The power of environment

For Christmas I received a lot of recording-related gifts: a mic stand, studio lights, etc. (This is no surprise, because I asked for them.)

Earlier this week, I finally got around to setting them up, and now feel like I have a semi-legit studio.

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The studio

What’s been most interesting for me, however, has been the impact setting this up has had on me. The feeling of ‘legit-ness’ of this studio space has me feeling very motivated to start recording audio and video, and even just sitting at the desk working on unrelated things feels more exciting (lol).

This got me thinking about how large an impact our environment can have on us. I wrote a short think-piece a while back about this, where I wrote:

If everyone we knew woke up at 5am to go the gym, it would only be a matter of time before we started doing it.

People are often successful in groups. The ‘Paypal mafia’ have been successful beyond that accounted for only by talent. They grew together, and each became able to change technology for good. “You are the product of the five people you hang out with most.”

Everyone becomes a product of their environment, although we have a degree of control over the environment we’re in.

I’ve been thinking recently about the ways our home environment can impact us and how we can design better design it.

Some simple things I have found helpful:

• Always tidying my workspace and ‘resetting it to neutral’ at the end of a study session, ready for my next work session

• Leaving musical instruments and books lying around the house, so I’m inclined to pick them up and play/read in free moments

• Leaving my phone in another room when sleeping, leaving it in the bottom of my bag when studying

I have a few other ideas for future house design (such as smart lights, greater home device integration, etc) that I’m hoping to introduce in the future. (let me know if you have any suggestions)

For now, I’m going to see how things go with the studio, and hopefully in a few months time I can add it to the above list.