My Top Creativity "Happy Places"

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” Scott Adams

Over at Productivity501 yesterday, Mark Shead had a post yesterday entitled Jumpstart Your Creativity at the Library. 

Mark's post got me thinking about my own "happy places" - the places where my mind is free to wander, to create, and to dream.  These places differ drastically than my "GTD places" - the places I go to focus and Get Things Done. 

My home office is great for checking tasks off the list and taking care of business, but it's not usually the place where I dream up my latest harebrained scheme. 

Here's my list of spots where ideas come to me most frequently:

• The bargain aisles at Barnes & Noble - Who can't find inspiration surrounded by tons of books?
• My favorite walking path - Especially when I'm listening to some of my favorite podcasts
• The shower - Why?  I don't know.
• My bed - I keep a notebook on my bedside table for those nights when I have a great dream in the middle of the night and don't want to forget it by morning.  By the way, here's a little known fact about Lisa - I sleep on one of those old, 70's style waterbeds that swishes whenever you move. I hate regular mattresses and if my bed ever springs a leak I'll be in trouble.
• My favorite local coffee store - Especially if I'm there with girlfriends who are talking about life
• Church - This may get me in trouble, but I'll admit to occasionally daydreaming in Mass.  Some of my best writing has been drafted on the back of a bulletin during the quiet mediation time that follows Communion.

Knowing that these sites provide fodder for creativity makes me want to use portions of my recreation time visiting them.  While we can't force creativity, we should always work at placing ourselves in environments that are  amenable  to creative flow.  What are some of your creativity "happy places"?

Best of the Blogs:
(recent blog posts related to today's topic of Learning)

• Save Time on Routine Tasks: Optimized Reading
• Help!  I Feel Brain Dead.  How Can I Possibly Be Productive?
• Top Time-Wasters for Web Workers
• Free Tutorial Sites for Honing Your App Skills
• 10 Tips for Giving Effective Instructions

Home-work for Today:

• Spend ten minutes compiling a list of places you find yourself being creative.  Schedule an appointment with yourself to spend one hour this week in one of your Creativity spaces.

Comments

[Lisa Hendey]

Tara,
I love your saying!!! I'm going to steal that. Now we just need to invent some kind of handy waterproof notebook so we can capture all those great ideas!
Lisa

[Lisa Hendey]

Jennifer,
I forgot about that precious blow drying time! Mine takes a long time to dry, so I could be coming up with all kinds of great stuff.
Thanks for commenting!
Lisa

[Jennifer]

I have some of my best ideas while blow-drying my hair.

[Tara]

I'm totally with you on the shower bit. I usually have 90% of the days problems solved by the time I get out of the shower. (My saying is that "I'm brilliant in the shower!") The rest of the problems used to get solved on my commute to work in the morning. I work at home a lot and even when I'm in the office don't have much of a commute anymore, so that's not as much of an option anymore. That said, sometimes I take a round trip out of my way for Starbucks and some reflection time!