Finding the Keys to Your Creativity
Do you know what makes you more creative on some days as opposed to other days? This can be more difficult to determine than you’d think.. One day, you may find you are more creative when working in a cooler office and the next day, low lighting seems to work best.
It’s been shown that your surroundings actually do have a large impact on your creativity levels. Let’s run through some basic sensory input factors that you can control.
Noise Levels
While you may think that working in silence is better, it really isn’t. If the area where you are working is too loud or too quiet, your creativity can suffer. Instead of total silence where all you hear is the ringing in your ears, you need ambient noise levels to help you become more creative and productive. A lot of people enjoy white noise like rain or the sound of a stream. This is one reason New Age music is very popular. It creates a calming ambiance without being distracting.
Lighting
It has also been shown that dim lighting is best suited for creativity. Apparently, low levels of light make you feel more relaxed and help to reduce those stressful feelings. This is because researchers have determined that darker lighting makes you feel free. No wonder people feel confined when they’re working in an office with buzzing fluorescent lights overhead! Test this out for yourself by sitting in a darkened room for five minutes. Observe how you feel at the beginning of the session and see if your thoughts and feelings change.
Colors Matter for Creativity
The best colors for improving your creativity are blue and green. Just taking the time to look at a photo of blue sky and green grass, for example, can help stimulate your creativity. If you need to get into lots of detail with a project, then having some red surrounding you will help.
You don’t have to be constantly surrounded by these colors. Apparently just having some glimpses of them is more than enough. The easiest way to get this done while at work is by using your computer wallpaper as an advantage by putting up a picture of beautiful outdoor scenery.
A Cluttered Room Simulates Creativity
Working in a messy or cluttered room can actually help you become more creative. This may be really surprising as most people think having a neat workplace would be the best option here.
It’s thought that the clutter in the room draws your attention to new details that you may not have noticed before. In turn this stimulates your creative juices.
Messy doesn’t necessarily mean dirty. Take a look at how intricate plants are. A collection of plants – even a small terrarium of air ferns – can look like a microcosm of chaos. This mini distractions are a far cry from a room that looks like a metaphor for that alway-intimidating blank sheet of paper.
Travelling
This one may not be as surprising to you. When you travel to new destinations your brain is experiencing many things for the first time. When you travel to a new country this really has a big impact on your creativity process as it has an enormous impact on your thoughts as a whole. You’ve forced yourself to witness and interact with a different culture. You’ll try new foods and experience traditions that you have never come across before.
If you feel that your creative juices are lacking why not try one of the items from above to increase them. You never know what sparks of ideas and ambitions will suddenly empower you to reach past your comfort zone.
