Why you need to design your environment
Surrounding yourself with inspiration benefits you more than you think
I worked in a cubicle for 15 years where I was told to sit quietly inside an empty cube and be "creative."
I mean, sure, it's perfect for people who need the least amount of environmental distractions to get a job done but that’s just not me. Not for a Graphic Designer who constantly craves visual stimulation.
Personally, I need more than just an empty room to get my best work done. I just couldn’t sit and wait for inspiration to happen. Fortunately (or unfortunately), inspiration finally came in the form of my being laid off in 2017.
But despite the challenges, I figured that working from home would be the perfect opportunity for me to sit in a space that I actually love. So began my quest to change my empty home office into something much more inspiring.
To some people, the fewer distractions the better. But I needed something to stimulate my creative side. The first thing I added was a desk lamp to illuminate my surroundings and add some character to the desk.
Next, I bought a $5 headphone stand that kept my desktop tidy and displayed my headphones.
I also installed wall shelves to display my camera, lenses, and other random items.
But the cherry on the top was a new office chair which I found at IKEA while walking with my wife as she shopped around.
The end result was inspiring and calming at the same time. It put my mind in a state of “creative readiness” each time I sat down at 4:30 am (My clients mainly were on EST, so they had a head start to the day).
I shared the space on Instagram and I got a lot of positive reactions. But I also received a lot of questions such as:
"Why do you display your lenses? It doesn’t make sense to have them there. It would be better to keep them in storage. ”
The short answer is “because I liked looking at them.”
But the real purpose has something to do with Environment Design. Simply put, vision is our most powerful sense and it literally influences the way we act and feel.
If I were to walk into my bedroom, I will see items that tell my brain it’s time to get some rest or go to sleep. If I sit on the couch in our entertainment area, I will feel the need to watch TV or play video games.
The same applies to my workspace. If I wanted to shift my mind to a more creative state, I will need to surround my desk with things that inspire that way of thinking.
Of course, at that time I didn’t really know any of that. I was just going with my gut feeling so the answer was always simply, “because it makes me feel good.”
This was essentially the start of my journey that I documented and shared on social media. I had no idea that a simple personal enjoyment would turn into a topic that resonated with countless others to this day: Creating a space that inspires you.
To this day I am constantly rearranging and redecorating my space. Aside from the fact that I need to create content around it, it also helps me avoid feeling stagnant.
Creativity is all about taking different inputs, mixing them all together, and creating something new. Whenever I design (or redesign) my environment, my mind is taking all those visual cues that lead to new ideas and inspiration.
This is why empty cubicles never worked for me. It always felt like a blank canvas begging to be filled with inspiration. Fortunately, I was able to scratch that itch. The good news is, you can too.
Don’t try to do everything at once. Start with one item you like and build on that. Soon you will be occupying a space that actually adds to your day rather than take away from it.
So go design your environment. But don’t worry about having to explain yourself. You can always say it just makes you feel good.
Check out my Home Office Tour from 2021. It’s changed quite a bit since then and I can’t wait to share that soon!