Can you have a great idea at your desk?

No one ever had a great idea at a desk. —Margaret Heffernan

While I love Heffernan’s absolutism—and am tempted to write this on a Post-It and stick it on my desk—I instinctively push back against this idea that desks are dead ends for great ideas.

There’s nothing wrong with Heffernan’s direction: we should get up and out more, because inspiration and creativity are out there in the world. I don’t disagree, and I’ve had plenty of wonderful ideas and brainstorm sessions out on walks in the park or in idle moments waiting in line at the supermarket.

In fact, the slowly-unfolding era of hybrid work that most knowledge workers are faced with today presents an ideal scenario to leverage Heffernan’s advice. For those of us whose roles require some sort of brainstorming, or creative thinking, I say—to some extent—that we need to do away with the fiction that work only happens when I am sitting down at my desk.

Now, this was certainly true of my first job, which consisted mainly of email correspondence and data entry. But my second job—as a content marketer—would have benefited from Heffernan’s axiom. At the time, my approach was often limited to scouring the Internet for advice or even (to my utter dismay) reading the dictionary for ideas. (Hey, I was a content marketer for a dictionary, so this checks out.)

But it would have been more helpful to take a stroll around the block, or to sit in Herald Square and eavesdrop on strangers’ conversations.

So, it’s not as though I would drop kick Heffernan’s advice out of my life—it’s great advice! Take a walk! Go for a drive! Wander into a store you’ve never visited before! Pop into the library!

But I’m not sure that I would take the hard tack of suggesting that great ideas are impossible at your desk. There’s no mystical reset that occurs the moment that butt touches chair—WHOOSH!—there go all those germinating thoughts you had! Too bad, desk denizen!

I’m feeling a bit defensive about desks, because I love my desk. Not the physical desk itself—the perfect desk is a long-term project for me—but the idea of sitting down and engaging with stuff, of thinking actively, creatively, intentionally. Heffernan (or you) might rightly point out that I’m not over here writing the next Pulitzer winner or up to anything paradigm-shifting…but I’m still thinking. I’m still executing thoughtful, creative work over here, Margaret!

The challenge of having great ideas (or, hey, at least good ones) at your desk strikes me as a more a challenge of habit. It’s about getting into a habit of thinking at your desk, avoiding the humdrum and predictably soul-sucking motions of checking your email every five minutes or sliding down the Wikipedia/YouTube/Spotify/etc. wormhole.

Instead, break out some crayons and paper, or use a program you’re not as familiar with. Whatever you do, do something different. Take your brain out on a (metaphorical) walk.

If you can develop that habit of thinking at your desk—which I’m working on!—then there might not be a better place to think. While I endorse walks and away-from-desk adventures, I see no reason to condemn the attempt to replicate those outcomes while staying exactly where I am: at my desk.