Creativity Block? Try this.

All throughout college in Austin, I definitely spent a huge portion of my money on coffee shop study-binges, partially due to the excellent coffee available and the atmosphere. From the Fast Company article, The Strange Scientific Connection Between Coffeeshops and Creativity, a study at the University of Illinois has found the noise volume of your average coffeeshop actually spurs creativity. A totally deadpan quiet environment is better for activities that you need to concentrate on, such as proofreading but can actually inhibit your creative juices.

So if you can hear a pin drop at your office, plug in to your favorite tunes at a moderate level and enjoy the easier creativity and higher productivity. In retrospect, I definitely wonder if I could have scored better on those accounting exams if I didn’t study for them in distracting coffee shops.