I'm not too sure I agree with the specific notion that availability of distraction destroys creativity. Here's my (off the top of my head) take on creativity:
Problems 1: You come up with an idea, and tell yourself, "that's a good idea, I should remember that!" and then you don't remember, or you tell yourself that you need to focus on fixing these bugs at work, or on whatever other task is at hand.
Problem 2: Your mental energy is sapped by whatever you're currently doing. It's like the classic Stephen King quote about how working simple manual labor (laundry) was fantastic for creativity and writing.
The solution to problem one is to always have a means of taking notes, one which you will definitely revisit. This frees you from wanting to focus off-task when you need to be on-task, and it allows you to revisit and refine your thoughts. Problem two is tougher. Find a job doing exactly what stimulates your creativity. Let's face it, though, that's not as easy as blogs and Dice make it out to be. The only advice I can give is to quit your job and do exactly what you feel like doing until you've found a problem you want to solve, but that's not a very constructive path.
I've found that by simply doing whatever I want each day, I'm exposed to way more interesting problems that I want to solve. I listen to things like podcast while performing tedious, manual labor (cycling, weight lifting, cleaning, wrenching, etc), and I feel like it's both easier to get the tasks done, and I'm left with a feeling of better variety of mental exposure. I'm currently experiencing a much more creative/inventive period in my life than I have in years.
The solution to problem one is to always have a means of taking notes, one which you will definitely revisit. This frees you from wanting to focus off-task when you need to be on-task, and it allows you to revisit and refine your thoughts
This is exactly David Allen’s GTD mantra. But a number of creativity books I’ve looked at talk about the importance of “giving yourself permission” to have ideas, part of which means having the means to record them wherever they happen. I found the number of ideas I have started to increase once I got into this.
Interesting, and that's probably where I heard of it, through second-hand sources. I think it's very similar to (what I understand to be) a fundamental concept of meditation: that when a thought pops into your head, you acknowledge it, and put it aside. The notebook thing seems to be the same concept on a different level.
Problems 1: You come up with an idea, and tell yourself, "that's a good idea, I should remember that!" and then you don't remember, or you tell yourself that you need to focus on fixing these bugs at work, or on whatever other task is at hand.
Problem 2: Your mental energy is sapped by whatever you're currently doing. It's like the classic Stephen King quote about how working simple manual labor (laundry) was fantastic for creativity and writing.
The solution to problem one is to always have a means of taking notes, one which you will definitely revisit. This frees you from wanting to focus off-task when you need to be on-task, and it allows you to revisit and refine your thoughts. Problem two is tougher. Find a job doing exactly what stimulates your creativity. Let's face it, though, that's not as easy as blogs and Dice make it out to be. The only advice I can give is to quit your job and do exactly what you feel like doing until you've found a problem you want to solve, but that's not a very constructive path.
I've found that by simply doing whatever I want each day, I'm exposed to way more interesting problems that I want to solve. I listen to things like podcast while performing tedious, manual labor (cycling, weight lifting, cleaning, wrenching, etc), and I feel like it's both easier to get the tasks done, and I'm left with a feeling of better variety of mental exposure. I'm currently experiencing a much more creative/inventive period in my life than I have in years.