How Tiredness Can Help Entrepreneurs be Creative

Tiredness is not something we usually think about as helpful.

However, tiredness can aid entrepreneurs (and everyone else) tap into their creativity.

Fatigue is never fun.

Every task feels more daunting than it is, and every conversation sounds like they cranked the volume up.

Ideally, we would all get 7-8 hours of sleep per night.

However, that’s not always possible in a society with ample obligations.

The average worker loses about 11 days of productivity each year because of poor sleeping habits.

Tiredness is, unfortunately, something that everyone in the business world is well acquainted with.

Quality sleep can be scarce, especially for entrepreneurs.

Free time can feel like a needle in a haystack when you’re in charge of building a company and ensuring success and growth.

Especially for those with kids and additional obligations at home.

However, rather than admit defeat when tired, many savvy (and desperate) entrepreneurs use tiredness to their advantage.

Using scientific research and common sense, any entrepreneur can transform their fatigue.

Tiredness can go from an inevitable obstacle to a reason for prominent success.

Creativity Peaks When You’re Tired

An entrepreneur is pivotal in molding a business’ future, specifically by using creativity and ingenuity to implement strategies and protocols that work.

While tired entrepreneurs may sound devoid of ideas, fatigue can help the creative process.

Ron Friedman, the author of The Best Place to Work, explains this:

“To be creative, sometimes you need to consider some ideas that don’t necessarily feel like they’re on track with what you’re trying to achieve.

And so having all these ideas come into your mind because you’re not quite as good at putting them off when you’re tired can make you more creative.”

Distractions Can Inspire Creative Thinking

How many of your truly great ideas have come when you’re trying to plan them — in a room without distraction?

For many people, their greatest ideas come out of nowhere.

This isn’t just some coincidence, either.

Distractions can inspire creative thinking.

Fatigue can make distractions more prominent, as tiredness makes it more difficult to zoom in on one topic.

However, the “haphazard” mindset may result in a more lucrative creative core as a lack of focus on one thing can make it easier to take in a wider variety of information, making the creative juices flow.

Still, it’s very important to avoid fatigue when operating machinery or driving home, as tiredness poses many dangers outside the workplace that everyone should know.

Napping Is a Very Good Thing

Entrepreneurs who find themselves fatigued during the day may find the urge to nap after only a few hours of sleep the night before.

While “napping” has the stigma of being lazy or irresponsible, a 30-45 minute nap during the day has the clear potential to result in significantly more productivity throughout the rest of the day.

Why this potential boost in productivity?

The power of a nap can be surprising.

Resting your mind and body for a short time can cause improvements across many cognitive areas.

The most prominent is improved memory.

A German research study revealed just that.

The study was conducted with two groups — those who had taken a nap and those who had stayed awake — and results showed much better memory demonstrations from the former group.

Why does memory improve with a nap?

It appears sleep helps the hippocampus, the portion of the brain responsible for memory consolidation and storage, be much more efficient and effective at consolidating information, making it easier to access later.

Make a Fatigued Mind Work for You

Although many entrepreneurs cannot afford to devote 30-45 minutes per day to napping, those who can make the time have found it to be a refreshing and memory-boosting strategy that mentally equips them to handle the rest of the day.

However, fatigue can also have its benefits if you can’t find time for a nap.

Stay as rested as possible, but let your creative juices flow if you are tired.