Find Your Environment

This exercise will help you determine what types of things help or
hinder your own creativity.

First, think about your current conceptual productivity and rank it
on a scale of 1 to 10. This will serve as a benchmark to determine
improvement in the future. Now, get a piece of paper and describe the
most ideal environment that you can imagine. If you could design and
build the perfect office or study, what would you do? Think about
lighting, noise, temperature, access to materials, access to food,
collaboration with friends and co-workers, communication, etc.

Once you are done, compare this perfect environment to the one in
which you currently work. What small changes could you make to move
your current space toward your ideal? Make these changes. Once you
have used the new space for a while, rank your productivity again and
see if it has improved.

If you work in a group, have everyone do this exercise (anonymously
if desired) and see what the team has in common. If you implement
these common requests, you'll be boosting the productivity of
everyone involved.

Creative Environments

Your environment has a big impact upon your creative ability. If you
work in a cubicle with perfectly white walls, boring furniture and
elevator music, your creativity is probably going to be stifled.

Each person has his or her own particular environment that fosters
performance. Some people do better in cold rooms, some in hot rooms.
Some people like music, and others require silence. Some additional
factors that affect performance are windows, lighting, color,
decorations, food and drink, size of space, etc.

If you work in a group, try to be sensitive to the needs of your
teammates. If you know that someone works best in silence, try to
keep your music down (or use headphones). If some people work well on
a sugar high, bring cookies and soda into your brainstorms. Simple
changes around the office or classroom can have big effects on how
people function in those spaces.