It has to do with your phone

Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives. We are always staring at these small (or meanwhile also bigger) screens, always with this blue light in the face. Every second we think we’re bored, we pull it out of our pocket just to pretend we have something to do. And even if we could actually do something useful, we’d rather waste our time in front of the rectangular box.

This has several negative effects on our creativity. Boredom is actually important to us. If we are bored, we can let our thoughts run free, we can observe our surroundings. Even if we only do it subconsciously and cannot yet derive any direct benefit from it, it may be helpful for us. Observations and experiences can give us ideas and inspiration, be it as artists, writers or software developers. An artist will get the ingenious idea of what he could represent, a writer will think what he might write about and the software developer will find that there are problems to solve. All things that could be the next billion dollar idea.

But not only the missed observations and experiences are a problem, it is also the possibility to let our brain process the recorded information. Instead of us laying in bed in the evening thinking about the past day, we’d rather scroll through our Facebook timeline to envy our friends for their lives.

You have to change that if you ever want an idea that rocks. Take more time to free yourself from the digital pastime and watch your surroundings. What’s so important on your smartphone that you can’t look at it another time? Is that even worth looking at? The latest gossip and chitchat is certainly not…

And my secret trick:

Put your mobile phone as far away from your bed as possible before sleeping, preferably in the other corner of the room! Not only does this force you to get out of bed in the morning to quiet the alarm clock, it will also make it possible for you not to be distracted so easily in the evening. This leads on the one hand to a better way of falling asleep and on the other hand to the fact that you have the chance to review your day unconsciously.