The Focus Fix: Finding Clarity, Creativity and Resilience in an Overwhelming World

Business consultant Griffiths (The Creative Thinking Handbook) and Medlicott, an editor at Wales Art Review, set forth a lackluster guide for fostering outside-the-box thinking. The authors are primarily interested in how readers can “unlock your true creative potential” by practicing “focused daydreaming.” This “mental meandering” involves selecting a problem to solve (for example, “My intention is to reimagine how I might reorganize my average day in order to be more efficient”), conducting background research, and then letting one’s thoughts drift while keeping one’s attention on the problem at hand (the authors never provide a satisfactory explanation of how to reconcile these contradictory imperatives). The idea is to tap into the wisdom of the subconscious, which they contend “might blend and intersperse seemingly irrelevant experiences and fragments of information to produce novel ideas.” To that end, they recommend entering a daydream state by cooking, doing chores, exercising, or listening to music. Historical anecdotes illustrating the breakthroughs that have stemmed from daydreaming will be familiar to most readers (e.g., Isaac Newton formulating his theory of gravity after watching apples fall from a tree), and the authors struggle to elaborate on their central framework, leading to repetitive passages extolling the benefits of getting lost in thought. This misses the mark. (July)