change your surroundings to improve your creative capacity

Today I took myself to my city’s State Library to work on my new website. Firstly this building is absolutely stunning. Secondly, the work I did while I was there far exceeded what I would have produced in my studio. In quality and creativity.

But why does this happen? Why is changing your surroundings so important for the creative process?

You know when you’re travelling somewhere new, and you are walking around the streets looking at all the different buildings, the interesting people and the beautiful scenery? It’s a very different viewpoint to that in which you have when you’re walking in your neighbourhood or the city you grew up in.

This fresh perspective we have when we haven’t been somewhere before can be very inspiring. We smell different things, we hear different things and we see different things. This act of being in a new environment opens up so many new sensory receptors in our brains. We start seeing the world a little more in focus.

So what about when you’re doing the same activities but in a different location? Does it have the same effect?

When you remove yourself from your everyday surroundings and deliberately place yourself somewhere fresh, you immediately have a different perspective on your work. It might be subtle. You might not even fully notice it. But the subconscious mind does, and it loves to roll with it.

Whether it’s in a park, or a co-working space, a public library, or an airbnb, it doesn’t really matter where. All the matters is that you’re doing it. You’re moving out of the space in which you work the most and setting up even for an hour or two somewhere new.

I think you should try it. You might be pleasantly surprised the effect it has.