I’m starting to believe nothing should be designed in a day. Working a full-night’s sleep into your design process is as important as anything else you do. Morning tells the truth.
You’re reading Signal v. Noise, a publication about the web by Basecamp since 1999. Happy !
I’m starting to believe nothing should be designed in a day. Working a full-night’s sleep into your design process is as important as anything else you do. Morning tells the truth.
condor
on 10 Apr 12It’s easy to create an artificial context during the design process that needs to be destroyed before you can really ‘see’ the design. A night of sleep is a great way to do that. Same reason why it’s great to go on trips and leave your normal surroundings once in awhile to get a clearer view of your life.
Nate
on 10 Apr 12You might dig Jonah Lehrer’s new book on creativity called Imagine. In it he talks about the difference between right and left brain creativity. When you talk about morning and when Jamie mentioned in the other blog post about taking a shower, it reminds me of what Jonah brings up in that book. Our right hemisphere is much more active just after sleeping and in the shower (where we find ourselves the most relaxed). It’s not a coincidence that we have so many eureka moments just after waking up or while we’re in the shower.
And our left hemisphere is much more active as we put things like caffeine and stimulants into our body during the day.
So you are totally onto something. If you want a design to incorporate creativity from both sides of your brain, let the cycle of sleep swing your creative pendulum back to to the right.
sebastian
on 10 Apr 12Sleeping is great for garbage collection.
The first 24hs are the strongest in the forgetting curve. So, yes, this silently collaborates in the elimination stage of the process.
GeeIWonder
on 10 Apr 12There’s a well-known truism that we don’t master things until we start dreaming about it.
It’s been anecdotally but also formally documented in childhood talents like music, chess.. even video games. When you start dreaming tetris, your scores go up. Big time.
In sport, there’s some evidence that you can get better/stronger ‘training’ during your dreams. The big challenge here seems to be getting the muscle memory and mind in sync so the body knows the rhythm and patterns.
A really good take-away for students is that studying is the same thing—if you’re going to cram, do it at least one good sleep before so your mind can go over the material again. Sleeping is not lost time.
Brad
on 10 Apr 12Jason, this is relevant and sobering: http://www.thesfegotist.com/editorial/2012/march/14/short-lesson-perspective
Guy C
on 10 Apr 12I agree in principle – that it’s always good to sleep on an idea. But does the morning really always tell the truth?
I think sometimes the morning after can be a harsh judge – it can lead you into pulling back from the leaps forward you might have made when at full flight the day before.
In the harsh morning light you might feel that perhaps you went too far, that you need to be more conservative.
I would wait and see how you feel about things later in the day before you start toning things down.
Don’t always listen to the doubts that can creep up on you when the sun first rises.
Joe
on 11 Apr 12This makes sense. Neurological information processing required for decision making and creativity occurs while sleeping.
This discussion is closed.