All work and no play is a really bad idea. Because play is work.

Need a break?

Of course you do. So put your feet up, forget about your worries, and take a minute to relax.

Or more exactly, 27 minutes and 58 seconds.

That’s how long it’ll take you to watch Tim Brown’s presentation at the Serious Play conference held in Pasadena, California, last May.

Brown is CEO of Ideo, a global design consultancy. In his talk, The powerful link between creativity and play, he makes a compelling case for why all work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy.

Or dull designer, marketer, entrepreneur or just about anything else.

In an entertaining performance (watch out for the bit where he comes under attack from ‘finger blasters’) he asks why we fear the judgement of our peers when children don’t. What happens to us when we open our minds to the many possibilities through ‘exploratory play’.

And how mescaline - the ultimate hippie drug of the psychedelic 60s - actually increased problem-solving abilities and creativity.

From ‘learning by doing’ to ‘thinking with your hands’, he explores some fascinating ideas that may fundamentally change the way you think about work - and play.

Enjoy.

Find out more

• Let yourself go at the Serious Play conference.
• Ideas to change the way you think at ideo.com.
• See life differently: get the low-down on mescaline at Wikipedia.

Most things can wait. In fact, most things should wait.

How many times have you checked your email today? Which takes priority - the thing that was top of your to-do list at 9am, or the email that just dropped into your In Box?  

If you’re talking on your landline and your mobile phone rings, what do you do? And if, in the midst of all this, a Skype contact comes online and wants to chat, how do you handle your juggling act?

Not so long ago, things were so different.

Phones rang unanswered. Inter-office manila envelopes worked their way round the building, from department to department. Memos were typed in duplicate, triplicate and quadruplicate.

Letters were posted, and replies carefully composed. ‘By return’ meant a two-day turnaround, not a two-minute one.

The world was a slower place - and that gave us time to think.

Welcome to the machine

When did you first discover email?

For me, it was 1986. I sat in a friend’s office and she showed me just how technically advanced the company was. On their mainframe, they could send messages within a matter of seconds, as vital information winged its way around the organisation.

“Look at this,” she said, her voice brimming over with enthusiasm. She jabbed at function keys (no mice in those days) and clicked her cursor keys.

And there it was: cod and chips, roast lamb and nut cutlet - today’s staff-canteen menu, instantly transmitted by my friend’s friend, whose office was around the corner from those unmissable main courses.

Food for thought indeed.

Business at the speed of light

Since then, things have moved on a little. Slowly but surely, we’ve become bombarded by inputs. Emails, text messages, RSS feeds. Discussion groups, podcasts and instant messaging.

The digital deluge never stops.

Until we stop it.

Right now, my email program is closed. I’ll open it up when I finish this blog post. And if the phone rings, I’ll let it go to voice mail.

I’m no saint - it’s just that I’ve learned the hard way that if I don’t focus, I don’t get the job done. 

One thing at a time.

If only others did the same. Ever spoken to somebody who takes a mobile phone call while they’re in the toilet? I have - believe me, you don’t want to go there.  

Most calls can wait. Most emails can wait. In fact, most things should wait - you’ll have more time to reflect, decide and evaluate. And you’ll come up with better solutions, easier answers and clearer analyses.

Take your time. Think about it. Then, think a bit more.

You’ll be glad you did.

OK. You can check your email again.

Do what you’ve always done, and you’ll get what you’ve always got

I’m reading a fascinating book at the moment. It’s all about making things work in unexpected ways - combining things that have never been combined before, doing things differently, and stumbling on success.

I was sitting in my mobile office (Starbucks) yesterday and I read something that made me sit up - and put my skinny decaf hazelnut latte down.

It was about comfort zones.

We all have them, even if we don’t admit it. We tell ourselves we’re striking out, crossing frontiers and breaking new ground.

But are we?

Room 101, anybody?

A couple of years ago, in a life-drawing class I was in, the teacher put on some mood music. It reminded me of Laurie Anderson’s O Superman, with the lyrics spoken instead of sung.

And one of the lines made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

Do something that scares you each day.

It’s an old idea: conquer your fear by facing it down. Speak to that stranger. Pick up the phone and make that call you’ve been putting off. Walk up to that dog and pat it (OK, you do that one, because there’s no way on earth I’m doing it).

It’s good to shake things up a little - but we hardly ever do.

The book talked about hiring decisions, and how we very rarely step outside our comfort zones. People hire people they like. I’ve been on both sides of the hiring table, so I know that it’s true.

But really, the the author argues, we should hire people we don’t like. People who haven’t got relevant experience. Hire people for a vacancy you haven’t even got yet.

Just do it, and see what happens.

Step outside the frame

Artists know all about looking at things from a different angle when they can’t see things clearly. One I know regularly turns her pictures upside down to see what’s wrong with them. If that doesn’t work, she views them in a mirror.

And often, just to keep herself on her toes, she’ll switch to a medium that she doesn’t feel comfortable with - just to see how she copes. If nothing else, she argues, it’ll ‘clean her palate’ (pun intended, I’m sure) and let her return to her usual medium.

So what could you change in your work that would give great results? That would produce unexpected creativity? That would help you clear that mental hurdle?

Just do it.  And I’ll try patting a dog.

Promise.

Got 20 minutes to spare? Grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and click over to TED to watch one of these fascinating presentations. 

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and since 1984, they’ve been bringing together some of the world’s brightest thinkers and doers for an annual conference. Speakers are challenged to give ‘the talk of their lives’ – in just 18 minutes. 

Malcolm Gladwell is a New Yorker magazine columnist, whose book The Tipping Point became a worldwide bestseller. His follow-up, Blink, was an equally compelling mix of fact, anecdote and quirky ideas.

His TED presentation on the pursuit of happiness takes him from Pepsi to coffee to spaghetti sauce – and teaches us a thing or two about human behaviour and customer surveys.

Sir Ken Robinson is a creativity expert whose message is simple: schools kill creativity. And as the former head of the UK government’s advisory committee on creative and cultural education, he should know.

It’s an intelligent and thought-provoking presentation, but above all, it’s very, very funny, jumping with effortless ease from the Royal Ballet Company to nativity plays to Shakespeare’s father.

I thought a friend of mine would enjoy it as an ex-drama teacher. And she did – more than I suspected, since it turned out she knows him.

“Sir Ken? When I worked with him in the 80s, he was just plain old Ken,” she said, with just a hint of title envy. 

Enjoy.

• Malcolm Gladwell: What we can learn from spaghetti sauce
• Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?