Our obsession with efficiency is killing creativity

What your brain needs to keep the creative juices flowing

The pursuit of faster, more, and better, is contributing to a mass production of rote and uninspiring content (and way of living).

I see this with the AI-ification of writing. A study found that using AI to write reduced the collective diversity of novel content.

In an effort to maximize output we risk becoming less original as a whole. This is problematic because novelty is a key ingredient for cognitive health.

Exposure to new ideas and experiences sparks neuroplasticity. Increasing neuroplasticity means the brain can better adapt and change in response to the environment, form new neural connections, and rewire pathways.

Thinking creatively produces higher quality content and healthier brains.

Here are three big things your brain needs to thrive creatively.

1. Creativity requires risk

Thinking creatively is all about options.

When speed is the priority and every second counts you are less likely to take chances or try something new.

To foster creativity, it needs to be ok to make mistakes and fail. You want an environment where it’s safe to experiment and explore possibilities.

I like to think about creativity as intellectual courage. It’s daring to go into the unknown, push the boundaries, and do what’s never been done before.

Researchers have found that creative individuals had higher gray matter volume in the right posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG). They also found that openness to new experiences mediated the relationship between the size of that area and creativity. In other words, how open you are to trying new things makes a difference in your creativity levels and brain structure.

If you are new in your career or have a smaller audience, you are in a good position to take creative chances. Less eyes on you gives you the freedom to test ideas without the pressure. As your status grows, so does the pressure to get it right.

The fear of failing can cripple creativity. If you relate to this, here are a few questions you can ask yourself:

• If this idea fails, what would I still gain?

• Am I trying to be right, or to learn something new?

• If I knew this experiment couldn’t fail, what would I try first?

• What feels most energizing to explore?

Takeaway: Efficiency + perfectionism = a pressure cooker that can stifle innovation. Practice being open to new experiences and give yourself permission to be wrong.

2. Creativity requires safety

There is a segment of society that has over optimized to the point where there are no more natural pauses, no space to reflect, and no time to think.

Schedules jam packed with back-to-back meetings and activities leads to a lot of stress.

Stress is a wet blanket for creativity.

It narrows your thinking.

When your brain thinks you’re in danger, your anterior cingulate cortex limits your options to fight or flight. It makes sense, if you’re in a life-threatening situation you don’t want to waste time considering the multitude of possibilities, you need to act fast.

To think expansively and generate many ideas, your brain needs to know you are safe.

One way you can signal to your nervous system that you are safe is to look at a horizon and use your peripheral vision.

Your visual system is tied to your nervous system. When you are focused on a point 8 inches in front of your face (like when you’re using a phone or computer), it activates your sympathetic nervous system (stress response).

If you can look out a window, go outside, and gaze at a point far in the distance it can activate your parasympathetic nervous system (rest calm state).

There is also research to support that humor can foster creativity. This is likely because humor can dissipate stress which opens your mind to more options.

Takeaway: Give yourself space to breathe. Allow some “inefficiency” in your day to move slowly, pause to look around, and enjoy a laugh.

3. Creativity requires rest

Have you heard the term 9-9-6?

It’s the hustle culture term for working 9am - 9pm, 6 days a week to try to achieve hyper-growth in tech companies.

From a neuroscience perspective I could make a case that this schedule will produce lower quality creative output.

Creativity requires periods of focus and periods of rest.

The best ideas and insights pop when your mind is free to wander, not when you’ve been grinding for 12 hours straight.

Einstein said, “I take time to go for long walks on the beach so that I can listen to what is going on inside my head. If my work isn’t going well, I lie down in the middle of a workday and gaze at the ceiling while I listen and visualize what goes on in my imagination.”

Einstein recognized that rest is a form of productivity when it comes to birthing new ideas.

Taking a break is countercultural in a world where everyone is trying to race to the top. But your brain needs a chance to consolidate, synthesize, and form new connections. This is the handiwork of the default mode network (DMN).

The DMN is sometimes called the imagination network because it’s good at putting together seemingly disparate pieces of information. The thing is, this network only comes online when you are daydreaming, mind wandering, or not actively focused on a task.

You can’t exactly schedule good ideas, but you can set your brain up for success.

Try to incorporate short five-minute breaks throughout the day.

Rest also includes sleep.

A recent study found that deep sleep strengthens detail memories while REM sleep abstracts and integrates those memories into the bigger picture. If you’ve noticed you wake up with insights, this is why.

Most of your deep sleep takes place in the first half of the night and most REM sleep is in the second half of the night. If you go to bed late, you miss out on deep sleep detail encoding. If you wake up too early, you cut into REM sleep and miss out on building associations.

Another study found that naps that included REM sleep improved creative problem-solving, while naps that didn’t include REM sleep had no effect.

Lack of sleep can also impair your prefrontal cortex . An MRI study found that sleep-deprived adults exhibited decreased function in the prefrontal cortex, which was related to worse fluency of ideas and divergent thinking.

Takeaway: Rest won’t slow you down, it speeds you up. Strategically leverage breaks to create opportunities for aha moments.

To sum things up: become less efficient, more risky, and well rested for the juiciest, most creative brain.

Here’s to keeping creativity alive.

-Julie

If you want to help more people build a better brain, please like and share this post.

Bonus Tips

• Higher ceilings can foster more abstract thinking (the cathedral effect).

• Get more inspiration from the real world and less from Pinterest.

• Create more than you consume.

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References

Doshi, A. R., & Hauser, O. P. (2024). Generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces the collective diversity of novel content. Science advances, 10(28), eadn5290.

Puderbaugh, M., & Emmady, P. D. (2023). Neuroplasticity. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

Strachan-Regan, K., & Baumann, O. (2024). The impact of room shape on affective states, heartrate, and creative output. Heliyon, 10(6).

Li, W., Li, X., Huang, L., Kong, X., Yang, W., Wei, D., ... & Liu, J. (2015). Brain structure links trait creativity to openness to experience. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 10(2), 191-198.

Meyers-Levy, J., & Zhu, R. (2007). The influence of ceiling height: The effect of priming on the type of processing that people use. Journal of consumer research, 34(2), 174-186.

Liu, J., Chen, D., Xia, T., Zeng, S., Xue, G., & Hu, X. (2025). Slow-wave sleep and REM sleep differentially contribute to memory representational transformation. Communications Biology, 8(1), 1407.

Marguilho, R., Neves de Jesus, S., Viseu, J., Domingues, R. B., Brandolim Becker, N., Dias Matavelli, R., & Buela-Casal, G. (2015). Sleep and creativity: A literature review. Advanced research in health, education and social sciences: Towards a better practice, 131-140.