When am I creative

From my own experience I will write down some thoughts about when to take the time to do something creative. There are several factors which are important, at least to me.

 

Tattoo Parisienne. Paris 2017

 

 

In the morning

 

As I observed it, I am more creative in the morning hours. I get up, make some coffee, maybe smoke a cigarette and start writing. In the morning, the day didn’t start yet. The mind is fresh and unused and not filled with the little problems that come along during the everyday life. I don’t check instagram, facebook or look up the mails. As I see it,

the less consuming before creating the better.

In the morning, I have a concentration boost and I think in middle of the day, the concentration level is lower because the concentration was already used maybe by my stupid job (I actually like my job, I drive cars around, but it is not something you want to do forever) or the school.

 

With a coffee

 

Coffee is great. I love coffee.

Coffee is something that brings me in the mood of doing something creative. Regardless of whether I play piano or I write, i enjoy having a coffee around. In the evening hours I unfortunately can not drink a coffee so I would switch to a wine or beer. I think it is good to have a setting that stimulates you to do something. So the coffee is my setting to be creative.

Actually it’s the same psychology as with the bed: To better fall asleep, you should use your bed only for sleeping and well, one other activity. Because then, your mind gets stimulated to fall asleep every time you go to bed.

 

 

Man with Newspaper. Berlin 2015

 

 

When I am hungry*

 

Another observation I have made is, that I am more creative if a have not eaten yet. I do not have a clear psychological explanation for that phenomena.

The situation I first realized this was at a friend about three years ago. I got to know him while we were on the street for our project humans of kiel. We made a photo of him, he was playing piano on the street. Great music by the way. After that we met several times to make music (me with the trumpet and he with the piano). We improvised a lot. One day, we had good ideas and we were in the flow. I hadn’t eaten before. After a while he offered me some pasta and after we ate those, nothing was possible anymore. No melodies in the head. As if they were gone.

*hungry means not full with food. When I write in the morning, I eat after I did some writing.