Break Out of Mediocrityland
How to jailbreak your muse, improve quality, and get your creativity on.
Are you stuck in Mediocrityland?
As I’ve said, your best ideas are hiding in the shower. It would be best if read that article to get up to speed, but I’ll recap some key points for flavor:
Mediocrityland is where most people live and operate daily, but it’s kryptonite to creatives. It’s insidious because you think you’re doing good work, but no, you’re just generating slop. Human slop.
You need to derail your human slop-machine and snap out of the trance that keeps most people stuck in Mediocrityland.
Jerry Seinfeld said you should accept your mediocrity and all the work you’ll need to do to overcome it. Pessimistic? Realistic? Fair? To answer that, we need to understand there’s a slight problem with the creative process…
You can’t demand insights or force creativity because the part of your brain in charge of “forcing” things is the very part that blocks creativity. Like a chaperon on prom night, the gatekeeper is blocking the muse.
That’s part of the work Seinfeld talked about, only it’s the brain working against itself.
A Tale of 2 Brains
The brain switches between 2 primary modes of operation via 2 networks. Both are needed for the creative process:
The part of your brain in charge of forcing things (focus) is the Executive Control Network (ECN). the Spotlight.
The other part of your brain, the one where you can daydream your way to creatively solving problems, is the Default Mode Network (DMN), the Floodlight.
If the Spotlight is on (concentration), the Floodlight is off. When the Floodlight is on (zoning out, daydreaming), the Spotlight is off.
As it turns out, it’s more complex than just left brain (logical) vs. right brain (creative). Of course it is, it’s a brain! Have you seen those things?! But also, it’s simpler than you think. Sort of.
Your muse is most engaged when it’s happy, and it’s deliriously happy when the Floodlight is on. Where do you think those weird daydreams about slaying dragons come from, anyway? Am I the only one who daydreams about slaying dragons? Moving on…
The trick is, you need to set your muse free (or make sure your muse is fired up to begin with).
Backing up a step, recall the 4 stages of creativity (per Wallas):
Preparation (saturation).
Incubation (unconscious processing).
Illumination (the “aha!” moment).
Verification (checking the math).
It’s no surprise the incubation stage has the potential to create the Incubation Effect (or “Shower Effect”). That leads to the “aha!” moment. That’s your muse talking, as it breaks free of the chains of mediocrity like the dragon slayer it is.
So, how do we set the muse free and avoid the zombie trance that shackles us to Mediocrityland? We need a repeatable way to:
Jailbreak the muse.
Tap the unconscious power of the “Shower Effect.”
Do our best work.
But, how do we do this in a reliable way? I’m glad you asked.
Making This Work Consistently
Mindless tasks > rest.
If your mind wanders when you’re trying to concentrate, that sabotages your creative process. This we know.
But, during the incubation period, the opposite happens. During incubation, mind wandering enhances creativity and problem solving as your brain makes connections.
From: More mind wandering, fewer original ideas: be not distracted during creative idea generation
Several studies suggest that mind wandering (MW) benefits creativity when the MW occurs in the incubation period of creative problem solving.
Here’s the most important part:
From: Inspired by distraction: mind wandering facilitates creative incubation
Participants who performed an “undemanding” task during a break improved their creative performance by 41%, whereas those who rested or took no break showed no improvement.
Over the years, certain methods have worked for me to break through writer’s block, but not always. Now I know why.
You can’t just “take a break.” You have to prime the brain first, then give it a particular brand of distraction.
To ensure you use mind wandering to your advantage, you can use a method called “The Guided Break.” Here’s how it works…
The Guided Break
1 - The Saturation Phase (Unknown Duration)
First, frustrate your brain. The incubation effect only happens if you have “loaded the buffer” to the point of blockage.
Work on the problem until you feel stuck.
Write down specifically what you are trying to solve. Don’t just think it; write it on a sticky note or in your notes app.
Example: “I need a way to connect character 1’s past actions in Chapter 3 to character 2’s current predicament in Chapter 5, without having to rewrite the main plot points.”
This tells your brain exactly what the “background job” looks like.
2 - The Input-Free Gap (10–20 minutes)
This is where I often fail. You have to step away from the work (hard), but you must not switch to other inputs (even harder for me).
Do not scroll social media.
Do not listen to a podcast.
Do not read the news.
Do not talk to a colleague.
Do not watch TV (this is my default “my brain is fried” go-to).
It’s not enough to stop thinking about the problem. If you feed your brain new info (like a podcast or YouTube video), your “Default Mode Network (DMN)” can’t work on the problem because your brain is busy processing the new stuff you’re feeding it with the ECN Spotlight on.
3 - The Low-Grade Task
You need a task that is “mindless” but keeps your body occupied. This keeps your prefrontal cortex (the “boss” part of your brain) busy watching your hands or feet, leaving the rest of your brain free to wander around the creative garden of Eden. Just don’t eat the apples.
Good activities:
Washing dishes.
Folding laundry.
Doodling (repetitive shapes, not art).
Walking (without headphones or ear buds).
Showering.
Balance beam or trampoline.
Bad activities:
Video games (over-stimulation).
Reading (engages the verbal center).
Watching TV.
4. The Capture
Keep a notebook, voice recorder, or your phone nearby. When the solution shows up, capture it. It’s not always obvious. It might be a hint or a faint mental image. It can be a fleeting thought or feeling. If you don’t capture it right then, the ECN will kick back in and overwrite it with your to-do list.
The Enemy Inside the Gate
What if Seinfeld is right and we really are mediocre? Your best strategy, then, is to power up your muse using methods like the Guided Break. That’s part of the work he talked about to help you climb out of that ditch.
Creativity is a dance of controlled chaos, switching back and forth between the Spotlight (the ECN) and the Floodlight (the DMN). The better you can do that, the more efficient your creative time becomes.
And time, as we know, is the enemy. You can do everything you can to power up your muse before you write and still get blocked mid-session. When you’re blocked, time’s a wastin’. Time is always the enemy.
What’s Next?
Next time, I’ll show you how to use this concept to reset your brain, along with the specific exercise I’ve chosen to help me when I get stuck. Subscribe to be notified when I publish.