How to solve problems

In the immortal words of Cedric Diggory “Take a bath… and take the egg with you”.

Why is it we always have our best ideas on the loo? Or in the bath? Or driving?

Or one of those other wonderfully random places where you’re usually not in a position to easily write anything down?

Because ironically, in order to solve a tricky problem, you quite often need to stop thinking about it.

When you’re trying really REALLY hard to solve a problem, it’s your CONSCIOUS MIND that’s trying to solve it.

The part on your brain which only has about 10% of your entire brain’s processing power, & therefore can only hold a limited amount of information at once.

When you stop thinking about it & do something completely unrelated, you give your SUBCONSCIOUS MIND a chance to work on the problem, & that holds a whole lot more processing power (90% in fact) & it’s therefore way more creative.

So next time you’re staring at your computer & not getting anywhere, take Cedric’s advice…

Have a bath… and take your egg (the challenge you’re trying to solve) with you, and just mull things over in the hot water.

Keep a pen and paper handy as you’ll be astounded by how many ideas just seem to float to the surface.