A desk of one’s own
Hello,
My week to this point has been ridiculous. It has involved two sick children off school consecutively, an unexploded bomb inadvertently being the least chaotic thing that day and a pencil sharpener-related injury. To a child, not to me.
When ridiculous happens, you need to roll with it. Give in to the chaos. And hope the next day will return some calm.
So I’m leaning into the mess this week and looking at whether this is a good or a bad thing for creativity.
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A desk of one’s own
There is an ongoing debate in my house about the art desk. The art desk sits in the corner of the dining room with a window out onto the back garden. It exists as a space for the kids to create. Covered in glue, paint and glitter it’s a creative free-for-all. Except this desk isn’t ever used for art.
Oh no. This desk is a dumping ground. It is the place where the crafts of the kitchen table are cleared off onto each night before dinner. On the odd occasion the cleaning fairy comes and waves her magic wand, it is still never used as a desk, more of an open storage unit.
So, as a digital nomad in the worst sense of the term (and the person who needs the kitchen table to do any work), I have my sights set on this desk space. I have plans and dreams and a Pinterest board full of the perfect workspace ideas.
Before I can claim this space as my own, I have months of art desk dumping to sort through and that sort of task is not particularly inspiring. And I wonder just how much we need to have a space to be more productive.
Let’s be clear here, I would love to embrace Virginia Woolf’s call to arms that all a woman needs is financial freedom and a room of her own (yes, I’m paraphrasing) but that’s not going to happen any time soon. Certainly not when I don’t even have a desk of my own.
But how important is it?
In Atomic Habits, James Clear covers this topic with the argument that to set good habits we need separate spaces. Our brains use the external environment to prompt what needs to happen. When work and home bleed into the same spaces, it’s difficult to switch between the two. The idea is that even if you have a seat at the kitchen table to work, you move to a different place to eat.
But how can we make our space - no matter how small or temporary that is - be most inspiring for our work and creativity?
Interestingly, a 2013 study from the University of Minnesota found that how clean or tidy your desk is makes little difference to your creativity. With some evidence pointing slightly towards a messy desk being a breeding ground for creativity (as well as other things depending on the kind of mess).
It seems that mess or otherwise on your workspace depends on what you find helpful. Before you throw caution to the cleaning wind though, it’s worth pointing out that clutter as opposed to creative chaos does make it difficult to focus on the task at hand. The position is that when you’ve got a lot of stuff to look at, you’re more likely to be distracted by it. And we all know that distraction is the bedfellow of procrastination.
Does that mean all of those Instagrammable desks are doing more harm than good on our focus levels? The same study found that when the mess was more organised chaos(papers stacked, pens lined up and presumably stuff shoved in boxes) then you’re less likely to be distracted by it. So having visually pleasing images and storage are not likely to distract you. But will they help inspire you?
In my last proper job (read employment), a desk without personal flair was frowned upon. We were actively encouraged to stick up posters, have knick-knacks and make the desk feel like home.
There is an abundance of research into the impact of colour and light on our learning experience. Schools are designed around research to give kids the best possible chance of learning. Natural light and calming colours are proven to help you take in more information. So aside from the kind of mess your desk holds, how much natural light you get is also important. Plus, the colours of your lightbulbs can also make an impact.
If you’ve not got the luxury of a window by your desk, or you’ve been surviving this grim summer, then investing in a lightbulb that mimics natural light as much as possible can help dig into your creativity (and get more done). While we’re talking about nature, having lots of plants around also helps. This is not to justify any obsession with house plants, but if you need more ammunition to add to your collection (and you’re not alone) there is a roundup of workspace research here that justifies all plant purchases.
Let’s not forget comfort
While we’re busy looking at the aesthetics of our desks, it can be easy to forget comfort. When you’re employed by someone, they have a duty to make sure you’re comfortable at work. When you’re working for yourself, you can totally miss this.
Hands up if you’ve invested in an ergonomic chair. Yep, me neither. Work takes place on the sofa, the dining room chair, and occasionally in a desk chair but not that much. Once a week I go to a coworking space and this is where I get most of my writing done because my goodness are those chairs comfy.
And it’s not just about our butts and backs. We’re not testing our screen heights or how our typing impacts our wrists. We’re probably not thinking about posture or movement (unless you’ve got one of those standing desk things).
In fact, I’d go as far as to argue that your desk needs to be comfortable first and foremost and then do all the pretty stuff to create the right kind of creative environment for you.
One of my first employed jobs was at a trendy PR company in Old Street. The interiors were designed to impress. The desks and chairs for their aesthetics. Unfortunately, I was allergic to my desk. Yup, I really was.
It was made of wood with a thick metal edge. The metal was one that made me come out in a rash. So as I was sitting and working, I’d be slowly getting red marks across my arms that would spread into big red welts by the end of the day. It didn’t make for the most productive work day.
All the pretty in the world won’t help with your creativity if you’re not comfortable when you’re working.
So what is the best environment for creativity?
That depends on you. It might be with music on and a whole world of mess around you. It might be the most colour coordinated clean and tidy desk. Or something in between. Even if, like me, you don’t have a permanent desk of your own, you can take your personal flair with you everywhere to create a mini desk set-up that inspires.
I have what I consider a desk in a bag. Everything I need in one bag ready to set up wherever I may be that day. The great part of this is that I can feel ready to go anywhere. The downside is not having a place that’s just mine. But one day I’ll have my own space. I just have to share it with the paint, glitter, and glue in the meantime.
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Now I’m off to go hide all the pencil sharpeners in the house. I’ll see you all next Thursday.
Fiona