How to Stimulate Creativity in Your Home Office
By Andrew Patricio
April 02, 2018
Workspace Optimization
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Working from home day in and day out can become a little monotonous. While you get a lot done, you may find yourself in need of outside help when you need to be inspired. So let’s look at a few ideas to help you stimulate creativity in your home office.
Skip the Organization
Creative types are stereotypically disorganized, allowing their mind and ideas to flow freely. And there’s some science to back up this idea. While you may envy the perfectly organized home office that you have on your Pinterest board, skip the file folder and opt for piles instead if you’re seeking to stimulate more creative thinking.
Use Color
Color theory pops up everywhere; from the color of the call to action button on your digital ads to the color of the tie you should wear to a meeting. Color elicits emotion so it’s no wonder that a spa uses light colors like cream and white to create a relaxing environment while a circus, looking to spark excitement, uses bright primary colors. So what color should you use in your home office to be more creative? According to science, blue will help spur new ideas.
White Noise
Have you found that working in a noisy coffee shop actually helps you develop new ideas? It’s not just you. Researchers have shown that background noise, like the indistinct type you get at a coffee shop, actually stimulates different parts of your brain, causing you to be more creative and, somehow, more focused. So whether you add a white noise machine to your home office, or tune the TV to some terrible daytime programming, add some white noise to your home office to be more creative.
Alarms
Fire alarms and wake up calls are jarring, not inspiring. But to boost the creativity in your home office, you’ll want to set regularly scheduled alarms to remind you to stop and take a break. Stepping away from a problem has been proven to improve creativity because the brain doesn’t stop when you do. Instead, it continues to work through a problem in new ways, but only if it’s free to do so.
Creativity isn’t something you can always plan for but you can create an environment in your home office that stimulates new thoughts and ways of thinking.
Skip the Organization
Creative types are stereotypically disorganized, allowing their mind and ideas to flow freely. And there’s some science to back up this idea. While you may envy the perfectly organized home office that you have on your Pinterest board, skip the file folder and opt for piles instead if you’re seeking to stimulate more creative thinking.
Use Color
Color theory pops up everywhere; from the color of the call to action button on your digital ads to the color of the tie you should wear to a meeting. Color elicits emotion so it’s no wonder that a spa uses light colors like cream and white to create a relaxing environment while a circus, looking to spark excitement, uses bright primary colors. So what color should you use in your home office to be more creative? According to science, blue will help spur new ideas.
White Noise
Have you found that working in a noisy coffee shop actually helps you develop new ideas? It’s not just you. Researchers have shown that background noise, like the indistinct type you get at a coffee shop, actually stimulates different parts of your brain, causing you to be more creative and, somehow, more focused. So whether you add a white noise machine to your home office, or tune the TV to some terrible daytime programming, add some white noise to your home office to be more creative.
Alarms
Fire alarms and wake up calls are jarring, not inspiring. But to boost the creativity in your home office, you’ll want to set regularly scheduled alarms to remind you to stop and take a break. Stepping away from a problem has been proven to improve creativity because the brain doesn’t stop when you do. Instead, it continues to work through a problem in new ways, but only if it’s free to do so.
Creativity isn’t something you can always plan for but you can create an environment in your home office that stimulates new thoughts and ways of thinking.