A Magpie Mindset And Chopping Veg: Will Grundy On Creating Space For Inspiration

Throw my brain a curveball

I’m one of those people who does their best thinking in the shower, but devoting a couple of hours each day to bathing is impractical for so many reasons. So, I have to find other ways to create space for my brain to turn off.

I find giving myself something else to focus on is a great way of doing that, so I tend to turn to one of either exercising or cooking.

Exercise is best when it’s combined with fresh air, which could mean going for a run or taking our Boston terrier for a walk. As a bonus, I know that if I can explain something to Winne, it means I’ve given my brain the time it needs.

Ideally, the cooking is a couple of hours indulging in my mid-life crisis hobby of low and slow barbecuing. But even a session just chopping up vegetables gives me space to process my thoughts without actually thinking. When you’re as clumsy as I am, all your brainpower goes toward dicing everything but your thumb; it’s the perfect way to give my mind the time it really needs.

Activate magpie mode

I don’t know if serendipity can be engineered, but I do know that by going into magpie mode I increase the likelihood of collecting some unexpected insight or nugget of information as I go through everyday life. 

That’s why I like talking to people who talk to people. Some of the most interesting work conversations I’ve ever had have been in the backs of Ubers, or in the barber’s chair. It was during a haircut at my local, Lass Barber on Queens Road, Peckham, that my barber said: “Most guys don’t want much done to their hair because they’re scared of how their mates will react. The only thing that scares them more is having no hair at all..!” That sparked the idea which led to VO5’s “If you’ve got hair, care” campaign. 

I use the same trick with podcasts. You can keep your Diary of a CEO rubbish; give me Things People Do any day of the week. It’s amazing what you can learn purely from listening to people talk about their work.

Quieting the noise

Even when you’ve carved out time to think, the constant stream of WhatsApps, breaking news alerts, Teams calls and so on, can quickly fill the space you’ve made.

To create a bit of a clearing, I have a thing where I tap my phone three times, and it shifts to black and white mode. It doesn’t sound like it would do much, but it works really well. I don’t know whether it’s true or not but there’s a theory that smartphone interfaces borrow a lot from the tricks used in casino slot machine design – the bright colours, pings and even the scrolling gesture – to keep you hooked.

By stripping away one of those elements, the colour, the effect is immediate. It doesn’t even require an app, just a shortcut. But that, combined with some judicious alert management, means I can use the space I’ve created in the way I intended. Most of the time, anyway.

Will Grundy is head of planning at adam&eveDDB