on the first day of his new job at
Pittsburg Municipal Hospital Jonas Salk
was introduced to his office a basement
laboratory 40 by 40 feet next to a
morgue according to reports the
researcher would put in 16-hour days
even on weekends to work on a polio
vaccine but years after he started he
found himself at a dead end in his
exhaustion Salk retreated to the
monastery at the basilica of san
francesco de Assisi in Italy and
magnificent structure permeated by
natural light that's where the
breakthrough happened
sukh would go on to develop the first
successful vaccine against the crippling
disease and become one of the most
venerated medical scientists of the
century for the rest of his life he
would insist that something about being
in the monastery helped clear his
obstructed mind psychological research
may help explain Salk's mental shift
perhaps the beauty of the monastery put
him in a state of awe allowing him to
regain perspective or maybe as his brain
was processing the new environment it
made a leap in solving the problem he
had been stuck on you may not be able to
pick up and go to a thirteenth century
italian sanctuary whenever you hit a
mental block but where you do your work
matters the space where you draft
designs tackle equations or finesse the
dialogue in your latest novel can either
thought your potential or give you new
energy where should you go that depends
on what you're trying to accomplish
whilst most TV writers might brainstorm
ideas in a conventional conference group
the atlanta writing team wrote much of
the show in a rented house which they
called the factory the informal setting
was a natural breeding ground for banter
and raw conversations which they would
later incorporate into their scripts
simile hit record producer Max Martin
bought a house in Los Angeles solely to
work up music with collaborators artists
sometimes feel uncomfortable in studios
where every hour feels like it costs
money he said in
interview he wanted his space to feel
different I don't want it to fancy I
want everyone to just relax if you and
your team need to connect and
collaborate a home or if that's not just
a-- khalid difficult a warmer cozier
space that invites relaxation might be
your ideal setting for a brainstorming
session conversations flow better when
you're lounging on sofas or grabbing
slices of pizza over a kitchen counter
working in an environment that feels
like home might relax you but in some
cases what you really need is to
persevere without distractions
that's when an isolated space can set
you up to succeed when author JK Rowling
was wrestling with her final Harry
Potter books she got a room in the bow
moral Hotel in Edinburgh Scotland to
escape from the noise of her daily life
in an interview with Oprah Rowling
explained as I was finishing Deathly
Hallows there came a day where the
window cleaner came the kids were at
home the dogs were barking and I could
not work and this light bulb went on
over my head and I thought I could throw
money at this problem I can now solve
this problem she didn't intend to work
in the hotel room for an extended period
of time
but her writing was going so well that
she kept going back she's not the only
notable person who routinely cocoons
herself from the rest of the world
singer/songwriter ester dean needs to be
by herself in the studio when she writes
Bill Gates conducts his famous think
weeks alone in the forest to write his
first memoir Dreams from My Father
Barack Obama flew to Bali solo for five
weeks you don't need to take such a
drastic step but seeking out a solitary
environment can help you make
significant progress on your work if
your workplace isn't set up for that
make do with what you have
find a conference room for those
stretches when you really need to put
your head down or ask if you can work
from home to meet a pressing deadline
while isolated spaces can help you
generate output they don't always
inspire new ideas for that try taking a
field trip there's evidence that
perceived spatial distance from a task
can spark creativity but you don't
necessarily need to travel a long
distance to view a problem from a whole
different lens if you want chaos and
excitement you could spend a weekend in
a bustling city or you could just visit
a bus terminal if you want to learn
about a different culture you might
start with a new cuisine or visit a new
neighborhood a Scott Barry Kaufman the
director of the University of
Pennsylvania's imagination Institute and
author of wire to create unraveling the
mysteries of the creative mind once
explained unusual experiences are good
for the brain the next time you feel
overwhelmed by a never-ending to-do list
or confused by the purpose of your
project or frustrated that your team is
hitting a roadblock consider the power
of your environment sometimes to unlock
your best work you simply need an change
in scenery
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