What do you surround yourself with in your work area in order to help your concentrate?
I am my work.
Usually I can write anywhere at anytime with any noise / happening / going on around me. I can 'block out' life and world - usually.
Most of the time I like quite, so that my thoughts on what I am writing stay firmly in my mind and are not side tracked. If I am doing a coffee table book for example, I find peacefull music in the background can be very inspirational. I like to have a table that I can spread my notes out on, and have everything at hand. It is also very important to be comfortable, and to have breaks when they are needed.
I work in the livingroom, surrounded by dogs. My husband is usually around, and often playing music. As long as I am warm enough, comfortable, and have a copious supply of tea and not too many distractions, I can write.
I like to have very little distractions when I am writing so that I can immerse myself in the story & let it flow. Sometimes it's good to have a few distractions to let me know that life is going on around me. I have learnt as a single parent that distractions are a part of life with a child.
Noise, I turn the TV on and play a movie or put any type of music on so I can concentrate on the task at hand
nature and poems
I tend to have a shambles of paper and numerous objects on my desk. Essentially, I just like a bit of quiet so I can focus and concentrate, so shutting myself away to get on with it is the best thing to do.
Earplugs, a disconnected telephone, large black coffee and a cooling fan (I live in the sub tropics), is about it.
My computer faces the most wonderful country scenry and when I have to pause I look at the trees and the sky and the mountains and somewhere out there I find more words.
My animals, I have two beautiful cats, one gorgeous dog, three turtle doves (no this not the twelve days of Christmas) and a wonderful variety of native birds that visit from our local wetlands and bird sanctuary. The trees and the birds are what drew me to this lovely little riverside suburb where we live. The sun pours into my art room and I look out to our jungle of a courtyard. My works are all around me including my experiments with natural mixed media. Music is often my companion also. My art room is a spare bedroom in the house and I'm a neat painter so I can paint comfortably in all weather. When the weather is exceptionally good which it often is here in Perth Western Australia, I paint under our Gazebo in our courtyard.
Silence.
My work area is pretty void of clutter. I do however have a couple of publications framed that my work has appearred in on my wall. Above the computer I have books. These are books I have read and reviewed. It all gives me inspiration.
Books
In my ideal workspace, I have my couch, laptop, cat, something to drink, and either music playing on the laptop or something on low volume on my TV. I find that petting my cat helps me to think. I also draw. When I get stuck on something, I open up photoshop and draw my characters. Sometimes it's serious art, sometimes it's silly. Sometimes it helps me solve the problem I'm working on.
I also always have instant messenger programs open (AIM and MSN) so that if I need to talk out a problem with one of my friends I can. Assuming, of course, that they're there.
The phone is usually handy as well so that I'm not running all the way to the other end of my house to answer it. It ruins my concentration to do so.
It also helps to put a movie on for the kids, thus giving me at least an hour and a bit free of interruption, which as you can imagine helps quite a lot. The fridge is stocked with juice boxes so I don't have to get up and get them drinks. They can get those themselves. That's also why I keep apples in the fridge. Self serve snacks. While these things don't immediately contribute to my concentration, they help maintain it.   | | |
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