Why Every Creator Needs to Walk More

In 2014, researchers at Stanford University published a study examining the relationship between walking and creative thinking. Across four experiments involving 176 people, they found that participants generally produced more creative responses while walking than while sitting. The benefit was particularly connected to divergent thinking, which is the ability to generate multiple possible ideas or approaches to a problem.

Walking does not magically make someone more creative, but it can change the conditions in which they are thinking. And for creators, that matters because some of the hardest parts of the job are not about finding the right answer; they are about finding an answer in the first place.

When More Information Stops Helping

Creators spend an enormous amount of time consuming information. You research subjects, watch other people's videos, listen to podcasts, read articles, check references and scroll through social media to see what everyone else is discussing. However, when you are stuck, you may not need more information. You may simply need to give your brain a different environment in which to process what you already know.

That is where something as ordinary as walking becomes surprisingly useful. Instead of adding another article, video or reference to the problem, stepping away from the screen can give you the space to look at the same information from a different angle. In many cases, the breakthrough is not about discovering something new; it is about making a connection between things you already know.

Take the Problem With You

One of the simplest ways to use walking as part of your creative process is to take one specific problem with you rather than trying to solve the entire project at once.

Imagine you have recorded a 90-minute podcast interview but cannot figure out what the episode is really about. Instead of listening to the entire interview again while staring at your editing software, go for a walk and ask yourself one question: What is the most interesting thing this guest actually said?

You do not need to solve the entire episode while walking. The aim is to give yourself enough space to think about the problem without simultaneously trying to edit it. You may remember a story from the interview that suddenly feels more important, realise that your original angle is weak or discover a much simpler way to structure the episode.

Once you start thinking about walking this way, the same approach can work for scripts, articles, videos and creative campaigns. Rather than carrying the entire workload around in your head, choose one question and give yourself time to think through it.

A Simple 20-Minute Routine For Creators

The idea is useful, but it becomes much more practical when you turn it into a repeatable habit. You do not need to walk for hours or create another complicated productivity system. Start with one 20-minute walk when you are working through an idea rather than simply completing routine tasks.

For the first five minutes, walk without trying to solve anything. Leave your desk, put your phone away and allow your attention to move naturally between your surroundings and whatever has been occupying your mind.

For the next ten minutes, focus on one creative question. It could be, “What is the real story here?”, “What should the opening be?” or “What can I remove?” Do not research or scroll; simply think through the problem from different angles and let different possibilities come to mind.

For the final five minutes, stop forcing yourself to find an answer. Keep walking and let your mind settle. When you return, spend two or three minutes writing down anything that became clearer during the walk. You are not looking for a perfect solution; you are capturing the ideas that are worth exploring when you return to the work.

If 20 minutes is unrealistic, start with ten. The consistency matters more than the distance.

Sometimes Stepping Away is Part of the Work

This is perhaps the most useful way to think about walking as a creator. Taking a walk does not mean abandoning the work, especially when the problem you are facing requires ideas rather than simple execution.

We often treat screen time as evidence of productivity. If the laptop is open, the editing software is running and we have been sitting at the desk for hours, it feels as though we must be making progress. Yet some of the most important creative decisions happen before anything is typed, recorded or edited.

So the next time you find yourself staring at a blank document, replaying the same piece of audio or moving the same clips around your timeline, resist the temptation to simply sit there longer. Put on your shoes, take the problem with you and give your brain some room to approach it differently.

The work has not stopped. You have simply changed where part of the work happens.