Creativity tip - Physical surrounding

You say you want to be more creative.
And I have been giving you a few tips over the last few Sundays.

Besides some trips and tricks and a few exercises, there is one big, if not HUGE, thing that has an influence on our creativity.

Our physical surrounding.

Where do you sit when you are supposed to be creative?
What does your office look like?
Do you have an office at home?
Where ARE you when you get the best ideas?
What stimulates you?
Are these things physically around you?

Most of the time we sit in an office or cubicle that looks just like our neighbors'.  And most of the time we don't change anything. Because it's just a given.

But is it really?


How can your boss (or you yourself) expect you to be creative when your office is gray, with off white or brown furniture, with a whiteboard on the wall and grayish cupboards?

Nothing inspiring in that I say.

Oh, but Mimi, I am not allowed to change anything in my office!!! - says you.

Really? Have you asked anyone?

What are the rules then? Where are they written? If there are any, study them and see where the little holes are for you to sneak through creatively.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Make your office space more creative and individual (examples)
• Get a new table or chair or partition wall (look here for ideas)
• Hold meetings in unusual places (the parking lot, the local park, the coffee shop around the corner, the forest ...)
• Go GREEN: studies have shown that having potted plants around you boosts your creativity.
• Another study says go blue.
• Have the most diverse objects on your desk, especially things to play with 
• Rubik's cube, 
• Ball of Whacks, 
• Kapla game,
• stuff you find in the woods, like natural building blocks,
• Lego blocks,

• Put some decorative stickers on your wall or window (example) 
• Buy a cheap white Billy cupboard from Ikea to exhibit your 'stuff'. I bet you noone will even notice it's there (it goes with the rest of the non-descript white stuff, doesn't it? :-)
• And if you can't redo your office a little, at least take a break to look at some cool creative and design ideas.

Happy decorating!