5 Ways Your Environment is Killing Your Creativity (and how to fix it)
Do you wish you could be more creative? That your life could be a series of light-bulb moments?
Unless you've set up your environment correctly, chances are that you're falling short of your potential. You're not being nearly as creative as you could be.
In an economy that trades on ideas, this isn't only a human potential thing. It's costing you serious cash. What's more, knowing how your environment impacts creativity isn't only important for you; it matters for your team, too. Set up the right environment for them, and they'll come up with even better ideas.
Here's how your environment kills your creativity and what you can do about it.
1. You are Dimming Your Creativity
Fluorescent lighting is the standard in most offices and working environments. Yet new research shows that bright lights turn down the dial on creativity.
Researchers Anna Steidle and Lioba Werth found that dim lighting - or even darkness - significantly boosts creativity. That's because low lighting makes us feel less inhibited. In their own words:
[D]arkness elicits a feeling of being free from constraints and triggers a risky, explorative processing style.
While dimming the lights can give you a creative boost, it's not recommended for long work cycles. Working in any condition for lengthy periods, even on a computer screen in the dark, can cause health issues like eye strain and back pain.
Access to natural light is also important for keeping you productive and creative. Research shows that access to daylight is beneficial in education, healthcare, office, retail and industrial settings. In addition, regular exposure to natural light helps you sleep better, improves your mood, and makes you more alert and productive. All of which is good news for your creative output.
2. You Are Freezing Out New Ideas
Conventional wisdom says that warm offices make us relaxed and sleepy, distracting us from our work. By this reasoning, we may think that cool office temperatures keep us on our toes, so we have better focus.
Research shows the opposite. For within reason, it's far better for productivity, creative output, and happiness to have a warm office.
A study by Cornell University found that decreasing the office temperature from 77 degrees to 68 degrees (in metrics, that's 25 degrees Celsius to 20 degrees Celsius) caused a 44% increase in mistakes.
That's because your body uses energy in a cool office to keep itself warm. So as office temperatures rise to the optimal 77 degrees, the excess energy used to stay warm can now be used to focus your mind on creativity. But be warned, temperatures over 77 degrees are too warm and harm productivity.
So keep the thermostat at the sweet spot of 77 degrees.
3.You're Not Running a Monastery
Silence in the office means everyone is hard at work, right?
Well, maybe. A no-noise workplace could signify that everyone is getting down and working. But silence also stands in the way of creativity.
High noise levels are off-putting and distracting. But background noise, or white noise, is a creativity booster.
The truth is, any level of noise is distracting. So if you want absolute focus, then silence is best.
Why, then, does white noise help? Ambient background noise gets in the way of your brain's standard processing patterns just enough to push you into creative thinking. By adding a hidden factor into an organized environment (say, a coffee shop), white noise can induce cognitive processing difficulty, thus enhancing creative performance.
4. You Are Ruling Out Creativity Before It Happens
Creativity thrives on constraints. As Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, writes:
Some of the most inspiring art forms, such as haikus, sonatas, and religious paintings, are fraught with constraints. They are beautiful because creativity triumphed over the "rules." Constraints shape and focus problems and provide clear challenges to overcome. Creativity thrives best when constrained.
That's why it's a good idea to set project deadlines or work within a specific framework. Setting limits focuses your creative mind.
Mayer also acknowledges that "constraints alone can stifle and kill creativity."
Netflix vice president Steve Swasey adds:
Rules and policies and regulations and stipulations are innovation killers. People do their best work when they're unencumbered. If you're spending a lot of time accounting for the time you're spending, that's time you're not innovating.
So, by all means, set constraints on creative projects. But also give your team (and yourself) the freedom they need to be creative.
If all else fails, light a candle. According to the Porch blog, not only is lighting important, but the scent also contributes to creativity. My favorite candle, given to me by my sister, is called Into The Wild. Go figure :)
5.You Can't Be Creative 24/7
Your work environment includes what's expected of you and what you expect of yourself. For example, if you expect yourself to work around the clock, you'll hit creative burnout.
As Jason Fried, co-founder of 37signals, says:
Motivation, productivity, efficiency—these things are not constants. In my experience, they come in waves. They ebb and flow, and there's no sense in fighting it. The key is to recognize a productivity surge when it appears, so you can roll with it.
To maximize your creativity, you need downtime. So make sure your work breaks into your day.
Make Being Creative Come Naturally
When trying to be creative, there's no point in making it harder than it needs to be. The right environment can have a significant impact on your creative output. This means:
Regular exposure to daylight
Occasional dim lighting for a creative boost
A room temperature of 77 degrees
Moderate background noise
No more rules than necessary
Down-time to relax
These are simple to implement, so there are no excuses. Set up your environment in this way, and you'll find that creativity is a natural outcome of being at work. You and your team will enjoy spending time at work and be far more likely to reach your creative potential. For a few minor tweaks to your workplace, that's invaluable.