How Working Remotely Made Me Less Creative and How I'm Fixing it

I noticed after Christmas break, I've been struggling with creativity. This difficulty has something to do with my exercise, but in an unexpected way.

During my Christmas break (which spanned about 11 days) I was able to write 11 different blog posts, of which I had few troubles writing on the fly. Eventually, I had to come back to work.

After 3 days of working in my sedentary remote sales job I’ve noticed after work, it was difficult for me to motivate myself again to stare at a computer screen and start writing.

After work, sluggishness crept in, and my creativity lacked, which was abundant during my break. Why is that? This shift in creativity has something to do with the amount I exercised, but not in the way you’d expect.

Most of my Christmas break was filled with activities. I helped my church in a series of events, I went on walks every other day around my local park, and I went on a 2-day backpacking trip, which was brutal on my glutes.

There’s actual evidence to back up why I feel less creative coming back into my sedentary remote job. In a New York Times article titled “Can Exercise Make You More Creative?”, the author explains that exercise can help “…marinate our brains with extra blood, oxygen and nutrients”.

Since working remotely has me bound to a chair most of the day, the blood just isn’t flowing the way it used to.

Creativity is a little strange, since its difficult to quantify it. In the same article researchers “found that those who had moved fluidly, almost as if they were dancing, came up with more original ideas than those whose movements had been rigid, straight and formalized.”

Not only is creativity linked to if we exercise, but how we exercise. Exercise linked to creativity isn’t as binary as it first seems. This has challenged my preconception of what exercise does to the brain.

Carefree, fluid exercise, like that found on my vacation, likely helped me develop heightened creativity due to my attitude of my physical activity. On the flip side, back at work, I plan out my exercise in more formalized, robotic manner.

With this new information. I’m going to approach exercise as something that’s fun, and not a chore. Perhaps, I’ll get a desk treadmill.