Creativity State Menu
Generate ideas in contrasting states, then capture what remains sticky.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 95%
Huberman describes a menu of contrasting states that may help ideas surface. One is body still and mind active: remain physically motionless while thinking in complete sentences, a practice he attributes to Karl Deisseroth and compares with observations of Rick Rubin and Einstein. The inverse is body active and mind free: take a long walk or easy run without trying to solve anything. He also describes open-monitoring meditation, in which attention receives the surrounding field rather than repeatedly returning to the breath; he says laboratory work associates it with improved creative performance. None of these states guarantees a valuable idea. The shared operating rule is to keep a notebook, voice memo, or other capture mode nearby, record without immediate judgment, and later review which ideas remain “sticky” enough to develop.
Origin
Huberman draws on his notebook practice, Karl Deisseroth, Rick Rubin, reported Einstein habits, running, and open-monitoring research. Extracted from The Diary of a CEO.
Core principles
- 01Ideas often surface when deliberate planning relaxes.
- 02Different people access creativity through different body-mind states.
- 03Still-body active-thinking and moving-body free-thinking are complementary experiments.
- 04Open monitoring broadens attention rather than fixing it on one object.
- 05A capture system prevents a passing idea from being lost.
How to run it
- 1
Install capture
Choose a notebook, voice memo, or single digital inbox that is available when ideas arise.
Pro tip Use the lowest-friction medium you will review later.
- 2
Seed a question
State the problem or curiosity briefly, then stop demanding an immediate answer.
Pro tip A vague but honest question can be enough to orient later thought.
- 3
Test still-body thinking
Sit completely still and think actively in complete sentences for a bounded period.
Pro tip Distinguish this from breath-focused meditation; the mind remains deliberately active.
- 4
Test moving-body thinking
Walk or run easily without audio and let thought free-run rather than forcing a solution.
Pro tip Keep the pace easy enough that ideas can surface.
Watch out Choose movement appropriate to your health and environment.
- 5
Open attention
Try open monitoring by noticing sounds, space, and sensations without anchoring exclusively to breathing.
Pro tip Treat this as one creativity experiment, not a performance guarantee.
- 6
Capture then filter
Record emerging ideas immediately, but delay selection. Review at the end of the week or another fixed interval for ideas that still have force.
Pro tip Develop one sticky idea before collecting more methods.
In the wild
Huberman records spontaneous thoughts in a notebook and reviews them at the end of the week or while traveling. He looks for ideas that still feel sticky rather than treating every captured thought as a project.
→ Passing thoughts are preserved without forcing immediate action, and later review supplies a simple selection filter.
Huberman says some of his best ideas arise during a weekly 60- to 90-minute easy run when he is not intentionally thinking about a topic.
→ A recurring low-pressure movement block becomes an idea-generation context rather than another input-consumption session.
Common mistakes
Waiting without capture
An idea that appears in a low-control state can disappear unless a simple recording method is available.
Confusing generation with validation
A state that produces ideas does not establish that those ideas are accurate, original, or useful.
Is it for you?
Best for
Writers, researchers, founders, and artists exploring a question with no obvious linear answer.
Not ideal for
Replacing the focused execution, testing, and domain expertise required to turn an idea into useful work.
From the transcript
“it's very important to have a mode of capture”
“body still, mind active”
“Have a mode of capture. Write things down, or maybe jot them into your phone or voice memos.”
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