Creativity: Where do ideas come from?

I have a very short attention span, and I'm usually working on many projects at a time, jumping back and forth between them depending on what I feel like doing. I'll work on a quilt until I get stuck and then I set it aside and work on something else.  I get some of my best ideas when I'm in the shower, and I've been known to stay up almost all night when I have a really good book. Somehow everything all comes together in the end.

I belong to an online book club, and every day Suzanne emails me her daily column along with an excerpt from a business book. Each week there is a different book. I mostly just read Suzanne's column, but every once in a while the book is so interesting that I have to reserve it at the library or buy it so I can finish it right away. I used to subscribe to her mystery and fiction book clubs too but there were way too many good books and I am so easily distracted . . .

One of the books that I'm reading now is "The Riddle: Where ideas come from and how to have better ones", by Andrew Razeghi. I am amazed to find out that actual studies have been done that explain why I get such good ideas in the shower! Scientists have pinpointed which part of the brain is the part for creative thinking, and they have studied how the brain processes several things at once, so that you can be solving a problem that you don't even realize you're thinking about.

An example given of creative thinking is how Henry Ford came up with the the assembly line by combining practices from other industries in a new way to make cars. My Best Press bottle cover idea came about after reading Mary's suggestion to make the wine tote from my Let's Do Lunch in different sizes. Then I was looking at pictures from the Rosebud Cottage retreat - one of the quilters covered her best Press bottle with an antique crocheted cover, so of course I had to have a cute cover on my bottle, too. I guess I'm more like Henry Ford than I ever knew...

Comments

[Jackie]

Interesting! I am not sure where my ideas come from to be honest. Sometimes my head is swimming in them and I can't seem to sort them out. I am grateful for people like you who sort them out for people like me.

[pam]

I saw that crocheted cover and loved it. I think for me yours is acheivable! I don't use that spray.. I need everything unscented, but I'll find something!

Love your blog!

[Kimberly Jolly]

That looks like a great book. I might head on over to amazon.com to pick one up!