The 7 Big Ideas:

• Creativity involves being bored

• Relax and be bored to drive creativity

• Why you should remove electronics when learning

• Distraction is an internal problem

• People and environments aren’t always the source of interruptions – you are

• Creativity and deep work need seclusion and time to focus

• If you have multiple priorities you have none

My Highlights From the Book:

Creativity involves being bored:

“Many lose heart or momentum because those little tiny things that have to get done are so dull.” The tedium of creativity can be daunting, King explains, especially when compared to the satisfaction of crossing things off a to-do list — which explains why I make my to - do list so long.

Relax and be bored to drive creativity:

According to Dr. Jonathan Smallwood, professor of cognitive neuroscience and an expert in mind - wandering at the University of York, “In a very deep way, there’s a close link between originality and creativity and the spontaneous thoughts we generate when our minds are idle.” In other words, you have to let yourself be bored to be brilliant.

Why you should remove electronics when learning:

That’s why Laura Norén — an adjunct professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University — does not allow laptops in her classroom. “It’s not just about writing down verbatim,” said Norén, which is what students do when they type on a computer as opposed to jotting down ideas in longhand, where “they actually have to do some filtering in the process of taking notes. That’s what I want them to learn.” Her policy has benefits that go beyond the act of note - taking. “Over the course of the semester, their ability to participate in discussions in class goes up dramatically,” Norén said of her students. “At first they’re very quiet. They don’t know how to interact with each other and only talk to me. As the course goes on, they communicate better with each other, which would not happen if laptops were open.”

Distraction is an internal problem:

Still, the monks and nuns considered Pang’s query and after a while returned to him with an answer in the form of another question: “Why is it that you think that technologies are any more distracting than your own mind or anything else in the world?” Distraction doesn’t come from devices or people or things, they posited. It is an internal problem.

People and environments aren’t always the source of interruptions – you are:

What could help? “Think that if people were given the ability to signal to colleagues or just even to signal online, ‘Hey, I’m working on this task, don’t bother me, I’ll let you know when I’m ready to be interrupted,’” she said. But you can’t blame your coworkers or your children or your Gchat buddy for everything. Guess who is the person who actually interrupts you the most? Yourself. Mark’s lab has a term for this — the “pattern of self-interruption.”

Creativity and deep work need seclusion and time to focus:

Some of their ideas include giving people more freedom to work off - site, especially when they are assigned projects that require creativity. Who doesn’t get more work done at home or at a café when they really need to concentrate? Still, Kaufman and Gregoire suggest that managers put aside a room designated for quiet work only. Their biggest recommendation, however, is more a change of mind-set than architectural configuration. Those in charge should value and promote employees’ occasional need for seclusion, even if it just means taking a walk outside for a bit (without checking the phone).

If you have multiple priorities, you have none:

It drives McKeown crazy whenever priorities proliferate — even on the radio. Case in point, he had his car radio tuned to NPR (what else?), which was airing an interview with a new mayor who, in response to a question about his top three priorities, said he had two dozen priorities, none more or less important than the other. McKeown wanted to scream, “Nooooo!” “It was like watching a bad movie, for a second time, in slow motion,” he said. “We’ve seen the results before — if you try to do a bit of everything, you’re going to make a millimeter of progress in a million directions.” The mayor’s city has real challenges requiring trade - offs and hard decisions about where to put resources that can ultimately make the biggest difference. Think of this city as a metaphor for pretty much everyone’s life.