Creative Flow, Standing Desks, Caffeine, and a Douglas Adams Quote

Creative flow is one of the things we at Momentum battle with every day … along with slave wages, dysentery, drug addiction, and P.M.M.D (Peanut M&M Disease). So how do we keep creative flow flowing? Well, the truth is, we don’t … at least collectively. We can’t. Sometimes the shit just doesn’t flow. So, what do we do when the flow backs up? We go to our toolbox, which is full of help.

One of the tools we have is each other. If one of us is working on something and we’re feeling creatively constipated (which happens, people, it’s perfectly normal), then we can walk around and bounce bad ideas off each other. Some of our most creative ideas have been born from sharing some of our worst ideas: sparking ridicule, thought, and one-upmanship.

Another tool we use is standing desks. We have five standing desks because, you know, “sitting is the new smoking.” We have noticed that the act of being mobile keeps you sharp. Sitting makes people lethargic, cranky, and short. If you haven’t tried a standing desk, do it. It can take a little getting used to but is totally worth it. Using a standing desk actually lowers your risk of weight gain, which means more peanut M&Ms and fish tacos. Any form of movement or exercise helps immensely with creative flow. So, the next time your flow gets stuck, try doing some work while standing for an hour.

In addition, do yourself a favor and pick up Deskbound. It’s the latest book by Dr. Kelly Starrett. It covers standing desks and why the chair is your enemy. He’s a certified badass, not to be confused with the Hudson Valley’s very own badass strength and conditioning coach, physical therapist, author, speaker, and my personal PT, Dr. Justin Feldman. He has one of the coolest standing desks I have seen and can answer any question you might have about them. See here: www.feldmanphysicaltherapy.com.

As for the final tool, if you know me, then you know this one already. I can’t even approach my office doorway without a quad espresso. Not only does caffeine increase creativity, but it also increases memory and gets more things moving than just flow (ya feel me on that one?). I sometimes use caffeine just to make the day fly by. Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes of Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy):

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

Finally, caffeine-consuming men show increased semen volume and significantly less sperm DNA fragmentation than non-caffeine-consuming men. So, um, there’s that. Anyway, go get a quad espresso and a standing desk. NOW!