When faced with a creative task, where you begin has a huge impact on where you end up.

FORBES: How To Be More Creative At Work (Or What Corporations Can Learn From Booze-Hounds and Baby Elephants)

Afterwards, all 40 were given a creative problem-solving task (technically a word association task).

FORBES: How To Be More Creative At Work (Or What Corporations Can Learn From Booze-Hounds and Baby Elephants)

When all the students tackled the same problems a second time, those who had done a simple, boring task during a break had more creative ideas than those who were assigned a tough cognitive puzzle, those who rested, or those who didn't take a break, says the study, co-authored by Jonathan Schooler, a psychology professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

WSJ: Tactics to Spark Creativity

How good are you at crafting creative solutions to obstacles that allow you to stay on task?

FORBES: Does Your Walk Match Your Talk?

The New Cities Foundation, a non-profit organization that wants to create more sustainable, dynamic, creative and global cities teamed with Ericsson created a special task force, the Connected Commuting Task Force, to see if there was a positive correlation between the use of smartphone trip planning applications and improving the commuting experience.

FORBES: New Cities Foundation Says Connected Drivers Are Less Stressed

To hatch the idea of illustrating biodiversity via music, "a key factor was to get away from juggling accounts and being constantly distracted, jumping from one task to the next, " says Mr. Stapleton, chief creative director at the ad agency 22squared.

WSJ: Tactics to Spark Creativity