Creativity Is Found in the Field Not in Your Inbox

The world’s a mess.

Above ground? Well, let’s just not go there.

And below ground? Rusty nails and historical disappointment. Yet, sometimes, if you’re lucky, you strike gold. Literally. Or metaphorically. (But mostly metaphorically)
The real trick, however, is knowing where to look...

Once upon a pre-Covid time, we all went to the office five days a week. We did it because that’s what we did, we knew nothing different. We also did it because we enjoyed free heating during winter, pub lunches, escaping the families and for the Wi-Fi.

Now it’s 2025, and the new routine is chaos in business-casual. Many places are now three days in. Two out. Five on. Somehow all of them at once. But here's the thing: showing up physically isn’t the same as showing up creatively.

And no - staring at your inbox like it owes you money does not count as 'thinking time.'
If you actually want a thought - a real one, the kind that could win an award or get you fired - you often have to go and find it.

Science (and common sense) backs this up. Movement is good for your brain. It boosts mental health, problem-solving, sparks lateral thinking, and temporarily tricks you into believing you don’t need a career change.

Which brings me back to metal detecting. Yes, metal detecting.

While my Minelab Equinox 700 hums over centuries of British soil, my brain - anxious, overcaffeinated, and prone to intrusive thoughts about the word 'synergy' - finally shuts up. Or rather, it shuffles sideways into a mode scientists call relaxed focus and I call 'not spiralling'.

It’s out there in a field - coat flapping, rain imminent, surrounded by cows who do not want me there - that I’ve reset my mind and had some of my best ideas. Campaigns, client calls, headlines sharper than a discarded Blackcurrant Tango ring pull.

And sure, 90% of what I dig up is crap. Modern shrapnel. Buckle fragments. The occasional hostile crisp packet from the 90s. But then... something incredible surfaces.
A coin. A thought. A human connection.

Creativity is basically metal detecting.

You research, you get in the zone, sift through some nonsense, listen for a signal, and pray it isn’t another rusty nail pretending to be a Roman brooch before digging deeper.

But here’s the real win. You don’t have to go detecting like me. Worry not. You could simply go for a walk, a run, or even a pub crawl. The point is: step away. Let your brain dig unsupervised. It’s surprisingly competent when you’re not breathing down its neck.

So let’s stop thinking of breaks as laziness and start seeing them as creative tools. Because the fact is, the best idea you’ll had all week is probably not in your bottom drawer or inbox. It’s in a metaphorical muddy field. Next to a silver Henry III, 1216-72 Long Cross Cut Hammered Halfpenny. (Found it. You're welcome.)