Take a second and think about the physical location in which you’re the most creative. Think about where you’re inspired to write, where good ideas hit you, or where you have the urge to draw or create music. Is that place where you do your creative work?
Many of us don’t actually correlate our creative energies with particular places for several reasons. One, we have strange views of creativity and mental processes that all too often minimizes the role of physical and environmental conditions in the creative process. Two, we’ve got too much going on to think about something as mundane as where we’re creative – it’s like that chair that we trip on every day, that, if we stopped and thought about it, could be moved three inches out of the way to prevent the stubbed toes. But regardless of whether we think about it, the correlation’s there.
How often do you run from your couch to your “office” because you get an idea that you have to work on right then? Is there a way that you could set up your workflow so that you could just work on your couch – where you’re the most creative in the first place?
This question isn’t just for those creatives who work from home. If you do creative work and the place where you work isn’t conducive to creative work, you’ve got a problem. Is there a spare meeting room at work that you could reserve for a few hours a day and take your work there? Can you negotiate to work part of your day in the coffee shop? (Note: if you ask for either of these, make sure you deliver. Don’t negotiate to work in a coffee shop for two hours a day and come back empty-handed. If you need to, do some unreported creative work on your own time so you have that work to submit in case you end up daydreaming for your first creative session, which is likely to happen.)
The idea of working where you’re the most creative is really not much different than the idea of working when you’re the most creative when you think about it. If you’ve ever had a creative buzz killed by distractive coworkers, you know exactly what I mean – it may actually be all the more frustrating than trying to do creative work when you’re not creative since you could do it were it not for your bored and underemployed coworkers. Of course, I’m not just talking about coworkers; the thing that kills your creative mojo could be an uncomfortable chair, an office without windows, a hard drive that rattles, a child that cries, or, for that matter, pants that are a smidge too small in the wrong places. If something distracts you routinely enough where you do your creative work, the odds of you getting that creative spark become lower and lower, and, at a certain point, you just won’t be inspired there. So, thinking you should do your creative work where you can’t do it is much the same as thinking you should do your creative work when you can’t do it.
If your creative time is your most valuable time, and you’re more likely to have creative time in certain places, then it makes sense for you to get as much of your creative work (and only your creative work) in those places. If that means you have to buy some equipment – a laptop, for instance – then don’t resist it just because you’d have to buy a laptop. How long would it take for a laptop to pay for itself if you did four times the creative work on it during a week because you could do it where you’re the most creative. Think in terms of investments and/or means to production here to get real about this. (No, this does not necessarily give you an excuse to run out and buy that shiny new laptop you’ve been wanting.)
Be careful with this one, though, if your creative place is in the places you share with family or in the places that you wind down. If your living room couch is where you get your spark, then make sure to set some limits on how much you’re working and when you’re working so that your work place doesn’t change that space for everyone else. Separating “work” areas from “personal” areas makes the psychic separation easier for us, so you may have to be more cognizant and diligent at making this separation if you mix the types of areas.
Also be mindful that you only do your creative work in that space. If you move to your kitchen table because that’s where you get your groove on only to start doing all of your “office work” there, then you risk losing the creative energy of that space. Of course, you could move to someplace else after that happens, but why dilute it in the first place?
Lastly, you may decide that you don’t want your creative place to be the place that you work because you want to have a sacred place where work doesn’t officially go. If your library is intentionally an electronics-free zone, then hauling a laptop in there to work ruins it. Some places are worth leaving sacred, even if you could be “more productive” by repurposing that space. (If only our society paid more attention to this…)
I’m quite aware that this may have a mystical, Feng-Shui-ish air about it, and that’s just too much for some people. Whether you believe or think that there’s some other-worldly energy that flows through the places we inhabit or merely that we have habits that we’re not conscious of at the cognitive level, the reality of our experience is that we are, in fact, more creative in some places than others in a very similar way that we’re more creative at some times than others.
So, where are you the most creative? What can you do to do more of your creative work there?
You might be interested in reading “On Writing” by Stephen King. I addition to location and environment, Mr. King also takes time to explain that his routine is of equal importance. It’s not clear whether he is leveraging his most creative time of the day or whether he has manufactured such a time.
His book is an interesting read, whether you agree with his suggestion or not. It is half autobiography and half discussion of his method. Instead of a listening to someone like Constantin Stanislovski tell you how “to act,” Stephen King tells you how “he writes.” He leaves it to the reader to incorporate whatever works best for them. But for the reader who wants specific instruction, he writes:
“By the time you step into your new writing space and close the door, you should have settled on a daily writing goal. As with physical exercise, it would be best to set this goal low at first, to avoid discouragement. I suggest a thousand words a day, and because I’m feeling magnanimous, I’ll also suggest that you can take one day a week off, at least to begin with. No more; you’ll lose the urgency and immediacy of your story if you do. With that goal set, resolve yourself that the door stays closed until that goal is met….
Whether it’s a vignette of a single page or an epic trilogy like ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ the work is always accomplished one word at a time. The door closes the rest of the world out; it also serves to close you in and keep you focused on the job at hand. ”
He also acknowledges that forcing a routine on yourself can feel a little too much like work. But he believes that creating and sticking with that routine can generate a “creative sleep.” Not to suggest that one’s creativity lies dormant, rather that creativity may be roused by routine.
At the risk of posting too many characters, here is the summation of his theory:
“Like your bedroom, your writing room should be private, a place where you go to dream. Your schedule … exists in order to habituate yourself, to make yourself ready to dream just as you make yourself ready to sleep by going to bed at roughly the same time each night and following the same ritual as you go. In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives. And as your mind and body grow accustomed to a certain amount of sleep each night … so you can train your waking mind to sleep creatively and work out the vividly imagined dreams which are successful works of fiction.
But you need the room, you need the door, and you need the determination to shut the door. You need a concrete goal, as well. … Don’t wait for the muse. As I’ve said before, he’s a hardheaded guy who’s not susceptible to a lot of creative fluttering. … Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you’re going to be every day from nine ’til noon or seven ’til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he’ll start showing up, chomping on his cigar and making his magic.”
Hmmm…this is very interesting. I find that I’m most creative at night, lying in bed, right before I fall asleep. This is not very convenient since it’s dark and I have to get out of bed (or at least turn on the light) if I want to write an idea down…I wonder if we can change the place where we’re the most creative…
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Positively Present: My suggestion is getting a voice-recorder and have it on standby by the bed. Pick it up, learn where the on button is in darkness, talk your ideas in and later you can listen to it.
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My creative space changes every now and again. Last summer, I did my best work in the dining room. Then it was in the library. Now I’m back in my office. My most creative time, however, remains constant – always in the early morning.
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This past weekend, I discovered that my creative space is at the table on the patio in our backyard. Of course, it helps if the weather is nice and the neighbors aren’t running too many power tools at the same time. 🙂
As cliche as it sounds, for brainstorming, I find that the new Starbucks is a great creative space. I don’t know if it’s the music, the activity or the smell of coffee that does it, but it works.
Very interesting article. I’d say I’m most creative in places where it serves no purpose, there where I cannot do anything with my ideas. In the shower, while cycling or indeed just before going to bed. You could say it is more related to situation than to place; I think I’m most creative when my head is empty.
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Very interesting post.
Location is crucial for me when it comes to creativeness and overall work energy. Chair is definitely an issue — I can’t seem to get any work done if I’m not sitting comfortably.
Overall “feng-shui” energy of the place, as you say, counts a lot too. Take a look at this post by Alexander Kjerulf who discovered this amazing shared office space in Coppenhagen, looks like my dream-come-true creative place:
http://positivesharing.com/2009/04/office-envy/
Actually I’ve noticed that the city where I happen to be at the moment has a huge impact on my creativeness too. New York and Buenos Aires have the sort of energy that feeds me the most, but one of the reasons I had to leave a city like Dubai, despite all of its bells and whistles, was because its architecture, its weather, the necessity to drive everywhere you go and the socio-political model under which the country is run induced a sort of metaphysical asphyxia on me that literally disabled me from creating anything.
Cheers,
Alan
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I definitely know just the spot for me: against the wall at the Sabor Y Cultura cafe in Hollywood. I think part of the appeal of writing there is all the good previous experiences — it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that it’ll work out because that positive attitude, thinking about it as the place where you’re most creative, is what makes it the place where you’re most creative.
I’m not a superstitious person, but I even have my own work ritual when I’m there. I like to think of it more like how basketball players each have their own free throw routines: the actual details of the routine don’t matter, it’s just the confidence that comes from having one.
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I’m typically most creative outdoors, which has been a problem for me the last few years. I used to do things sitting on a table on our back porch, but we’ve moved twice since then. The last house had just a tiny yard and all of it was open to the street. The current house is right next to a parking lot and the only place that isn’t open to all the people and cars coming and going is behind the garbage cans. Stinky is not helpful. I’ve been trying to find places inside, but it’s just not the same. Too closed a space, too much noise from tvs and computers, I’m in someone else’s way, etc…
Any suggestions?
@Katie: Thanks for the comment. It can be really hard when your patterns and places are disrupted by moves – especially if you’re by parking lots with trashcans. Stinky is definitely not helpful.
Are there any nearby parks that aren’t a pain to get to? School/church playgrounds also make good places if you don’t go during primetime for kids. Lastly, maybe there’s a cafe or restaurant with outdoor seating?