The Science of Silence: How Solitude Enriches Creative Work

While collaborating with others is essential in a creative process, exceptional creativity needs solitude. Interacting and brainstorming in a group is not as deep creatively as shutting down the world and being completely alone with your own craft. Creative people generally tend to be introverts.

The best creative minds like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein remain flexible and spend a lot of quality time in solitude, while also valuing the ideas from other sources.

Prolonged solitude results in deeply profound, personal art, as we can lose ourselves in our work, being in flow without any distractions. It has to be voluntary, by choice and does not work in forced confinement.

Even a little bit of solitude, like being in the office an hour early, can result in some quality work before the rest of the colleagues start trickling in.

The enemy of great work is distraction. The more you are disconnected from the smartphone, the more ‘flow’ mode you can experience.

To practice solitude, try to focus on just one thing, without letting the external distractions disturb you, making it a kind of meditation.