How Isolation Boosts Creativity
Any artist will tell you that collaboration is the key to creative success. But some of the best artistic masterpieces were created in solitude.
Take J Cole’s 2014 Forest Hill Drive, for example. While the norm at the time was to have multiple collaborators on every second song, Cole managed to go platinum without a single feature.
The times we live in don’t really allow for in-person collaboration. But the time you spend alone could actually be far more useful than you realise. Here are five ways that isolation boosts creativity:
It Frees Up Your Time
A huge portion of most people’s day is spent getting ready for work. You have to do your daily male grooming ritual (shower, moisturise, use body spray). There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is the time you spend in traffic while you try to get to work and back home. Take that time away, and now your schedule is freed up. That time in the morning and afternoon can be used to hone your creative skills.
It Encourages Uninterrupted Focus
Time seems to slow down when you spend most of it alone. When you have to split your time with the demands of work, a constant stream of messages and social appointments, there’s very little time to focus 100% on improving your bars or learning a new photography technique. But when you spend most of your time alone at home, that’s precisely what you can do. Use this period to invest more of your mental bandwidth on your creative pursuits.
It Lets You Be More Present
Your world gets louder when the outside world is quieter. When you’re at home with just you and your thoughts, the stuff that’s going on in your head shouts instead of whispering. All the ideas that were previously put at the back of your mind because of all the outside world are top of mind. Use that to your advantage. Let the loudness of your ideas spill onto a canvas, your rhyme book or your camera lens.
It Puts You in the Driver’s Seat
Crowdsourcing opinions isn’t a bad idea. You need other people’s opinions to help you navigate the blind spots you wouldn’t necessarily notice. But sometimes other people’s opinions dilute your idea so much that the end product looks nothing like what you first imagined. Enjoy your solitude: it lets you be the captain of your ship.
It Lets You Think Outside the Box
Let’s say you’re a standup comedian. You obviously can’t perform a routine with no audience. So, what do you do? You could live stream on Facebook or Instagram, or maybe you could record the routine at home and put it up for sale on an online platform. Or maybe you could record the whole thing and release each segment in bits. It’s totally up to you.
Like everything in life, your mindset dictates your direction. So, think about your isolation as a gift, and your creativity will skyrocket.
