At a family party I once got chatting to a fascinating woman who had literally written the (or at least a) book on the conditions that foster creativity and invention. (She worked in the world of science specifically). One of the things her research showed to be most conducive?

"Unstructured time in interdisciplinary groups" - in other words, just hanging out with people who work on different stuff to you and in different ways. To that end, she organised daily coffee and cake between 11 and 11.30, attendance mandatory.

At one of those sessions a chemist and a physicist got talking ... and the result was the first coloured flat screen.

So if you're struggling to come up with new ideas now we are all sat in our homes all day, don't beat yourself up.

Also, if you run a business, and if we ever go back to offices again, you might want to stop regarding staff canteens and fixed break times as an outdated luxury and start seeing them and the encounters they create as what they are - the cauldron of creative thinking.

We talk a lot in my world about the importance of "the work" - rightly so. But maybe we need to go up a level. And focus on the conditions for the work. Just as great chefs talk more about produce (inputs) than anything else, great creativity needs great inputs.

(I wish to God I could remember her name so I could give her credit for all this!)

UPDATE: pretty sure it was Margaret Boden who is only one of the country's most incredible minds. (I had had a few wines.)