Newsletter #27 - From The Airport!

Changing environment leads to inspiration.

Hence why I love working from coffee bars, coworkings or other public spaces.

Airports are a special category in this.

I'm writing from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport while waiting for my flight to Amsterdam.

It kinda invites to write more.

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I'm not the only one. I've read dozens of stories about people getting inspired when in strange places, like their car, or the "shower thoughts".

And earlier this week I felt a rush of inspiration to write a document for a meeting, when sitting in a coffee bar whilst knowing that I have to leave in 30 minutes. Constraints create creativity to produce fast.

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These environments are good for when quick action is necessary, things which need to be done, pieces which need to be written, solutions which need to be found.

It's not good for the deep work.

For that, I need as little interruptions as possible.

An airport is not ideal. Coffeebars or coworkings still work.

4am in an empty room is probably the optimum :)

There are other, similar stories.

Writers who lock themselves up in hotel rooms (JK Rowling I believe), people who write a book in business class on a flight (I don't remember who, I believe from US to Japan).

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Besides the different environment, travel itself also creates inspiration

It creates an interrupt, which in turn generates a whole lot of new ideas. My latest idea of doing long runs on Friday morning came from travelling to the Netherlands.

Or ordering a lot more Malay food after eating it in Singapore's airport two weeks ago.

It also creates distance between my work and myself, I can look with fresh eyes and distill the useful from the wasteful ideas. Similar to what a (good) weekend does.

But it also creates interrupts. New habits I acquired, and which will be forgotten after returning, like keeping a strong mindset while dieting, or listening to podcasts about relationships.

I wrote them down, but nevertheless I will have to force myself to pick them up.

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Then again, if you would ask me if I would want to travel, or stay home, I would say travel every time ... But with a laptop nevertheless :) :)

It's fun to spend a couple of hours in deep work every day, and enjoying the rest of the day leisurely.

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If you've read this far, wow!

This is kinda a braindump of my thoughts. Before the deadline of boarding.

(In the meantime I have an additional 20 minutes to review, as boarding is delayed)

I'm just going to push this into the world. Push to production like in software development.

Me rattling about airports, work, and coffeebars.

Probably one of my more weird newsletters if I ever read this back in 10 years :)

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Enjoy your weekend!

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PS flight is delayed with one hour by now ...

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