Getting a breath of fresh air and taking a walk does more than provide a much needed change of scenery, it gets your creative juices flowing too, according to a new study. New research published in The Journal of Experimental Psychology shows that walking boosts creativity.
Several small-scale studies were led by researchers from Stanford University to determine how walking boosts creativity. The test subjects had to take a creativity test, were made to walk around, and then take the test a second time. And the results were pretty significant.
The study found that for nearly every test subject, creativity increased when they took a walk. According to the study, most subjects could generate roughly 60 percent more uses for an object, and their ideas were “novel and appropriate.”
And the creative juices didn’t stop flowing, since they continued to generate creative ideas even after they sat down. The study concluded that the test subjects who walked had significantly better ideas than in the pre-exercise testing period.
The test subjects were then moved outdoors during a portion of the experiment. Most researchers’ guessed that walking outside would be significantly better than pacing in an office, but surprisingly that didn’t matter.
When the test subjects walked outside for about eight minutes, they generated more creative ideas than when they sat outside or inside for the same length of time. But there was no noticeable difference in creative ideas when the subjects walked outdoors or indoors on a treadmill facing a wall.
The researchers still were not clear exactly why walking boosts creativity, but they did suggest that it could be related to a mood booster, or because walking distracts the brain’s energy long enough for it to wander in thought.
With these results, it gives you even more of an excuse to get moving throughout your day! And now you can give the executives a reason for why you need to take a stroll around the block, or even better, why you should incorporate a Xdesk Fit into your daily work life.
Imagine the work flow and awesome ideas that will stream through your head as you pace on the Xdesk Fit. And it doesn’t hurt that our desk treadmill is equipped with all the features, like a digital LED display and Bluetooth connectivity. You can even charge your electronic device while you pace and listen to music, since it includes a USB port.
To learn more about the Xdesk Fit, go HERE.
We found this study through Lifehacker, to see the entire story, go HERE.
Do you take a daily walk outside of the office? If so, have you felt more creative afterwards? Share in the comments below!