I must have been no more than maybe five or six years old, helping my father and his workshop, when he started teaching me about the importance of always creating a suitable work space before you started in on any project.

Over the years, I have really come to appreciate the importance of that life lesson. I do find that everything goes a lot easier if you're not trying to work in the middle of clutter and chaos!

What I have also learned is that having the correct workspace is not just a physical thing, it is also a mental and emotional thing.

For me, that holds especially true when it comes to doing creative things like working on my artwork or writing.

Here's something interesting and odd that most people don't know about me: 90% of my writing is done away from my workspace! That is to say, I either grab my laptop or a tablet and go sit in the living room or if it's summertime out on the Terrace away from anything that looks like work.

Many of my blog posts actually take shape while I'm in the kitchen doing something relatively menial like peeling potatoes or flipping pancakes. In fact, there was a time when I would refer to my best writing as being done while I was in the middle of "pancake creativity!"

I think my creative flow is particularly good while cooking or also while mowing the lawn during the summers because the pressure to produce vanishes. After all, nobody expects me to create something other than what I'm doing when I'm in the middle of making pancakes!

I realize that there are many people in the world who are actually inspired by other people having expectation of them to do something good, but I'm not among those. Other people's expectations tend to weigh rather heavily on me, and I end up producing absolute garbage when it feels like somebody else is watching.

To each their own, I suppose.

I think having the right working situation while I am writing, especially from a psychological perspective, extends beyond just the lessons taught to me by my father when I was a child.

The more time passes, the more I come to realize that it's a personality thing. Well some people are inspired to greatness because they're under pressure, I tend to end up at the exact opposite of greatness when I'm under pressure.

Over the years, I've read many opinions to the effect that the best art and creativity is born out of hardship, but I've also found that particular sentiment to not hold true for me. I'm probably at my least creative during periods of hardship, as well as at my least productive and most likely to be paralyzed by stress.

I suppose it just goes to show that we all respond differently to different situations!

Lately, my writing has been rather absent and sporadic, mostly due to the fact that I have never felt the moment of peace where I seem to able to write anything sensible. I was quite simply missing the right working conditions!

Of course, I have no way of knowing what tomorrow will bring. Pretty much none of us do. But I can hope and pray for a few hours of peace and quiet where I can gather my thoughts and do something creative!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your weekend!

How about YOU? Are you particular about your workspace? Or can you work pretty much anywhere, anytime? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2026.02.21 23:26 PST
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