Have you ever been in a rut? Do you feel unsatisfied with your routines? If you answered “yes,” it probably means your daily schedule doesn’t allow for even an ounce of creative or spontaneous thoughts in your mind. Why do routines lead to monotony? Can you get out of the rut? Read on to discover three ways routines can kill all creativity and spontaneity.
What Are Creativity And Spontaneity?
According to research, creativity can be defined as “the hallmark of human cognition” and is considered the driving force behind human innovation. Along those same lines, spontaneity is often explained as “the quality of being natural rather than planned.”
Different people experience creative and spontaneous thoughts differently, but in a neurological sense, these thoughts appear because of a “general cognitive mechanism of adaptive prediction.” Studies show that this allows people to deal with problems more effectively by predicting the immediate future based on life experience rather than being reactionary. In a more straightforward sense, the human mind should turn to creativity when dealing with uncertain situations.
Society has formed such that time is of the essence. The stress and pressure of it all make people fall into routines to juggle their responsibilities. As researchers stated, the creative person is integral to the creative process. Such a person cannot flourish in today’s context if tied down by a routine.
So, what exactly are these routines and ruts?
What Are Daily Routines?
Daily routines are a form of habitual responses, a process in which different contexts prompt automatic action. Research shows that an impulsive process regulates habitual responses. Thus a minimal cognitive effort is used to elicit routine behaviors. This logic explains why people tend to lean on routines; they are easy, expectable, stress-free, and require little to no effort cognitively.
Daily routines usually lower stress by removing the need to take deliberate action in response to certain situations. In theory, there’s no need to think about what to eat when you can decide that you have steak with asparagus for lunch every Monday.
This sounds great; less stress, more order, more time to think about other things. But following the same routine can make someone move aimlessly through life, and before you know it, you are stuck in a rut, and your dreams are slipping away. No matter the context, routines can gradually become ruts, studies show. Habits that were once comforting – stable relationships, job security, workout schedules, meal plans – can lead to boredom and unconscious anxiety in time.
We established what daily routines are and how they can lead to ruts. But what are the three ways in which daily routines limit creativity and spontaneity?
Three Ways Daily Routines Stifle Creativity And Spontaneity (And How To Avoid This)
1. Rewire The Brain How is the brain wired?
Harvard Medical School has conducted research showing that people get stuck in ruts due to the brain’s habitual electrical patterns. The brain will apply rules based on past events to deal with the current context in new situations. A specially wired part of the brain recognizes patterns – the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The DLPFC finds old rules and applies them to new conditions. This part of the brain, coupled with strict routines, makes people lean on old ways to solve new problems, thus inhibiting creativity and spontaneity.
Why Do Routines Maintain The Rut?
Daily routines over-stimulate the DLPFC and create automatic responses …
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