1: Remember the 1980s TV show MacGyver or the hilarious Saturday Night Live send-up of it?
The show’s central theme involved MacGyver’s creative ability to solve complex problems.
Turns out MacGyver’s creator Lee Zlotoff was also an excellent solver of problems himself.
“To write episodic TV,” Lee explains, “I had to produce an enormous amount of creative material under very tight deadlines. There was no time to get stuck.”
Lee began noticing that whenever he ran into a tricky problem while working on a script, the answers he needed wouldn’t occur to him while he was sitting at his desk.
“Rather, he got his answers when driving or taking a shower,” Steven writes. “It happened so frequently that, whenever Lee got stuck, he would leave his office to drive home and take a shower.”
2: Lee became curious about how and why this happened.
“What he discovered is that lightly stimulating activity, like taking a shower, occupies the conscious mind, but not too much,” Steven notes. “It serves as an incubation period, allowing us to pass a problem from the conscious to the subconscious.”
Why does this work?
“The subconscious is just a much better problem solver. It’s far faster, far more energy efficient, and has nearly unlimited RAM—meaning, while the conscious mind can handle about 7 bits of information at once, there appears to be no limit on how many ideas the subconscious can juggle.”
3: Eventually, Lee created a simple process to generate these creative breakthroughs. Which he called “the MacGyver Method.” Of course, he did!
Here’s how it works:
Step One: Problem Identification
“Write down our problem. Literally. Speaking it aloud won’t work. Telling a friend doesn’t help,” Steven suggests. “Writing, because of the relationship between tactile experience and memory, is key. Also, be as detailed as possible.”
Steven shares a real-life example: “Let’s say that tomorrow I’m starting a new chapter in a book but I’m stumped as to where to begin. I’d simply write: ‘Tomorrow, I want to write a new chapter that’s funny, engaging, ends with a cliffhanger, has something to do with blue whales and Mother Teresa.'”
The key is to include as much detail as possible. But not to worry about connecting the details. “If I’m clear about my goals, the rest takes place automatically, as part of step two,” he writes.
Step Two: Incubation”
Step away from the problem for a little while. After we get the hang of this, one to four hours will do the trick,” Steven recommends. “But in the beginning aim for a half-day or so (or sleep on the problem overnight). During this period, do something stimulating but not taxing.”
MacGwyver creator Lee used to build model airplanes. “Gardening, house cleaning, and shooting basketballs all work fine. Long walks as well. What doesn’t work is TV—it requires too much mental processing to turn off consciousness,” Steven notes.
Also, when utilizing the MacGyver method: Avoid strenuous exercise. If we “exhaust ourselves with a workout, it can hamper our ability to find the solution we’re hunting for afterward,” Steven shares.
Step Three: Free Writing
“After those hours have passed, sit back down at our notepad and start writing again,” Steven suggests. “It doesn’t matter what. Copy passages out of our favorite book, pen song lyrics, do haiku. After a short delay—usually no more than a few minutes—the answers to our problem will start trickling out.
“In the case of my earlier example, I would simply start with: ‘I’m now trying to write my next chapter but I don’t really know what it’s about.’ It sounds simple, but the results can be stunning. We’ll find ourselves solving creative problems with far more speed and efficiency than normal.”
But the biggest wins from using the “MacGyver Method” process are emotional.
“I never have to worry about a problem,” Lee says. “If I get stuck, I know my subconscious can come up with answers my conscious mind literally can’t dream of, and in far shorter time frames. It’s totally removed anxiety from my writing process.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: What’s a tricky problem I’m working on right now?
Action: Experiment with using “the MacGyver Method.”
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