An article in guardian.co.uk last week highlighted the findings of a survey that claims to have pinpointed the time when we are at our most creative to a very precise 10.04pm. Although the sceptic in me views these results with some incredulity, they certainly offer food for thought.

Taking creativity as synonymous with bursts of inspiration, ingenuity, productivity and resourcefulness, I thought it would be interesting to gather the thoughts of the IE team – which boasts numerous ‘real’ creatives amongst its numbers – and pose them the question: when are you most creative?

Early birds vs. night owls
Does the magic 10.04pm strike a chord with IE? Not really, it seems. There were a couple of night owls whose creative highpoints occurred ‘lying in bed trying to get to sleep, dark room. No noise, no distractions, no sleep!’ but the majority didn’t back this up. Whilst some of the team acknowledged that they experienced late-night bursts of creativity, the same people maintained that these were just as likely to occur first thing in the morning. Indeed, early mornings were generally cited as the optimum time for a creative high, with a couple of the team commenting that they go downhill after lunch and that the chances of a major breakthrough occurring in the afternoon are slim to none.

But does timing even matter?
Not always when the IE team are concerned. Several of the gang commented that their peaks occurred at random with eureka moments coming out of nowhere, that timing just wasn’t that important and that ‘there is no rule….except some inspiration!’. What the IE vox pop does seem to suggest, however, is that environment and ambience are more significant than where the clock hands are pointing. Only one IE-er agreed that taking a shower was the best way to germinate the seeds of creativity – alongside 44% of respondents to the original survey – whilst other team members cited going for a run and long drives as tools for getting mental cogs turning. One of the team thrives on the freedom to innovate and create: ‘when there are not too many restrictions and I’m not being heavily directed by someone…I get excited about ideas’. Some feel they’re more productive when there’s no pressure to do anything other than think, with nothing but coffee and a bag of M&Ms as company. Others flourish on the buzz of other people’s input and find that bouncing thoughts off a group makes good ideas even better.

‘Capturing’ creativity
A few of the team talked about taking steps to ensure they didn’t lose their inspiration. This might mean keeping a private book of ideas or storing notepads or sketchpads on bedside tables…cue frantic scribbling in the dark, apparently! Interestingly, the only IE respondents who explicitly mentioned they noted down their ideas were male – which bucks the trend reported in the original survey, which claimed that women were most likely to capture their brainwaves on paper.

So, do we believe the 10.04pm hype?
Although the evidence brought forth by the IE poll would surely not stand up in court, it does make for interesting reading. To understand how to engineer the ideal conditions for creativity anytime, anywhere would be an advantage – especially on those days where inspiration eludes us – but such a breakthrough is unlikely. One man’s creative fodder is, it seems, another man’s dampening sponge.