Why can a distraction help solve a complex problem?

THAT'S THE WHY:RECENTLY I was working on an article that had me flummoxed. It was technical, and I was wrangling with how to present it so the reader's eyes would not be glazing over by the second sentence.

It was a Sunday and, frankly, this was more of a chore than a challenge. So I closed the laptop, went for a run and then started to make the family lunch. While I stood at the cooker and started to think about the article again, its unkinked structure appeared in my mind. There was an obvious solution once I saw it.

Why is it that sometimes the best way to solve a complex creative problem is to leave it alone for a while?

Researchers who published a study in Psychological Science in 2008 reckon a two-step process is involved. First incubating the problem in the sub-conscious and then feeding solutions back into the conscious mind.

The researchers asked participants to solve difficult word-association problems. The results showed that the participants were most successful when they looked at the problems, then busied themselves with a different task for a short period and then concentrated again on the original problems after the incubation period.

“Conscious thought is better at making linear, analytic decisions, but unconscious thought is especially effective at solving complex problems,” according to Northwestern University researcher Adam Galinsky and his co-authors. “Unconscious activation may provide inspirational sparks underlying the ‘Aha!’ moment that eventually leads to important discoveries.”