I thought it was just me. Now, though, I realise I’m in auspicious company. I’ve always found that walking frees up my mind. Many a walk has helped me solve a plot problem that I’d been struggling with; out of apparently nowhere have come exciting thriller titles, lovely descriptions, snappy opening sentences, and interesting metaphors. What I didn’t appreciate is that there’s a scientific reason for this, and many creative people have adopted walking as a way to generate innovative ideas.

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For example, Steve Jobbs, Apple’s co-founder, was known for his “walking meetings” and was often seen walking round Apple’s campus while brainstorming ideas with chief engineer Jony Ive. The famous nineteenth century Philosopher, composer, and poet Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in Twilight of the Idols that “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” Authors, in particular, have found walking to be a great way to get creativity flowing. In the book A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemmingway records “I would walk along the quais… when I was trying to think something out.” And coming more up to date, J K Rowling, is quoted on Goodreads as saying that there’s “nothing like a night time stroll to give you ideas.” This process of boosting creativity by walking was summed up by Henry Thoreau, when he wrote, “Me thinks that the moment my legs began to move, my thoughts began to flow” (thanks to the writingandwellness blog for that quote).

Studies Into the Link Between Walking and Creativity

Stanford University performed a fascinating study on this topic in 2014, under the title Give your Ideas More Legs. They proved that walking does, indeed, boost creativity, and surprisingly also demonstrated that the environment has no impact: those walking indoors on a treadmill facing a blank wall had their creativity boosted by the same amount as those who walked outside. They also found that the benefit of walking lasted afterwards for up to fifteen minutes.

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To do their experiment, they had three groups of volunteers. In one group, participants were pushed in a wheelchair round a set route on campus; in another, they walked round the same route; those in the final group walked on treadmills indoors. During one test, they were asked to think up alternative uses of a specific object, and a point was awarded for each idea that no other participant thought of. In another test, participants were instructed to create complex analogies for a set of phrases. The result was that every single person who walked outside during the test was able to generate at least one unique analogy, compared to only half of the participants who remained seated. The overall result concluded that walking boosted creativity on average by 60%.

Another interesting finding from Stanford’s experiments was that, although walking clearly boosted creativity, it didn’t help with focussed thinking. In one test, the participants were asked to think of a word that linked three others. For example, if the three words were cottage, Swiss, and cake, the answer would be “cheese”. Getting to the answer does not require creativity; instead, it applies logical analysis and a comparison of word meanings. The result was that doing this test while walking actually degraded their ability at focussed thinking.

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So, walking boosts creativity, not focussed thinking. But is there a scientific explanation for these correlations? Studies of neuron activity in the brain demonstrate there is. In a separate study, written up under the brilliant title, Joggin The Noggin, it was found that walking and jogging reduces neuron activity in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for decision making and logical reasoning. With that area’s effect suppressed, creative thoughts are able to flow more freely, thereby boosting creativity.

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One additional thing these sorts of tests found was that if the walk is in a busy area, where the person needs to continually avoid other pedestrians and obstacles, cross busy roads, etc., the effect on creativity was significantly reduced. So, if you want to get your creative juices flowing, go out for a walk, but if you’re in a city, find a park; don’t try wandering round London’s busy streets.

General Health Benefits of Walking

And let’s not forget the health benefits of a brisk walk. According to the NHS web pages, thirty minutes a day help to lower blood pressure, counter depression and dementia, lower the risk of osteoarthritis, and even reduce the risk of cancers. So, I’ll put my keyboard away right now, get up from my desk, and head out for a peaceful walk before writing the next chapter of my new thriller.

Ian Coates graduated with honours in electronics and often uses his experience of working in high-tech industries to give his thrillers an authentic backdrop. Although he followed a career in technology, his first love has always been books, particularly exciting page-turners about spies, blackmailers, and assassins.

He won his first writing competition at the age of 14 with a crime novella. His debut thriller, Eavesdrop, was short listed in a Tibor Jones Page Tuner competition and was one of the winners in the centenary Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook novel writing competition. Eavesdrop was published in paperback in 2014 by Bad Day Books, Assent Publishing’s thriller imprint, and Audible Studios subsequently released it as an audio book. Backlash is his second novel, which was the runner-up in the 2024 Writers College Global Writing Competition. It is published by Wallace Publishing.

Ian lives with his wife in Worcestershire, England and is a member of the International Thriller Writers Association and the Society of Authors. A percentage of the proceeds from his thrillers supports the British Science Association charity.