There are a lot of things out there that can either enhance or inhibit creative thinking. Choose your poison.
Coffee. It’s one of those beverages most people — certainly creative types — have a special relationship with that sort of gets you into a groove. Yeah, caffeine is a natural stimulant. But it sometimes feels like a drug. And it’s everywhere. Designed to keep the economy going strong.
Lately I’ve tried eliminating coffee (and caffeinated tea) from my system at 2-3 day intervals. Sometimes 1 week on, one week off as an experiment to see what would happen. The outcome? It’s harder than I thought it would be. Headaches, feeling tired literally all afternoon; eating more empty calories and salty/sweet snacks. These are the common withdrawal symptoms, I suppose, most people complain about when they abruptly cease caffeine intake.
Cigarettes. I quit smoking in 1999 and have never looked back. I used to find cigarettes would relax my mind and, like coffee, get me into a creative groove zen-like place. It literally took years for the cravings to fade. When you’re in your 20’s and 30’s you have this false sense of invincibility. I’ll hit 40 in a couple years. Don’t think I need these things anymore.
Headphones. A mainstay in every diligent contributor’s toolkit of resources. The world is noisy. Sometimes it’s necessary to filter out all the distractions around us conspiring to obliterate our attention. Headphones are like sonic partitions erected in the focus-thwarting open office spaces many of us begrudgingly work.