Walking does improve your creative thinking

Sitting for long periods of time is unhealthy and physical activity is good for you. While the well known fact is regarded as true, it is not always easy to keep in mind. It is kind of like with smoking; smoking is bad, but quitting is hard. Starting something can be even harder.

Loquiz is a way to make people move. It is a tool to present information so that you have to move. So we are kind of connecting the mind and body here, the thinking and the moving. While it is extremely fun and gets your endorphines flowing, the question is – does the moving part actually add to the persons ability to think?

There is loads of anecdotal evidence of this. Steve Jobs liked to think while walking. Walking while thinking is probably the more correct way to put it. Then again, there are quite a few good ideas coming from people sitting down you know where.

But is there any actual scientific evidence of the fact that walking helps a person to solve problems, or be  more creative compared to people that are sitting still? Well, apparently there is. A study made in Stanford University found that light physical activity helps a person to be more creative.

The study found that creative thinking significantly improves while a person is walking and the effect remains for some time after the exercise. The interesting part is that it does not matter where you walk – in- or outdoors, the effect is the same. So, the simplest way to boost your creativity is to jump up and walk back and forth in your office.

The study also found that while your creativity gets a boost, walking does not help too much when you need to solve specific tasks where one correct answer is expected.  Other experiments have shown that after or during exercise, even very mild exertion, people perform better on tests of memory and attention.

Bringing the research together with Loquiz would suggest that the photo hunt is the perfect game to run outdoors. There players move around and solve exercises that demand a good amount of creativity. From personal experience, I would claim that photos created after a brief walk are way more creative than photos created after being sedentary for a long period of time.

However, you might want to take into account that questions that need specific answer could actually be harder to answer moving around compared to sitting still.

Yet another study suggests that there is never too much light activity in a day, so the more you move the better you will be long term. It might be hard to start a new habit yourself, but you can easily push others to move more just by creating a game for them with Loquiz : )