Distraction triggers creativity

As Bryan Lufkin describes in his bcc worklife article, people tend to be more creative in public spaces than isolated at home. Many big authors, painters, and philosophers have done their best work in coffee shops, e.g. JK Rowling, Pablo Picasso, or Jean-Paul Sartre. Remote work from home is the new normal during the Covid-19 pandemic and it might become a permanent situation. Going back out to work in public might be a choice and we will have to ask ourselves if we even want to do it. But it seems that putting on noise-cancelling headphones to cancel out outside noises is not the same at the desk at home, as it is in a crowded place. In many ways coffee shops trigger creativity in a way offices and homes don’t. Research has shown that the stimuli in coffee shops make them effective environments to work. It’s the combination of noise, crowds of people and visual variety that can give us the right amount of distraction to help us generate ideas. The background noise in a public setting can benefit our creative thinking – so it’s not just the coffee.