Content Creativity Tip: Change Your Environment

Welcome to the Content Creator’s Toolbox, our series dedicated to helping all creators of all types of content keep those creative juices flowing. If you have a creativity question or challenge you’d like us to address in a future post, drop us a line!

Back in the day (and by “the day,” I mean about 40,000 years ago), if you were in the mood to express yourself creatively, you ground up some leaves and berries to make paint, tied some bison hairs to a stick to make a brush, and painted yourself a happy little cave painting. And if you happened to find your clan’s cave particularly uninspiring, well, you were kinda sunk.

Over the centuries, the environments in which we create have varied considerably, from sparse attic rooms to kaleidoscopic studios.

And today you and I have … the office desk.

Yep, the same place where we wade through mind-numbing emails, wait on hold ad nauseam with tech support, and complete those all-important TPS reports (with cover sheets, please). This is the place where we’re supposed to create brilliant, insightful content for our audience.

Ummm, yeah.

So the next time you find yourself struggling to come up with creative content that will wow your audience, how about opting for a change of scenery?

You see, when we feed our brains the same stimuli over and over again — including the sights, sounds, smells and sensations surrounding our day-to-day working locale — they tend to get stuck in a rut, delivering the same old output instead of fresh, innovative ideas. Sometimes simply changing your location is all the shakeup your noggin needs to start cranking out creative gold.

And no, you don’t need to retreat to a museum café or a secluded mountain hideaway. Pretty much any change in environment will have its benefits. A few options for your consideration:

• Grab your laptop and reserve an hour in your office’s conference room.
• Schedule a work-from-home day and take your iPad out to your patio or balcony
• Commandeer a corner table at your favorite coffee shop and get cozy with your pen and paper. And a latte or six.
• Pick up a notebook and head to the nearest park or playground.

Next time you’re stuck for ideas, try changing your environment and let us know how it went in the Comments—we’d love to hear from you!