The Spark Of Creativity I Get From My Clear Desk
The spark of creativity I Get From my Clear Desk
A clear desk, a Clear Mind
Usually, on a creative work as the design is, we ,designers, mostly have a lot of things over our desks, from pencils, post-its, sketchbooks to even painting that we use to texturize most of our designs. It isn´t that easy to avoid a messy environment if you’re constantly creating new things, needing a lot of things to create. But also, it isn't always that comfortable to have a messy desk. Everytime I see my desk messy, I start feeling overwhelmed, every idea seems to flop and, then, I start procrastinating. It’s hard to be messy when you’re a creative individual.
Recently, I noticed how my mood changes if I get my desk tidy. You know, that kind of thing you don’t notice until you do it. After a meeting I had with an important client, I messed up my desk. I had to show them a lot of sketches and design samples, but I couldn’t handle seeing my desk like that anymore, so I started tidying it up. Once I finished I felt like I could get some peace again, my mind started racing as it hadn't for a long time. Creativity came back to my mind as a realization, and so I decided to write this blog.
Clutter is physical but more than physical.
Every free piece of paper left lying around my desk without specific cause seems to occupy an infinitesimally insignificant crevice of my thoughts. When heaps of things are just about to accumulate, one can notice just how hard it is to muster a negligible piece of work. Clutter around the desk is language in an unuttered tongue. Eyes pass over discarded bits of papers, wayward sheets, or a coffee mug left outside of the kitchen and not picked up, and each of them places something left to do into one's thoughts. These are reminders that are noise that consume thoughts of creation.
It took me a moment to remember that clutter generally produces mental clutter. It distracts me to lose track to have so much stuff surrounding me. Unlike bursting out into an extemporaneous drawing, I am frantically searching around for a pencil or dusting out a crevice just so that I can draw. This process is brought to a dead halt even before implementing. That paralizing moment has a tiring effect and produces resistance.
The undercover stress of a cluttered desk is insidious. It is not necessarily something noticeable to me immediately. Occasionally I feel okay working amidst a bit of clutter but the longer I sit, the more stressed out and cranky I become. It is as though the clutter is becoming more and more heavily laden with each passing minute. It is making me more impatient, crankier, and less receptive to inspiration. And at its worse, it is doing damage to my confidence. It is making me doubt myself more and feel that I will not complete anything begun and so is leading to pushing things away and doing things like putting things off.
What I discovered is clutter deadens creativity and concentration because it distracts me. Creativity flows most readily in an environment that is secure, serene, and expansive. Cluttering a desk has just the opposite effect. It encloses me. It puts me in the mindset that I am surrounded by things to get in my way rather than possibilities. Cleaning off a desk, though, creates space not just on the surface but in my mind.
My Desk Rituals That Evoke My Creativity
After years of constantly struggling with a messy desk and environment, I have developed rituals that help me day by day to keep an uncluttered desk, clearing my mind from distractions so I can concentrate all of my energy by designing and finishing my work.
One of my daily rituals, an absolute favourite of mine, maybe my favourite is a five-minute tidy. Every evening when cleaning my work away, when settling into bed to sleep I make sure to put my sketchbooks away, close my computer down and only essentials must still be left on the desk, nothing else. Sounds completely boring, nothing that could ever make so much of a difference, but it does. Even though just five minutes, it makes a difference to my next day in such a positive way. When the next morning I'm able to pop into my tidy desk, and a feeling of relief sweeps over me and then I'm able to sit and get into my designs and work of the day and feel able to create.
Weekly cleaning is a support too. On the weekend, more of a reboot is wanted. Surfaces are scrubbed off and cluttered drawers are sorted out, and things no longer of mine are resupplied. Dried out markers and crumple post-it notes no longer doing anything for me, for example. It's a ritual of mine to remind myself that the working space changes along with myself. As things no longer doing anything are cleared out, space is freed to invite new ideas.
The little things are more important than I ever thought them to be. Holding onto the surface of my desk beforehand is extremely efficient. Keeping my pencils in a mug or books in an orderly stack is ritualistic, priming the groundwork when performance is to occur. It is not a question of doing things just so. It is a question of offering an environment to remind myself of the person I'm working to become in preparing myself to a place of readiness to sit and make.
Integrated into a pre-work practice of mindfulness is cleaning the space. This has shifted the dynamic of working on projects. No longer do I think of cleaning as a boring chore but a process that is a natural companion to the process of creation. I'm attuned to the feel of the paper when assembling stacks, to the feel of the desk when cleaning off, and to stillness and calmness when the mess is removed. Even before working, even when just walking into the space, I'm attuned to the process of creation.
They concentrate me. They summon my mind to consider the reality that it is time to put distractions aside and attend to things that are important. They tell me that inspiration is something more than a spark of genius. It is discipline, cultivation, and purging to create a space for ideas to come to seed.
Working space to me began just as a place to work from but has developed into an extension of myself of an artist. How it is organized is a physical representation of not just my habits but personality and principles. Personal touches make the area more emotional. A little plant at the left bottom of my table gives a sense of life and revival. A candle gives a comforting smell to put my mood into a better place right away. Sometimes, I place a postcard of a place close to me or a picture placed into a frame. Personal belongings make me remember that creating is not just creating output but is an output of euphoria just the same. These make my table not a lifeless piece of material but a place where I feel freedom to remain.
To build a working space that will nurture my own germ of imagination is an experiment of growth. As is everyone, things that come into clear noticeable focus and things that lose me are physical things to me. Too much ornament, e.g., will crowd me, so I economize. A warm-light lamp, a few things within reaches, and a minimal space to do a sketch are usually adequate. It's a balance. I want the desk to be active but not crowded, personal but not packed.
When Clarity Becomes Creativity.
A neater desk has revealed to me that creating is more than ideas coming to life magically out of thin air. Neatness is not an issue of tidyness for tidyness's sake. It is an issue of taking responsibility for my own process and providing myself the clarity that will allow me to work to the best of my abilities.
Writing from a well-organized desk refreshes the imagination spark. It is opening a door and letting in a current of freshness. It is a little habit perhaps, but it is so valuable to my mood and productivity.
Now I get the sense that my desk is more than a piece of furniture. It is where my ideas come from, where the beginning is and my imagination grows. When it is a mess, I'm stuck in the chaos of it. When it's organized, I'm free to breathe, think, and create without limitations.
So when my imagination is dry, I spend a couple of minutes and clear off my desk, and by so doing, find the spark that was evading me.