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Is Nomophobia Killing Your Creativity?

Is Nomophobia Killing Your Creativity?

by Jonathan Chetcuti, Founder & COO

The always-on culture is great for increasing productivity in numbers, but what if your target is to come up with a great idea for your business? Your smartphone is costing you more than your monthly bill.

Smartphones often mean flexible working and an always-on working culture. As a result, studies show that nomophobia, or smartphone addiction, is robbing away our sleep, sanity and creativity.

Albert Einstein did not live in a world of smartphones but he knew that to generate a great idea, we need to practice mindlessness, not overthink things.

Neither did James W. Young have smartphones in mind when in 1942, he wrote a book titled ‘A Technique for Producing Ideas’, where he spoke about switching off as the vital third stage of the ideation generation process. What he meant by switching off is to drop the whole subject and simply forget about it and incubate the idea in your unconscious mind to stimulate the unconscious creative process.

Therefore, if you find yourself refreshing your emails before bed, the switching-off and consequent unconscious creative process, is harder to achieve.

Experts thus suggest that instead of worrying about the to-do list, browse visually-stimulating mediums like Pinterest, or look out the window and let your mind wander. That’s where the Big Idea is often born.

Need help generating the next Big Idea for your business? Speak to us, let’s brainstorm together.


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