Creative Space

Your working environment and surroundings are far more important than people realise when working on creative projects. Process jobs like administration, manual labour and accounting can be done anywhere within reason but to be able to think of ideas, write, draw or design, the surroundings become an extention of you and you part of them.

If you find you have 'writer's block', feel distracted or uninspired it's often because your surroundings are relating to you in the wrong way. The wrong sort of noise, mess, dirt and clutter outside you become refelected in your creative mind which then can't perform.

Before starting on a project or creative session, tidy up everything that does not relate to the task in hand. It's fine to have mess and clutter that is diretly related to the project, but everything else must go. You need to create outside you the space you want reflected inside your mind. A tidy desk and office gives you space inside to think and breathe. Being surrounded by things, sounds, smells and people that inspire you will make massive changes to your creative productivity.

Try this tip: get everything off your desk - yes I mean everything. Put it all in boxes or folders, neatly out of sight. Wipe the desk down. Then put back only the things you need to work on during the next two hours. Leave everything else packed away. See how you get on.

Last month I spoke at the launch of the Portfolio Innovation Centre in Northampton. It's a centre for small creative businesses to supply them with the right creative space to live and breath their craft. If you're in that area, contact Wendy on 01604 779000 and take a look. The event was a great success, organised by Enthuse PR who specialise in organising PR for businesses who want tangible results. Contact Rachel on 01933 666091. You can read the press story about the event here.

Photo: Louise O'Callaghan