Where does your best work come from?

Recently, I have been addicted to TED talks, I downloaded the app on my phone and pretty much everyday I've been watching some very inspirational talks. Whether it's been the the power of sleep or dealing with rejection, I have been hooked.

But it was a great talk from Steven Johnson about where good ideas come from that I couldn't help notice I was agreeing with every word he said. In any job I've had, my best ideas have come when I was furthest away from office. Even if the atmosphere wants to inspire creativity, sometimes it's just best to switch away from the norm and try somewhere else to work.

I don't want to come across cliched but this kind of happenend for me and Svea over the weekend. We usual do our work in the living room but we got away and went to a coffee shop (and yes it's that coffee company, like I said very cliched) and so much work and ideas started flowing, it was really great just to get away from everything, take our time and focus truly on a creative solution for our clients. It's kind of been the first time we have done this and it probably won't be the last.

So that got me thinking about places that truly let creative people be more conductive with their time, I know business needs to be done on a daily basis, and that sometimes leads to any creative ideas being done outside of work, but most real people are tired after the daily grind.

Google show a great motivation technique, Google uses a policy often called Innovation Time Off, where Google employees are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them. Some of Google's newer services, such as Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense. Showing that some great things can come from just being away from it all and sometimes.

It doesn't help that if creative people are seen from taking time away from the office are seen as lazy of just having a quick break dimisses their work as 'proper' work. Some of the people with these thoughts would probably say 'Time is money' but using that time in the right way would probably benefit everyone in the long run.

So back away from the desk and go work somewhere new for a change or if you get your best work done somewhere unexpected then share it with us, let us know where your creative juices get flowing and inspire someone to do the same.

P.S.

You can watch the TED talk below, that inspired this little post

'Til the next time
James x