August is here!
Or almost here. As things heat up both course wise and summer wise I have been reminded of how impacted I am by the available sunlight and access to the outdoors. I find that each fall when the time change occurs and the days get darker my mood follows and my productivity crashes. Things pick up in April and May and it’s June and July before I’m back to caught up.
One of the key pillars of creativity is a quality dedicated place to work. Now this is made significantly easier if you are blessed with a dedicated home office or studio but that is a luxury few have. Last summer we moved into a smaller place and with that move I’ve really had to struggle with this fundamental. When I was in my first home by myself it was fairly easy to clear off the kitchen table each night after I put the kids down to bed and use that space. But in our new place that just isn’t as practical. One of the things that has been a constant for me is having places outside of the home to get some work done. A quiet spot in the local library, or a noisy café, and sometimes a random public park with a picnic table.
Having a space set aside for doing your work can prime your mind and act as a shortcut to “getting in the zone” it works well. A further hack is to have multiple locations such as a spot to read, a spot to write, a spot to do email, and in my case a spot to do illustrations. As an example of how well this can work I tried to read a book in my writing café and it completely failed. I couldn’t focus at all.
When designing courses we try and think of the “Learning Context” and in a classroom it’s easy, students are learning in a specific room. And we do what we can to modify the room to make the lesson that much easier. Sometimes by bringing in needed technology or other items and sometime by doing something as simple as closing the door.
I’d encourage each of you to really take a bit of time to reflect on your own physical environment. Where physically do you do your work, and what can you do to either modify the environment to make your work easier or is there another place you can work that by just being there your work is easier.