Why Your Best Ideas Come In The Shower

Ask anyone where their best ideas show up and the answer is rarely "at my desk, staring at the problem." It's the shower, the walk, the drive with no podcast on. There's a real mechanism behind this, and it's called incubation.

The research

In a widely cited 2012 study, Baird and colleagues had participants work on a creative problem, then split them into groups: some kept working, some rested, and some did an undemanding task — simple enough to leave their mind free to wander. The mind-wandering group came back with significantly more original solutions than either of the other two.

The shower isn't special because of the water. It's special because it's one of the few remaining moments in a day with no phone, no task, and nothing to optimize. Your mind wanders, and wandering is exactly the condition under which distant ideas get connected.

How to use this on purpose

You can't force incubation, but you can schedule the conditions for it. Work a problem hard enough to load it into working memory, then deliberately step away into something undemanding — a walk, dishes, a shower that isn't rushed. The answer that surfaces afterward isn't luck. It's what your brain was doing the whole time you weren't watching.

This is part of why Gletch's daily practice is built around short sessions rather than long grinding ones — the break is doing real work.

Read more of the research this is built on on our science page.