You've been staring at the same blank page for twenty minutes. The title for your workshop won't come. The next scene of the story won't come. So you sit a little longer, because sitting longer feels like trying harder.
There's a better option, and it doesn't need any equipment: stand up and walk.
What the research found
In 2014, Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz at Stanford published four experiments with 176 college students and other adults. People did standard creativity tasks while sitting or while walking, indoors and outdoors. One task asked them to think of new uses for everyday objects, a common test of generating ideas.
According to Stanford's summary of the study, people's creative output rose by an average of 60 percent when they were walking. Walking on a treadmill facing a blank wall boosted ideas about as much as walking outside, so the walking itself seemed to matter more than the scenery. People who walked and then sat down still came up with more ideas for a short time afterward than people who had been sitting all along.
Two honest caveats. Walking helped most with generating ideas, and much less with tasks that have a single correct answer. And the researchers were careful to say they didn't know how long the after-effect lasts.
When the ideas stop coming, change what your body is doing, not how hard you're pushing.
Use walking for the right part of the work
This fits how creative projects actually go. There's a stage for opening up (lots of options, rough ideas) and a stage for narrowing down (choosing, editing, solving). A walk is a good fit for the first:
- Before a brainstorm: walk for ten minutes with the question in mind, then write everything down.
- When you're stuck mid-project: take the specific question with you. "What does she want in this scene?" works better than "fix the chapter."
- During a call: if it's a talk-through, not a screen share, take it on foot.
Save the detailed editing and the decisions for when you're back at the desk.
Make it easy to capture ideas
Ideas from a walk tend to disappear by the time you're home. Bring a way to catch them: a voice memo, a note on your phone, or a small notebook.
Start where you are
You don't need a long hike or perfect weather. A loop around the block, a walk down the office hallway or pacing a room all count. If walking isn't comfortable or possible for you, try what movement does work for your body; the study only tested walking, so treat any other version as your own experiment.
Where an accountability partner helps
Walking breaks are easy to skip when you feel behind. An accountability partner can help you build them into how you work, not treat them as a treat for when you're done. You could even take a walking call together: each of you brings one stuck question, and you trade ideas on the move.
This week
Pick one stuck question in your creative project. Write it on a card. Take it on a ten-minute walk, record every idea you have, good or bad, then sit down and choose one to try.