Where do you do get your best ideas? This is a question that my friend and associate, Roger Firestien, used to ask in his presentations, and one which I frequently pose. The responses range from, "in the car," "on the boat," "at the coffeeshop," "in the outdoors" or "in the bathroom." The answers are varied except for one commonality (and no, it has nothing to do with "running water"). Rarely does anyone say, "at work" or "the office." How about you? If youre like the vast majority of the people we talk with, youre not getting great ideas while sitting at your desk.
The author sites examples of thinking-places for some people and asks a series of questions to help identify the ideal environment conducive to creative thinking and offers suggestions on altering one to suit yourself.
If noise hampers creativity for you and keeps pulling you out of the flow, you can take my advice and listen to your favorite kind of music to block out all the unnecessary noise. Before you start listening to music while trying to concentrate on your work, there could be N different things (like weird ringtones of mobile phones, talking co-workers, car horns, etc.) getting your attention in addition to the task. But a while after the music has been turned on, there'd be just you, the code, and the music!
