This will totally go against the ruling opinion, but something urges me to voice myself for those of us who do our most creative work in the pyjamas! And I mean literally in the pyjamas, or any other outfit you feel most comfy in, as opposed to dressing up to meet the challenges of the outside world…
going to work… at home…
Following a lot of popular blogs from creatives or entrepreneurs I’ve found the general view that slipping out of your pyjamas in the morning, putting your makeup on (if this is something you usually do), dressing up to get ready for any challenge of the day – from creating your art and web page content to business meetings with art directors or teaching afternoon classes – will make you feel on top of the game, equalling will help you to be more creative! I will not argue with those of you who really find this to be true, by all means, that’s great! And if you have a day job, DON’T stay in your pyjamas… But I’ll bet there are a few, not to say many, creatives as myself that doesn’t find this to work that well, even though it sounds sane and peppy!
Some even argue setting up “business” hours at home and plan your day as you would in a regular office environment is the way to build a successful, disciplinary working habit (is this why we wanted a creative work in the first place: to make it look like a nine-five work?) If you feel differently and want to stay in your pyjamas until lunch, or whatever favourite, cosy outfit you prefer, here are some reasons to do EXACTLY THAT, in order to boost your creative flow…
under which circumstances do you produce your best work?
Many observations tell us that creative activity is peaking during and immediately after sleep, which for most of us means when we wake up in the morning (but, of course, you don’t necessarily have to sleep at night!). Why is this? Leaving the indisputable facts behind, like the evolutionary aspect of the melatonin cycle that is adapted to the flow of darkness and daylight, or that the creative connections in our brains are most active in the early morning hours before the analytical part of the brain wakes up and take over, there are pure psychological reasons as well. So ask yourself, under which circumstances do you produce your best work? For me it’s all about having a safeguarded place of undisturbed time without interruptions and interaction with the surroundings and their expectations from me. Period. This is the absolute most important criterion of starting any solid work. The creative ideas may come in other places and moments of time, it’s actually proven that they are stimulated by movement and exercise, new environments, or unexpected meetings and happenings. But to put them on the page or on the canvas demands your own secluded space and your own protected time.
what’s in your heart/art?
Why is it so important to seclude yourself when you want to do truly creative work? Because the source of anything truly genuine lies within you, not outside you. You want your art to be authentic, something deeply personal that is unique because it comes from YOU, not the distracted person monitoring Google alerts and Skype calls while responding to last minute briefs. And this is what I find happens if I follow the advice of getting dressed for a “real” workday… Each step I take that brings me closer to the outer world moves me a step further away from my inner world. And for me, dressing up, putting makeup on, making myself presentable, also establish my DAY PERSONA, the one that is very extrovert, responsible, alert and ready to react (on mail, phone calls or any other outside stimuli), the representative image of myself so to speak. But this is not the source, the person, from where my art and inspiration springs. Or at least that source is hidden under multiple layers of distractions and not easy available when I want to put the pencil to the page.
So my creative flow, where my ideas translate into the most genuine art pieces, happens, if not always, MOSTLY before I get out of my pyjamas! Or, sometimes, when I get INTO my pyjamas at night… but without my pyjamas I seriously don’t know if it would be possible to be creative at ALL!
