A Blackbird sang in Russell Square

Today I am in London, on an unusually hot and sunny day. I am sitting in Russell Square in the heart of Bloomsbury. A quick google tells me just some of the famous people who have lived here. So… Virginia Woolf, Charles Darwin , JM Barrie, JM Keynes and WB Yeats for example.

Can I sense that in the air? Is there a creative feel to the place? Umm, well it’s quite difficult to forget the constant roar of traffic. I am struck by the feeling of being overcrowded and horrendously busy. And yet, I can hear bird song above the background of engine noises. It is just about possible to find an inner calm – reduce the feeling of the senses being overstimulated.

It’s still possible to cut through all of the noises and hear a blackbird singing its alarm call.

I wonder, though, how easy it is to find focus and create in a noisy capital city. So many people do it. Are they working against their surroundings, in spite of them? Or are they inspired by them?

It’s a curious issue. I know that sometimes I am stimulated by total silence and sometimes my mind sets out to distract me. Sometimes a noisy environment is massively distracting, and sometimes it prompts me to shut down and totally focus on the task in hand.

I guess the challenge is to understand the frame of mind we are in – to figure out which atmosphere is best right here and right now. That is the key to creative productivity.