We’ve all been there-you’re sitting at your desk, trying to come up with some juicy new idea, only to find your creative pipes clogged. While sometimes we blame it on a lack of caffeine in our bodies, some of the most frustrating roadblocks to creativity can actually stem from being in a static environment.
That’s right, according to Robert Epstein, a senior psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research, your work surroundings can play a crucial role in your creative process. Whether you’re at the office or working remotely, being in the same old space for hours at a stretch can drain you of your creative juices.
Luckily, to prevent that from happening, we don’t necessarily need to find a new place to work. Epstein suggests that making even the most minor tweaks to your environment, such as adding some flowers to your office or rearranging the items on your desk, can ignite that spark of creativity.
The trick behind it is that new ideas arise from an interconnection of old ideas. To help create those interconnections, you need to expose yourself to a novel stimulus or combination of stimuli that you haven’t seen before. And the simplest way to do this is through a change in your surroundings.
