I'm my most creative when.......

You have all experienced student life enough to know that there are times when you are creative machines and times when you can hardly manage to blink your eyelids. Can you pinpoint when you are creative? What are your motivational strategies? Feel free to leave your ideas here......

I have a deadline. Give me a week and I'll wait until the last minute. Give me half a day and I can work magic. Don't forget to toss in a lot of coffee and a nice long walk......

I am most creative during the week when it's past midnight. I have to feel to be on my own, with little disturbance from outside.

Sometimes during these late hours I can even think and work better if I feel exhausted und hungry. I have experienced this mental state several times and so I was asking a friend of mine who studied psychology: This mental state, where you are very focused on what you do i scalled flow

copy and paste to your browser: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

Did any one experience that too?

Kind regards,
Oliver

Yes, really true Olli. I totally agree with you!

But I am also very creative in my leisure time! Ideas come playful in moments I really don't expect them to come. Most times they are even more creativ and weird. I mean weird in a positive way

...and what ALWAYS happens to me is that at the exact moment when I just went to bed, most creative ideas occurre to me. For that reason I try to write them down, before going to sleep.

...i'm doing sports. Don't know if anyone experienced this but if you're totally drained your mind has the strangest ideas.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Oxygen......the lack of it or the abundance of it. Any ideas?

I don't think that the sports phenomenon has something to do with abundance or lack of oxygen. I think it can be related to the fact that during sports nothing else is in our mind and we leave everything behind us. As we have heard in todays lecture too much constraints and I think also too much pressure are absolutely destructive for being creative.

I am usually most creative late at night as already described by Olli and Laura.

I can't say that I'm creative at a certain hour, but it occurs to me more often, when I'm not concentrated on a specific topic. So I experience creative ideas when I'm shopping, driving oder even at partys. Maybe my mind can be creative at that time, because he is in "leisure time" mode

I totally agree to Chris, because I am most creative when I am jogging outside. So my mind is free and numerous ideas come to my mind.

I am most creative when I listen to music, especially yoga music or anything else that is relaxing...my favourite is the noise of the sea (waves rushing) then you feel like you sit on the beach and you can be very creative;)

My creativity is fostered when I am amongst people, for instance friends. While having funny and sometimes useless discussions, creative ideas come to my mind which would possibly not occure when I am alone, lying in bed or doing other things.

i am my most creative when i don't expect it it may sound strange, but most of my creative ideas come when i'm not really thinking about it and doing something else... i think it's hard to tell your brain "be creative! NOW!" doesn't work for me

When I think about creative moments in my lifetime I'm not able to see any simular circumstances, aside from haven't thought about the problem. Thus I totaly agree Cornelia, I'm most creative when I have leisure time, equal if I'm doing sports or enjoy time with friends for me it's important to get out of the normal way of think about the problem, because the solution is often closer than expected.

As already described by the other students I totally agree that I am most creative when being on my own and trying to relax. However, I am not creative when having 2 weeks to relax. Mostly it´s at the weekends or in the evening after a stressful day or week.

Surprisingly my ideas come up when i start with really stupid ideas. Somekind of trashtalk with others can be the beginning of serious ideas. Probably it is good to have an environment that doesn't "control" ideas

I agree with most of what the others already said. ideas pop up when one's a some leisre. sometimes though, we have to be creative for a uni project, a gift ... and have some time constraints, usually only a few days or even hours. what works for me (not always though!) is getting inspiration by having a close look for example at a room and its contents like furniture, decoration... and letting the thoughts flow by and new ideas come to mind, combining and trying to work something out. lately, my rubber duckies brought me some nice ideas