I found the cheat code for never running out of ideas 😭

The best idea I had all year came to me with zero signal 👀

Last month I was three hours into a brutal trek in Peru.

No phone. No podcast. No signal for miles. Just me, my friend (who was as out of breath as I was, so neither of us was talking), and a whole lot of walking.

And somewhere on that trail, with my brain COMPLETELY empty, it happened.

Idea after idea after idea started pouring in. For content. For growing Creator Takeoff Academy. For stories I’d been trying to crack for MONTHS at my desk and couldn’t 😭

One hour on that mountain gave me MORE than eight hours at my laptop ever has.

And it made me realise something kind of embarrassing about myself.

For YEARS, I thought my problem was that I wasn’t working hard enough. That I needed to consume more, hustle more, fill every gap with something useful. Doing nothing felt like failing, like wasted time I’d have to answer for.

Turns out I had it completely backwards.

The empty space I spent my whole life running from? That’s not where my creativity goes to die. That’s where it’s actually BORN.

An idle mind is NOT a devil’s workshop. It’s a content creator’s playground 🧠

There. I said it.

I was raised to believe idle time was bad. We all kind of were, right? “Make use of your time.” “You could be doing something productive right now.” “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” I absorbed every bit of it.

So somewhere along the way, doing nothing started to feel wrong. And even when I wasn’t being “productive,” I still couldn’t sit with an empty mind. I’d fill it with something to consume instead, a podcast in my ears, a show in the background, a scroll. Just never, ever, nothing. (please tell me i’m not the only one!!!)

And I truly believed that was the responsible way to live. Turns out it was the exact thing secretly draining my creativity 😅

The single biggest creative reset in my life isn’t my laptop. It’s trekking. And I finally understand why 🏔️

When I trek? It’s just me, my legs, and my thoughts. The view is stunning, but I’m not consuming it. I’m just walking. And processing.

That’s the part we almost never do anymore. Process. We take in, take in, take in, then push out, push out, push out. But actually sitting with a thought long enough for it to turn into something? That barely happens.

A trek forces it. There’s nothing to fill the hours with except your own mind. And that’s exactly why the ideas come 🥹

I genuinely think everyone should experience a proper trek at least ONCE in their life. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to a full creative reset.

I catch myself doing the opposite ALL the time. Waiting in a queue? Phone. Waiting for coffee? Phone. Two free minutes on the couch? Scroll, or put something on, or knock out one more little task. Without even thinking, I’d decided every idle pocket had to be either useful or entertaining.

And this newsletter is honestly as much a reminder to MYSELF as it is to you. Something I can re-read the next time I’m convinced I’ve run out of good ideas 😅

Because the pattern is SO clear to me now: I feel most stuck, most uncreative, most “I have nothing original to say”… on the exact days I’ve packed so full that my brain never once got to sit empty.

“You have to let yourself get so bored that your mind has nothing better to do than tell itself a story.”

Which is LITERALLY our job as creators. We tell stories. And boredom is the doorway to them 👀

Your brain even has a setting for this. It’s called the default mode network, and it only switches on when you’re NOT focused and NOT consuming anything. Just walking, staring out a window, letting your mind drift. 🤯

That’s the exact mode where your brain connects ideas and cooks up the original stuff. They’ve even tested it: people who did boring tasks first came out MORE creative, not less.

So all that empty time I kept rushing to fill? Might’ve been the most productive thing I could do all day 😌

You have to be INTENTIONAL about protecting idle time.

It will not happen by accident, because the second you have a free moment, the instinct kicks in to fill it. So you have to actively guard the empty pockets.
Go for a walk with nothing in your ears. Go for a run. Sit on your balcony with no phone, not consuming, not creating, not being “productive.” PROMISE?

Because here’s what actually happens in that “wasted” moment: a conversation from last week turns into a story you want to tell. A podcast you listened to finally gets fully absorbed and becomes content. An idea you didn’t even know you had floats up to the surface.

That’s just how creative brains work. But only when you stop filling every second and give them the SPACE to do it.

So this week, find one idle pocket and protect it. Don’t make it productive. Don’t put anything on. Just let yourself be bored.

Your best idea is probably waiting on the other side of it 🩷

ONE?? Just one?? Okay this is hard 😭

But honestly it has to be my wind and rain jacket. Every single time. No exceptions.

When you’re trekking, the weather changes out of nowhere. You can start the day in full sunshine and then suddenly it’s freezing cold and raining and you’re still hours away from camp. That combination is genuinely awful 😭

On the Huayhuash trek in Peru the jacket saved me so many times huhh. The wind at high altitude is no joke. It goes right through you. And if you’re wet on top of that, the rest of the day is just misery.

The one I use is this one 👀 It’s light, it actually packs down really small, and it works. I’ve taken it on so many trips now and I’d never leave without it.

If you want the full Peru packing list, everything I packed, what actually got used, and what just took up space in my bag for no reason, reply PERU below and I might just end up writing a newsletter on it soon 🥹

✨ ONE COOL THING I DID THIS WEEK

Okay this one is UNREAL 😭

In Bangkok, there’s a cinema where the seats aren’t seats… they’re actual BEDS. Full beds. You get a blanket, there’s a massager built into the bed, and you just lie down, cuddle up, and watch a movie.

I watched Spider-Man like this, wrapped in a blanket, sipping coconut water, with unlimited popcorn and drinks, and I genuinely cannot imagine watching a movie in a normal hall ever again 😂

It was like having my own private theatre. What even IS this experience?? If you’re ever in Bangkok, you HAVE to do it 🍿

Tell me, where do YOUR best ideas come to you? On a walk? In the shower? Mid-trek? Hit reply, I read every single one 👇🏽

That’s it for this week’s Unpacked… see you next Wednesday with something new to unpack 👋🏽

Lots of love & sunshine,

Aakanksha