Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Nevermind singing in the shower

I do some of my best research thinking in the shower.

Last week, I started one of the research proposals I need to write before my supervisor gets back from vacation but I've been stuck for days. It's outside my area of expertise (most of what I do is), so I was struggling with the hook for this proposal. What is the hole we can fill? What makes this proposal unique and how can I convince our funders that this is the project we need to do?

This morning, in the shower, it all comes to me. Many holes we can fill, many hypothesis we can test and most of all, how very important an impact this research can have. I'm excited to get to work and get the rest of this proposal draft written today!

This isn't the first time I've had a stroke of brilliance in the shower, when I was dissertating almost all of my breakthroughs happened in the shower. I get stuck in my thinking sometimes and I need to just walk away, let it fester, work on something else and before I know it some morning while I'm conditioning my hair it comes to me. The best part is that I almost never even realize that I'm thinking about research!!

I don't know if it's the routine of showering that helps bring these ideas to the surface, or maybe I was actually working it out during my sleep, but there is definitely a connection between showering and idea generation for me.

So, fellow bloggers do you have any strange places that bring out your brilliance?

5 comments:

jess said...

My advisor's always told me that he comes up with his best ideas in the shower.

Ewan said...

I'm another shower-thinker. I have often contemplated putting either a waterproof whiteboard or a dictaphone in there..

B said...

The shower helps me sometimes. Although I also dream about work so sometimes in the morning I think Ahah! that is what I should do!

PG said...

So true. If I'm having a hard time with writing, I will sometimes go and take a shower. It helps to relax me and clear my mind a bit.

Shower Thinker said...

My wife and I are hard-core shower thinkers. There is a waterproof notepad for the shower called AquaNotes. They also have Aqua LoveNotes for couples. www.myaquanotes.com