There’s so much going on
in the brain during creativity that science is still trying to pin down exactly how it all works.
What we do know is which
three parts of the brain work together to help us create and come up with new ideas:
The Attentional Control Network helps us with
laser focus on a particular task.
It’s the one that we activate when we need to concentrate on
complicated problems or pay attention to a task like reading or
listening to a talk.
The Imagination Network as you might have guessed, is used for things like imagining future scenarios and
remembering things that happened in the past. This network helps us to construct mental images when we’re engaged in these activities.
The Attentional Flexibility Network
has the important role of monitoring what’s going on around us, as well
as inside our brains, and switching between the Imagination Network and
Attentional Control for us.
You can see the Attentional Control Network (in green) and the Imagination Network (in red) in the image below.
Understanding how important
connections are to creativity
has also made a difference to how I try to generate new ideas. Once we
have a lot of knowledge, we need to spend time making connections
between it all—this is where creativity comes in.
I’ve shared some ideas in
my previous post
about creativity to help you come up with new ideas, such as putting
yourself in challenging situations, criticizing your own ideas and being
open to having lots of (bad) ideas in order to find just a few great
ones—something Seth Godin
is a fan of:
Someone
asked me where I get all my good ideas, explaining that it takes him a
month or two to come up with one and I seem to have more than that. I
asked him how many bad ideas he has every month. He paused and said,
“none.”
These tips are handy, but I’ve found that my
environment makes a big difference to how productive I am, and how
easily I can brainstorm new, creative ideas.
It turns
out, environmental factors like noise levels, temperature and lighting
can make a big difference to how creative we are. Here’s what the
research says about setting up your environment for
optimal levels of creativity.
Sound — ambient noise levels are best for creativity
As I found in my research on how
music affects the brain, loud music is not necessarily the best option for creative work.
Far from blasting music through out headphones, it turns out that
a moderate noise level is the sweet spot for creativity. Ambient noise gets our creative juices flowing unlike silence, and doesn’t put us off the way high levels of noise do.
Here’s how it works:
moderate noise levels increase processing difficulty
which promotes abstract processing, leading to higher creativity. Or,
in other words, when we struggle just enough to process things as we
normally would, we resort to more creative approaches.
In high noise levels, our creative thinking is impaired because
we’re overwhelmed and struggle to process information efficiently.
I know I’ve felt this when it’s lunchtime in my co-working space, or my
neighbors are renovating their apartment while I’m trying to work.
A
University of Chicago study found that ambient noise was the optimal level for creativity, whereas extreme quiet
sharpens our focus, making it hard for us to think creatively.
Another
study about ambient noise
showed that when it comes to being distracted by the conversations of
others, phone calls where we can only hear one side of the conversation
are
the worst offenders.
After
a survey showed that up to 82% of people find overhearing cellphone
conversations annoying, Veronica Galván, a cognitive psychologist at
the University of San Diego, looked into why these are so distracting.
In
the study, participants completed puzzles while they overheard either
one side of a mundane phone conversation or an entire conversation as it
took place between two people in the room.
Those who
heard the one-sided phone conversation found it more distracting than
those who heard both people speaking. They also remembered more of the
conversation, showing that it had grabbed their attention.
So
if you’re heading to a co-working space, open office or coffee shop to
get some work done, keep in mind that phone conversations will dampen
your creativity.
Temperature — keep your office warm
A
study from Cornell University tested different office temperatures at a large Florida insurance company and found the following:
When
temperatures were low (68 degrees or 20 degrees Celsius) employees made
44% more mistakes than at optimal room temperature (77 degrees or 25
degrees Celsius).
The problem isn’t just being uncomfortable in cold temperatures, but rather that you are
more distracted.
If you are feeling cold, you are using a substantial amount of your energy to simply keep warm.
Thus, a lot less energy goes towards concentration on creative work.
Increasing the temperature in your office,
adding more clothing layers or bringing a portable heater to work could
make all the difference when it comes to increasing your creativity. Be
careful not to make it too warm though, as being hot decreases
productivity as much as being cold does:
Lighting — turn down the lights for more creativity
An important
point to remember when you’re optimizing for creativity is that the
process of creative work goes through different stages. When I’m editing
a blog post, for instance, I’m less worried about generating creative
ideas than I am when I’m brainstorming topics or mapping out the
structure of a post.
So optimizing your environment
could call for different situations depending on the phase of work—e.g.
remember how I mentioned earlier than silence is best for concentration?
When it comes to lighting, keeping the lights down
low can be beneficial for generating creative ideas, though you might
want to adjust the brightness when you
need to focus at a later stage of your work! This infographic from
PayScale has some tips on lighting for productivity:
Research published in the
Journal of Environmental Psychology looked at the difference in creativity levels in brightly-lit and dimly-lit environments over six studies.
The
research found that dim lighting helps us to feel less constrained and
free to explore and take risks. Two of the studies tested this feeling
in particular, and found that “darkness elicits a feeling of being free
from constraints and triggers a risky, explorative processing style.”
So when you’re gearing up for a brainstorming session, try turning down the lights before you get started.
Space — keep a separate, messy desk
One of my favorite talks about creativity is
this one by John Cleese. I can’t think of many people more suited to speaking on this topic, and he doesn’t disappoint.
One of the main points John makes is that
your creativity is like a tortoise:
It pokes its head out nervously to ensure the environment is safe
before it fully emerges. Your creativity won’t show up when you’re
nervous or stressed, busy or surrounded by hustle and bustle. It’s a
very particular kind of thinking.
John says to help
your “tortoise mind” emerge, you need to create an oasis for it, amongst
the craziness of modern life, where it feels safe:
You can’t become playful, and therefore creative, if you’re under your usual pressures.
Removing yourself from your normal work environment—i.e. your “busy” space—to
a free, creative space
sends a signal to your brain. And if you do this consistently, your
tortoise brain will learn to recognize the place as a safety zone for
creative thinking. If you can, add the suggestions of optimal
temperature, lighting and noise levels to your creative space, and do
your “busy work” elsewhere.
Research has shown
that a messy space is more conducive to creativity than a tidy one, so
separating your clean and tidy work desk and a messy creative space
could be optimal for switching between the two modes of work.
Writer
Austin Kleon does exactly this in his work space, with one analog desk for creative work and one digital desk for “busy” work:
