“One thing all creative people hate is work,” Max Kaplan famously declared during his TED Talk, “Productivity and How Not to Burn Out.” Why is that? Because creativity and productivity, much like oil and water, are inherently difficult to blend. Each requires a distinct mindset, environment, and rituals to thrive. This article explores the fundamental differences between these two states and provides actionable strategies to help you excel in both.
Focused vs. Scattered Attention. Which One Do You Need?
Creativity and productivity engage different brain regions and demand distinct types of attention. While creativity thrives on scattered attention, allowing ideas to flow freely and connections to form, productivity relies on focused attention to drive tasks to completion with precision and efficiency.
Creativity is often linked to scattered or open attention, boredom, daydreaming, mind-wandering, and unstructured time. These states allow the mind to explore beyond conscious thought and into the subconscious, where unexpected connections can emerge.
Dr. Sandi Mann, a psychologist and researcher, explains: “Once you start daydreaming and allow your mind to wander, you start thinking beyond the conscious and into the subconscious. This process allows different connections to take place.”
Manoush Zomorodi, a journalist, author, and podcast host, supports this idea, asserting that boredom can spark some of the most brilliant ideas. She reflects on her experience during the first year with her newborn when she felt disconnected and utterly bored. It was during this unstructured period that creative insights began to emerge.
Many well-known innovators intentionally engage in repetitive, routine, or low-cognitive-demand activities to let their minds wander and tap into creative thought. For instance, Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx, created a “fake commute” to stimulate inspiration.1 Similarly, Steve Jobs famously went for walks, Einstein played the violin, and Agatha Christie found creative flow while washing dishes. These activities allowed their minds to drift, creating fertile ground for innovative ideas.
Interestingly, research also links creativity to traits associated with ADHD. According to Scientific American, “People whose minds drift away easily, such as those with the [ADHD] disorder, are more likely to come up with original ideas.”2 This tendency to let the mind roam freely may explain why many creative prodigies demonstrate a higher likelihood of having ADHD.
By embracing scattered attention and boredom, individuals can unlock the subconscious mind’s ability to forge novel connections, leading to breakthrough ideas and innovative solutions.
Productivity, in contrast to creativity, thrives on focused attention. Chris Bailey, author of The Productivity Project, emphasizes that managing attention is a key factor in achieving productivity. He argues that directing attention purposefully is what enables individuals to complete tasks efficiently and effectively.
Bailey offers several practical tips for sharpening focus and boosting productivity:
- Minimize distractions. Reduce interruptions, especially from digital devices, to maintain a concentrated workflow.
- Make tasks appealing. Transform dull or unattractive tasks, such as tax filing, into more engaging activities by reframing or rewarding progress.
- Avoid overwork. Steer clear of long hours that can compromise attention and lead to diminishing returns.
- Work in intervals. Break tasks into smaller, manageable chunks and take frequent breaks to maintain mental clarity.
- Identify peak hours. Discover the times of day when your attention and energy naturally peak, and schedule high-priority tasks during these periods.
- Focus on quality. Adopt an optimal work pace, emphasizing quality over sheer quantity.
By actively managing attention and adopting strategies tailored to personal rhythms and needs, individuals can maximize their productivity while minimizing burnout and inefficiency.
Messy vs. Neat. How Workspace Impacts Creativity and Productivity.
Creativity flourishes in environments that are messy, adaptable, unpredictable, and unstructured, where ideas can flow freely and innovation thrives. In contrast, productive work thrives in spaces that are clean, well-organized, predictable, and structured, providing the focus and clarity needed to complete tasks efficiently.
“Just stepping into a different space hits the reset button on your brain,” writes Daniel J. Levitin, author of The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. This shift in environment can be powerful for creativity.
Tim Harford, author of Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives, notes that creativity thrives in messy workspaces. He uses examples like Albert Einstein’s famously chaotic desk to illustrate how disorder can fuel innovation.
Dealing with an unstructured, messy and unpredictable work environment fosters adaptability and flexibility, encouraging exploration and experimentation. It challenges the brain to devise innovative solutions by breaking from routine thought patterns. Such unpredictability stimulates new ideas, allowing for unexpected connections and discoveries.
Unstructured spaces often lead to cross-pollination of ideas. Teams working in less ordered environments may experience more dynamic and spontaneous interactions, sparking creative collaboration. The absence of rigid structures creates a freedom to explore ideas without the pressure to conform to established rules or expectations. This openness reduces the fear of failure, empowering individuals to take risks and think boldly.
By embracing messiness and lack of structure, individuals and teams unlock new opportunities for creative problem-solving, innovation, and dynamic collaboration.
A work environment that promotes productivity fundamentally differs from one that fosters creativity. It is clean, well-organized, predictable, and structured, offering clarity and focus. A prime example of such an environment is the 5S methodology, a system rooted in Japanese principles of efficiency and minimalism. The 5S framework uses five Japanese terms: Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke. These terms are translated into English as Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. Here’s a breakdown of these principles:
Sort. Remove unnecessary items from the workspace to eliminate clutter and distractions.
Set in Order. Organize essential items systematically, ensuring they are easy to locate and use.
Shine. Maintain cleanliness and tidiness to create a more pleasant and efficient work environment.
Standardize. Develop standards and guidelines to ensure consistency and reliability in work processes.
Sustain. Implement habits and practices to maintain the established standards over time.
A clean, structured environment minimizes distractions, reduces stress, and helps maintain focus. Additionally, an organized environment supports mistake prevention and enhances efficiency by ensuring that required resources and information are easily accessible, reducing wasted time. By embracing the principles of 5S, workplaces can create a setting that optimizes productivity and ensures smooth, consistent operations. This structured approach fosters a rhythm and pace of work that balances quality and efficiency, making it easier for individuals and teams to meet their productivity goals while minimizing the risk of burnout.
Mastering Creativity and Productivity Through Routines and Rituals
By intentionally separating creative and productive time, we can establish routines and rituals that unlock our creative potential and those that maximize our productivity.
Creative individuals often rely on specific cues and rituals to enter a flow state, allowing them to produce their best work. These cues can include the time of day, particular smells, sounds, locations, and food or drinks that help set the tone for creative expression.
For example, writer Gabby Bernstein describes her creativity routine: “I have writing cues. I have a whole ritual around my writing. So, I write in the morning. That’s my time. I become uninterruptible. Coffee is my ritual. I have a cup of coffee with a lot of frothy nut milk, and it’s next to my desk. Smelling that coffee in the morning at the desk, with no other tabs up, is all cues that it’s time to write.”
Many renowned creative geniuses also adhered to distinct rituals. Maya Angelou, for instance, rented a hotel room to write in solitude each morning.3 Pablo Picasso preferred working on his artwork at night, while Voltaire famously worked from his bed. These routines, tailored to their unique preferences, served as reliable triggers for creativity.
The secret to unlocking your creative potential lies not in copying someone else’s routine but in discovering your creativity cues. Pay attention to the elements that inspire you, a particular location, a comforting beverage, or a specific time of day, and build a ritual around them.
Similarly, productivity can also be influenced by these factors. Elements like time of day, sounds, smells, locations, food, and weather can significantly impact your ability to focus and get things done. By identifying and intentionally designing your environment and habits, you can optimize your creativity and productivity, achieving a balance that allows you to thrive in your work.
Julia Lee, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, conducted research demonstrating how weather affects productivity.4 Her findings reveal that employees tend to be more focused and less distracted during poor weather. Rainy or gloomy days, with fewer outdoor temptations, create an ideal environment for tackling tasks requiring sustained attention. To leverage this insight, consider scheduling significant, detail-oriented work during times of the year when the weather is typically unpleasant or on rainy days.
Another well-researched factor influencing productivity is the time of day. Sam Carpenter, in his book “Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less,” introduced the concept of “Prime Time.” This is the period when our attention and ability to concentrate are at their peak, typically varying from person to person. Identifying and reserving your productivity prime time for high-priority tasks ensures that you work on the most critical initiatives when you’re naturally at your best.
By aligning work schedules with factors such as weather and individual prime time, you can optimize focus and productivity. This strategic approach allows for more efficient use of time, ensuring that you tackle important work when both external and internal conditions are most favourable.
Practical Recommendations for Maximizing Creativity and Productivity
Achieving peak creativity and productivity requires intentional strategies tailored to your unique rhythms and environment. These six recommendations will guide you in creating a harmonious system that maximizes both creativity and productivity.
Find Your Prime Time
Find periods when you’re at your best for either creativity or productivity. Your creative prime time typically occurs when your attention is more scattered, allowing ideas to flow freely. In contrast, your productivity prime time happens when your focus is sharpest, enabling you to accomplish tasks efficiently.
Observe, record and reverse-engineer patterns in your successes to pinpoint your prime times. Note the time of day, day of the week, and even the season when you generate your most creative ideas. Similarly, track when your focus is at its peak, and you’re highly productive.
Protect Your Prime Time
Once you’ve identified the hours when you’re most creative or productive, safeguard them by firmly blocking them in your schedule. Plan everything else around these prime hours to ensure they remain dedicated to your most important work.
This principle aligns with Stephen Covey’s “big rocks, little rocks” analogy.5 Big rocks represent your significant, high-priority projects requiring creativity and productivity. Everything fits when you schedule the more minor tasks—the pebbles—around these big rocks. However, prioritizing the pebbles first means you’ll find no room for the big rocks.
Break your big rocks into protected time blocks for creativity and productivity, and reserve those blocks for your prime hours.
Harness Seasonality to Optimize Work
Research from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business shows that weather significantly impacts productivity.4 People tend to be more productive when the weather is poor. The opposite is also true. Being outside in nature when the weather is beautiful is strongly linked to increased creativity.
Every climate zone has more or less enjoyable seasons for outdoor activities. Less enjoyable seasons might mean cold, stormy winters with short days or prolonged periods of rain, depending on where you live. Use these seasonal variations to your advantage. Schedule tasks that require focus and execution during months of poor weather, and dedicate the brighter, more pleasant months to creative work and launching new projects.
Design Your Creativity Hub and Productivity Zone
Ideally, we need two spaces tailored to two opposite goals: a neat, organized environment to boost productivity and a chaotic, unstructured space to spark creativity. A minimalist desk setup can help us focus and get things done. We also need a creativity hub, a space for breakthrough ideas, where we can break boundaries and embrace chaos and lack of structure. Your creativity hub might be a café, a train (like J.K. Rowling’s writing spot), or a garage where many startups began. Experiment to find what works best for you. Once identified, consistently use your creativity hub for innovation and your productivity zone for execution.
Create Creativity and Productivity Rituals
With simple environmental cues, you can prompt your body and brain to switch to creative or productive mode. This process is similar to signalling your body it’s time to sleep. Light is a good starting point—brighter light enhances productivity, while softer lighting encourages creativity. Music is another powerful tool. Explore background music options tailored for productivity or creativity through various apps and find what resonates with you. Drinks also play a role—steer clear of sugary options and experiment with teas, herbal teas, smoothies, or coffee. If possible, incorporate scents into your workspace to prime your mind for the desired mode.
Master the Art of Creativity and Productivity
Now that you know what fuels your creativity and productivity, focus on building routines one at a time until they become second nature, like brushing your teeth. Start small—perhaps by waking early to journal with a cup of coffee. The key is consistency. As you establish these routines, continue learning and observing to fine-tune your prime time and refine your routines. Stay adaptable, adding practices that enhance your productivity and creativity. Over time, these habits will form a personalized system, empowering you to operate at your best.
Key Takeaways
- Creativity thrives on scattered attention and free-flowing ideas, while productivity demands intense focus and structured thinking.
- Productivity excels in environments that are clean and organized, while creativity flourishes in messy, unstructured spaces that inspire innovation.
- Personalized rituals, specific cues, and intentional triggers can help unlock and sustain states of creative or productive flow.
- Discovering your peak states for either creativity and productivity requires detailed observation and consistent note-taking to identify patterns.
Footnotes
1. https://www.businessinsider.com/spanx-ceo-sara-blakely-fake-commute-2018-11
2. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-people-with-adhd-more-creative
3. https://www.businessinsider.com/maya-angelou-writing-process-2014-5
4. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=42773
5. https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits/habit-3/