Comment by binaryturtle

Mathematician JE Littlewood was a big proponent of walking and shaving for ideas:

> “Illumination, which can happen in a fraction of a second, is the emergence of the creative idea into the conscious. This almost always occurs when the mind is in a state of relaxation, and engaged lightly with ordinary matters. Helmholtz's ideas usually came to him when he was walking in hilly country. There is a lot to be said for walking during rest periods, unpopular as the idea may be. Incidentally, the relaxed activity of shaving can be a fruitful source of minor ideas; I used to postpone it, when possible, till after a period of work.”

I also recommend walking, I leave shaving to the men to try, and would add that like many others the shower is my most happy place for ideas and hitting on the causes of difficult bugs.

I once solved a customers problem, and understood the problem of my broken washing machine during one short shower before going to bed. Best shower ever.

Douglas Adams was a big proponent of baths to help his writing

I design board games and almost all of my ideas come while walking or driving. Sometimes we just need to give our brain a minimal task to occupy it and then we can more easily get into flow. This is also the same result of the Ballmer Peak / 1 Beer Buzz method. [https://xkcd.com/323/]