Carl Barenbrug

My creativity is usually sparked by browsing Are.na and Twitter and speaking with a very small group of individuals who inspire me. But ideas are formed more clearly in my head when I am away from the screen and out in nature or in the climbing gym. It’s very easy to fall into narrow-minded thinking when you’re sitting behind a screen all day. Walking away and reflecting on ideas allows me to kill an idea or experiment with it.

Introduce enough distraction in your life that you can’t always be focused on the work. Some can hold greater meaning than others of course. I balance work with spending time with my loved ones, my cats, climbing, tennis, video games, TV shows, and audio books. I’m also trying to learn French at the moment. All of these things take blocks of time in my week and it’s not always me who dictates what happens when, but I manage to find a good balance that makes me feel pretty calm, collected, and motivated.