but no more than twenty. Five gives your brain a chance to reset. More than twenty becomes like exercise, and your subconscious may move on to other things. (Adjust to your ability; fifteen minutes might be your limit before it seems like exercise.)

That’s it. Keep it simple, and see how it brightens and extends your ability to create on any given day.