As someone who’s meticulous about organization and selective about the aesthetics of my personal belongings and living space, I find it difficult to focus and enter into a state of creative flow when I neglect to put things in order or make my space as visually appealing as possible.

When you’re just trying to figure out how you can work and create at your best, you need to understand both your limitations and what would need to change in your living space to help you concentrate deeply.

Some people can be highly productive when their papers are scattered everywhere. Some people can still yield extremely high outputs even when they’re half-asleep and don’t actually have a to-do list written down.

Some people can just sit down and produce without stopping, regardless of how their workspace looks.

I am not one of those people. And admitting my limitations would benefit me more than trying to work through the chaos because what may work for one person won’t work for me. I need to have things set up just right or else I have trouble focusing.

It’s important to identify what incentivizes you to sit down and create. It’s all part of being aware of what would set you up for greater efficiency and the ambience of your environment can make a difference not only in your output but also in how much your work consistently aligns with your creative style.

When setting my ideal creative space, I think it’s critical to appeal to each of the five senses — taking into account my favorite things to taste, hear, see, smell, and feel.

Here’s how I’d set up my environment to facilitate creative flow:

Taste — Coffee in my favorite mug

As someone who drinks the darkest roast of coffee not only for a caffeine boost but for the taste, I find that I’m far more motivated when I can sip my favorite flavor of coffee intermittently.

And although any mug can work, a visually appealing mug with a simple phrase that resonates with me can make a small difference.

Sound — My go-to playlist on Spotify filled with epic orchestral tracks

I’ve been a fan of Two Steps from Hell since I was 18. Although I’ve grown up listening to classical music, I find that epic music really boosts my mood, speeds up my typing, and helps me visualize a variety of scenes in which I am the hero (with strong fantasy and science fiction vibes, even if the task in front of me is not necessarily related to that).

And instrumental pieces tend to yield better concentration than music with lyrics — I prefer listening to music with lyrics during my downtime to give the singer undivided attention.

Sight — Vision board with quotes and images of where I want to be in five years

Although I have not created this yet, I believe that a paper vision board (as opposed to a digital one) would be greatly beneficial and function as a powerful visual cue to trigger what keeps me empowered, moving forward, and showing up as my best self.

A vision board would help me identify what my core beliefs are, what I aspire to become, what I’m naturally drawn to, and what speaks to me the most.

It would be the sole source of default inspiration whenever I am struggling to visualize the bigger picture of where I’d like to be in the future.

Smell — Lavender essential oil

Cosiela Borta, via Unsplash

Lavender has always been my favorite scent. And because I’ve heard that lavender essential oil works great for people with anxiety, I find that having a diffuser with lavender oil drops does make a difference between working through anxiety and being too paralyzed by it to function.

Touch — A stuffed mouse

Having a go-to object to grab when you’re feeling overwhelmed is often underestimated.

For some people, it might be a squishy ball. For others, it might be a piece of fabric. Or perhaps a Rubik’s Cube. But for me it’s my favorite stuffed mouse.

This object can be anything you want, as long as it works as a comforting stress reliever for you.

When you’re setting up an environment that facilitates creative flow, considering each of the five senses would greatly improve your concentration and incentivize you to not only complete what’s important to you from start to finish but to add some simple joys to your everyday life.

This article was originally published by Lark morrigan on medium.