Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking
Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking is a journal article by Marily Oppezzo, Daniel L. Schwartz (2014), published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. IX Coach's practice library cites it in 9 practices across 9 concepts; each one is listed below, so you can see exactly where this journal article is put to use.
Where to find it
Practices on IX Coach that cite Give Your Ideas Some Legs
- Build a daily walk into the creative schedule
Walking — especially before or during creative blocks — is among the most common rituals documented by Currey.
Daily Rituals: How Creative People Structure Their Days
- Take a daily restorative walk
A 20–30 minute walk, especially in nature, functions as active cognitive recovery.
Deliberate Rest
- Exercise at low-to-moderate intensity to trigger diffuse processing
Aerobic exercise at a pace that allows free thought is one of the most reliable diffuse-mode triggers.
Focused vs Diffuse Thinking
- Protect regular periods of solitude and undirected thought
Schedule daily time alone with your own thoughts — phone away, no inputs — as a non-negotiable.
The Digital Declutter, Made Practical
- Pair philosophical practice with physical exercise
Use a regular physical practice (walking, exercise) as the occasion for philosophical reflection — as the ancients did.
Pierre Hadot’s Spiritual Exercises
- Use a routine physical task to incubate a creative problem
Assign your stuck creative problem to your mind, then do a boring manual task and let the problem run in the background.
Boredom and Creativity: Why Your Best Ideas Need Idle Time
- Use low-demand movement as incubation time
Walking, showering, or doing dishes — rhythmic, low-demand activities free up associative thinking.
The Three Bs of Creativity: Bed, Bath, and Bus
- Walk for cognitive performance and creativity
Even a short walk boosts divergent thinking, memory consolidation, and attention in ways that sitting cannot replicate.
Walking 10,000 Steps: What the Research Actually Shows
- Walk to generate ideas (divergent thinking)
When you need many options, walk while you brainstorm.
Walking for Creativity
How this page was checked
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