When are we at our most creative?

Have you ever noticed your best creative ideas come to you around the same time of day, or when doing the same kind of activity? We found ourselves having this chat recently at Cheeky HQ, asking each other when we have our best ideas and whilst each of the scenarios below are very different, there is a common thread running through them all… it’s the minute our brain has the chance to relax, whilst still doing something fairly routine or even sleeping. Check out our straw poll results for a creative mindset…

• Max our Managing Director – His best thoughts come to him early in the morning, just as he’s coming to, around 5am. He’s a keen musician and often finds a catchy lyric comes to him then too!
• Amanda our trusty Account Manager – Her best ideas pop into her mind most often when she’s driving in the car, listening to a radio one mix!
• Wayne, Creative Director – Very similar to Max, it’s early in the morning during a more sub-conscious state or in the moments of quiet desperation just before the deadline.
• Karen, that’s me, Client Development Director – Oddly it’s when I’m drying my hair, it takes forever so there’s plenty of time to think!
• Annabel, our Head of Social – Her best thoughts come to her whilst walking the dog.
• Kieran our Film Director – Annoyingly his come in the middle of the night, but he normally gets back to sleep if he writes them down.
• Pascal our Senior Designer – His best thoughts ping into his mind at varying moments, the shower, the loo! Queuing or when he’s getting his hair cut

So there you have it, our survey says, the best time to achieve the most creative thoughts is when your mind is relaxed and doing something fairly mundane. Probably doesn’t take a scientist to reach this conclusion, but we had a bit of fun finding out! Perhaps the real take out is; often clients and account teams overlook the fact that great creativity can take time and when we put creative teams under immense pressure with impossible deadlines, the result won’t always be their very best work. This reminds me of the age old analogy that we’ve all heard agencies say before… “We offer three kinds of service – good, cheap and fast, but you can only pick two at any one time.”