A Repeatable Process to Get More Creative (Note, You'll Be Naked)

“Eureka!” screamed Archimedes, the Greek mathematician, and physicist, when he realized the level of water in the bath increased as he had got in. What Archimedes discovered was a method for measuring the volume of irregularly-shaped objects.

In 1990, NASA engineer Jim Crocker was taking a shower in a German hotel. Suddenly, he noticed a showerhead mounted on adjustable rods. It was an “Aha!” moment when he realized how to fix the Hubble telescope’s distorted lenses.

Many famous writers have admitted writing their best thoughts while soaking in tubs. Woody Allen, an American film director, once said:

“In the shower, with the hot water coming down, you’ve left the real world behind, and very frequently, things open up for you. It’s the change of venue, the unblocking the attempt to force the ideas that’s crippling you when you’re trying to write.”

Now, let me ask you if you’ve ever come across creative ideas in the shower or a tube?

Let me confess, a lot of my fabulous blogging ideas were born when I was in the shower. It sounds ridiculous, unbelievable, and bizarre to be true. I thought I drove crazy managing my full-time job and side hustles. However, the more I experienced a creative flow in the shower, the more I started to think there should be a scientific explanation for my weirdness.

According to the study conducted by the cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, 72% of people get creative while in the shower. Over 4,000 people aged from 18 to 64 from 8 different countries took part in his experiment. Scott Barry Kaufman wrote in his book later:

“It’s both surprising and fascinating to learn that people are more creative in the shower than at work. These findings reinforce existing research on the importance of relaxation for creative thinking.”

Science has already found answers to the magic bath effect. Here is what causes creativity uplift explained in simple words.

What Causes Creativity Boosts In the Shower?

You might have noticed that the more you push your brain to develop ideas and solutions, the longer it takes you to solve your challenges.

Deep work consumes the most energy because it’s not a routine task your brain can do unconsciously. Your brain’s frontal cortex has to work hard to produce creative ideas, do programming, create business plans, and draw masterpieces.

Researches claim creativity is incubated when your brain is not noisy; it’s relaxed and in peace. When your mind is clear, your body produces the dopamine hormone, which positively affects your mood. Relaxing activities like listening to music, walking in the park, taking a shower lead to dopamine generation. Once your mind comes down, it wanders freely and can come up with absolutely random ideas.

There is an old and funny quote on the Internet that says:

“The shower consists of 2% of washing, 8% singing, and 90% winning fake arguments.“

I really like this quote. It’s funny yet truthful. The bravest ideas and unrealized potential are revealed when people take a shower. Someone becomes a singer for a moment, while others enter into a self-discussion.

Time for self is a luxury pleasure that not everyone can afford nowadays. Our lifestyles have changed, but our brains function in the same way as hundreds of years ago.

The good thing, you can’t say, “I am busy to take a shower.” You do it every day, cultivating your creative roots. Here is how you can boost your creativity in the shower and make the most out of your boring daily routine.

How to Maximise Your Shower Creativity and Preserve Your Best Bathing Ideas

Good ideas are challenging to generate and easy to lose. They never come upon request. It’s your environment, memories, knowledge, and experience that can create unbelievable things in your brain.

No matter if you take a refreshing shower in the morning or a hot, relaxing tube in the evening, ideas can pop up in your head at any time. It is up to you if you want to keep them or let them go.

Here are a few ways to generate great thoughts and preserve your best ideas right in the shower.

1. “Creativity is the residue of time wasted.” — Albert Einstein.

Albert Einstein, one of the most famous physicists, once said you literally have to waste your time to get creative. He is renowned for his crazy innovative ideas only a few people could grasp.

Now, what does “time-wasting” have in common with creativity and shower taking? Soaping your body and regulating the water temperature are perhaps the two most challenging yet boring tasks we do every day when taking a shower.

Boredom is one of the ways to come down your busy brain and make it relax. However, boredom can also serve you differently: it allows your ideas to incubate.

2. Keep All Distractions Away

Listening to music in the shower, singing, or even talking to someone will keep your brain busy. You will not be able to concentrate on yourself and your thoughts.

You’ll have to keep all irrelevant items away if you want to experience a creative flow in the shower. Let the showering routine be your secret way to discover your inner-self. Let your inner child talk to you and make you listen.

I often experience deep self-conversations while taking a shower. My mind reflects on my memories, fears, struggles, and current challenges.

When I think about my life challenges in the shower, my mind reviews various options to find the solutions. Same with my blog, many article ideas, including this one, were born in the shower.

When you are blessed with ideas, a ridiculous thing that might happen to you is — you can forget them. Here is how you can preserve them.

3. Let Your Creativity Land on Bathroom Walls

Tim Denning, one of the most popular writers of our time, once mentioned he has a bathroom wall where he writes down his ideas. I was laughing at first since the bathroom did not seem like a place for writing. However, I was wrong.

Bathtub markers or dry erase markers for a tile are an excellent solution for creative minds to scribble ideas on the shower stall and keep them for future needs.

Final Thoughts

Creativity rules the world, puts some people on a pedestal, and ruthlessly makes others jobless.

One idea can make you famous in a moment if you let your brain create. If creativity were easy to cultivate, no one would have problems with it. However, creativity is not a thing; you can’t turn it on upon request.

Creativity is your imagination, a mental state, a flow, a vibe, your inner self-talking to you.

Next time you have a creative block, take a warm shower, relax your state of mind, leave everything behind and let your body rest. Not only will your body feel fresh afterward, but your mind will too!

As Albertus Camus once put it well:

“All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.”

No one knows what the future holds. One day, perhaps, you will recall that some of your best ideas had a ridiculous beginning — they were all born in the shower.