The other day, I found myself stuck in a long, slow line at the grocery store.

There was only one checkout lane open and the cashier seemed to be working through some problem with the customer currently at the head of the line.

With a handful of people still ahead of me, I instinctively reached for my phone and began to browse.

First I scanned the news headlines, then checked for anything new on my hockey team, the Edmonton Oilers before opening up my newsletter feed to chip away at the hundreds of unread newsletter issues sitting in my inbox.

After a few minutes of scrolling, I glanced up to check the line and saw that every single other person in the line also had their phone, skimming through their content of choice.

Of course, this observation is far from groundbreaking.

If anything, the fact that we immediately reach for our devices to fill even the tiniest amount of empty space in our lives with content of one form or another is the assumed default.

In fact, if you’re like me, and you choose to fill the space with newsletters and articles about marketing, creativity, and business, this habit feels downright productive. When we find ourselves stuck in these in-between moments of waiting, what else could we possibly do that would be a better use of our time?

But herein lies the problem.

Because how do we really know what the best use of our time is?

It’s easy to look to content consumption as a productive task because (at least when we’re consuming a certain type of content) we are keenly aware of the learning it delivers.

We read an article or listen to a podcast and learn a new tactic, discover a new tool, or shift our thinking in some way. These are all valuable outcomes, perhaps even necessary for the continued inspiration and progression of our creative work.

But what if their easily observable value causes us to overemphasize their importance at the expense of other potentially more important uses of our time as creators?

Because while consumption is certainly an important element of creative work, in order to connect the dots and make sense of what we’ve consumed we need to leave empty space for integration.

Interstitial Opportunities

The interplay between consumption and integration is the engine that drives all creative work.

They are yin and yang and it’s impossible to do successful creative work without each of them.

Without consumption, there are no new ideas for our creative brains to connect and meld together.

But without time to allow these ideas to integrate and percolate, we never end up with actual novel ideas with which to do anything with… which is kind of the foundation of any kind of creative work.

The process of integration and connection is almost entirely subconscious, but in order for this process to occur, our brains require periods of slack where they’re not actively engaged in working on a problem or consuming content.

In other words, like standing in line at a grocery store is a perfect opportunity for this process to take place.

I like to think of these small moments as Interstitial Opportunities, the small moments of limbo where we’re stuck in between tasks, waiting, with nothing “productive” to do.

Of course, at first glance it might not seem as though we could get much creative thinking done in these brief interstitials.

And yet, these small moments of slack and boredom and ennui are exactly the moments when we stand to make the greatest creative breakthroughs, an idea that has been backed up by research.

With little to occupy our subconscious minds, they naturally seek to fill the void by going to work on a problem we’ve been puzzling over or connecting the dots between ideas and experiences.

In addition, with our conscious minds undistracted by tasks or consumption, we’re more open to noticing the connections being formed behind the scenes.

You likely experience this regularly.

How often do you have new ideas in the shower or while out for a walk, or while diving after all?

Despite this we spend so much time, either actively or unconsciously crowding out these opportunities for enlightenment by filling them with content and distraction.

Creative work certainly requires inspiration.

And building a creative business requires guidance and education.

But I’d argue that most of us have an overwhelming surplus of tools, tactics and strategies occupying our mental space already.

What we’re lacking are novel big ideas to which we can apply those resources.

If you’re like me, you imagine your big ideas being born of the hours-long creative brainstorming sessions you’ll surely one day have the time and bandwidth available to schedule regularly

And yet, if we’re honest with ourselves, we know that day will never come.

In a world with so few big unbroken swaths of time then, making better use of many small moments of slack in our schedules might just be a creative superpower.

The next time you’re stuck in line, or sitting down to eat lunch, or faced with an unexpected delay and you feel the compulsion to reach for your phone, stop.

Notice it.

Push back on it.

Recognize the interstitial as an opportunity.

And instead of filling it, simply sit.

Allow yourself to be bored.

Allow your mind to wander.

Make space for ideas to fill.

Or not.

The ideas might not show up the first or the second or the fifth time.

But nature abhors a vacuum.

And if you keep making space, it’s only a matter of time before it will be filled.

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This article originally appeared in my weekly Creative Wayfinding Newsletter. Each issue is the product of a week of work, and contains something not available for sale.

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Each week, we explore a different facet of the question “How do we navigate the wilds of creating work that matters?”

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