The Power of Daydreaming
or visualisation, to use a more acceptable term
I grew up in the South of Spain, back in a time when there were no highways. What that meant was that we would spend hours in the car to get anywhere. And we went everywhere. Best of all was the summer holidays, when we would drive for hours along the coast, camping on the beaches along the way, sometimes getting as far as Lisbon.
My brother and I loved those hours in the car. I never asked my brother how he experienced it, but for me, those were hours spent in a world created in my own mind. I would make up all kinds of adventures. But the best was always when my mind took over and made up the story, making me the spectator in my own head.
It was only much later, when I became a programmer, that I discovered that this daydreaming can be quite useful. I found I could literally ‘see’ code inside my head — daydream code. More interesting still, I could picture complex systems in my head, like for example the architecture of a project. Or the structure of an organisation.
Visualisation
To my surprise, it is only recently that I found out that this daydreaming skill is actually quite well-established. In the ‘real world’ it is called visualisation.
visualisation: the process of creating a visual image in one’s mind (see visual imagery) or mentally rehearsing a planned movement in order to learn skills or enhance performance.
— American Psychological Association —
It is a skill that is used for example by athletes, to prepare for important events by ‘seeing’ their victory. It is used in coaching, meditation, and even in psychology. In fact, research suggests that visualisation is so powerful that it can be just as good as the real thing: learning to play music can be just as effective if you visualise yourself practising instead of actually practising. How cool is that!
Think about it. Most of you (people with aphantasia are an exception), if you think deeply of say a beach, you create a mental image of it in your mind. And think about the details. Notice that it is a pretty comprehensive image your brain puts together. We take this skill for granted, and most of us don’t make much of it, but it is a pretty impressive feat of creativity.
The game-changer is to realise that this skill can be controlled and directed. It is not by any means something easy to do, and it takes practice and effort. And it is counterintuitive, like learning to use both hands independently when playing the piano.
Worst of all is that it is like all forms of creativity — whimsical and temperamental. It will ignore you when you most need it. Instead, it will come to you at night, when you much rather get some sleep. Or during an important meeting, when you should most definitely be paying attention to your boss. Back in my programming days I always had a notebook to write down the insights my brain would surprise me with at odd times.
All in all, it is a deeply personal skill which you need to tweak and shape for yourself. You are basically trying to hack your brain. But if you persevere, it will feel like a superpower. Directed Daydreaming.
Breakthrough
For me, the big breakthrough in finding a way to direct it was running. I’m a naturally scatterbrained person, meaning that my thoughts will easily go all over the place unless I have something to give it focus. Something to distract my mind, so to speak.
Running gives me that focus. It was towards the end of my programming career that I discovered that by holding a specific subject in my mind when starting on a run, interesting things started to happen after a few kilometres. For example, when preparing a workshop, after a while my mind will start visualising me facilitating the whole thing. I can ‘see’ the posters, the exercises and even the interaction with the participants.
Now, 10 years later, I can usually switch on my directed daydreaming at will. Hugely handy when you have a long commute. Or when you are getting bored at a party. You always have something interesting to do.
And it’s an awesome way to worry and poke at a problem or challenge, often over a number of days. It’s easy to pick up where I left it. Indeed, remember the notebook I mentioned? Well, I don’t need it anymore. It seems to be an interesting side-effect of this directed daydreaming that anything you visualise you will remember. Perhaps it is the intensity of the focus, or simply the fact that you ‘see’ the thing in your mind, which makes for powerful memories.
But I always go back to running. It is the one activity where my directed daydreaming seems to peak and where the most interesting things still happen. For example, recently I was preparing a talk for a conference, and practising it in my mind. Visualising it, that is. Perhaps because it was a longer run than usual, by the end something baffling happened: the audience started to ask me questions. Things I couldn’t have come up with myself, things that made me make serious changes to the presentation when I got home. Full circle to being the spectator in my own mind again.
Conclusion
In Agile we talk about the Agile mindset, and changing the culture. But what are we really talking about? There doesn't seem to be a clear picture of this, apart from the standard Agile principle and such. And even harder, how do you make the switch? How do you develop habits that will reinforce that Agile mindset?
Perhaps a greater attention for the interesting characteristics of our brain is one way of answering that question. Daydreaming for me has become so effective, and so enjoyable, that I will seize any opportunity to use it. How’s that for creating a habit?
But whatever the case, even if this is all nonsense, daydreaming is truly a very useful skill which I encourage everyone to play with. Unleash your creativity! Just remember you need to be very patient and you have to find your own way.