I did an interview the other day that is featured on management-issues.com, about what kind of environment is best for promoting creativity. There is a general perception that you need to have lots of toys, a loud color scheme, and a bunch of wacky gadgets in order to stimulate your brain.
Wrong!
In fact, creativity guru Doug Hall wrote a book promoting that viewpoint and later repudiated it, saying that especially in a business context, all these are extraneous.
There’s no harm in having a zany environment, of course. I have quite a few weird artifacts in my home office, including a Frankenstein head, a large rubber statue of Homer Simpson holding up a donut, and some figures from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” But the only environment that really matters is the one inside your head. Some of my most productive hours have been on airplanes, and these days that atmosphere is anything but zany.
Here are four tips for making your head-space a great environment for creativity:
* Go where you won’t be interrupted for a while (this is one reason why planes can be a good space for writing, for example);
* Get rid of thoughts or worries that might get in the way. Jot them down and promise yourself you’ll get back to them as soon as your creativity session is over;
* Get rid of distractions. I take noise-cancelling headphones with me when I travel. They don’t filter out sharp sounds (e.g., children crying) but they work well for steady sounds. Of course you can also plug them into an iPod or similar device so you can play whatever kinds of sounds work best for you;
* If the ideas aren’t flowing, try thinking about the opposite of what you’re trying to do. For example, if you’re trying to write a funny scene, try writing the saddest scene you can imagine (it may turn out funny).
