In the Zone: Crafting an Oasis for Work, Creativity, and Music

In 2019, I moved into my very own space outside of campus. For whatever reason, I chose to design it the way I wanted by myself. There is something fulfilling about doing your own painting, decorations, furniture, and layout on your own.

I would then go on to cherish this little, self-contained apartment that I designed to my taste and dream of something more intertwined with my passions and values for solitude and creativity.

My dream space would have to be something that would empower me to realise my visions and live out my, you know, dreams. It should be a space for me to explore and expand my creativity, an environment that would promote a good work experience and appeal to me enough to make me feel comfortable and relaxed.

YouTube became my very good companion at some point, and then I found certain creators of specific niches to be rather interesting. I grew to admire and adore these certain people, so much so that I wanted to emulate them and their zeal for concepts that I was interested in.

The likes of Marques Brownlee, Fisayo Fosudu, Mrwhosetheboss, and Paul Davids have environments on their channels that I would draw inspiration from to design my own dream space.

The activities that I envision in my dream space are to simply have dedicated places for work, video content creation and podcasts, my guitar and music, and then somewhere that would serve as a comfortable place to rest (because rest is also important).

Work would generally entail things like working remotely, photography and videography, and social media interactions like Hive, X, and others of relevance. Making videos and podcasts are things that I am diving into. And so the place that would facilitate creativity in those regards and that would be aesthetically appealing is something that I dream of creating.

Simplicity is key, meaningfulness is vital, and essence is important. It is why I would rather have dedicated places for these core activities that I would focus on. That would enable me to "be in the zone." Environment matters a lot when it comes to being motivated. And, also, it would enable me to keep things organised and in order.

I imagine having two separate rooms for this dream space of mine. Something achievable in one year is what I am looking at, considering certain factors. One room would contain work and creation spaces, and the other would contain rest and music spaces. That way, it would be easier to focus on a specific activity with certain elements present or not visually.

In room one, I would have it split into two. One half would be more like a stage that would accommodate a camera, microphones, and other necessary gear for content creation. The other half would be designed with a desk that would promote efficiency. I tend to keep my things simple and very far from clunky, so the desk would contain important things like a sufficient computer alone, and maybe one or two things for decor and as peripherals.

There would be shelves around. Having things lying around on the floor is so not my thing, as it makes tidying a tad bit more tedious. I wouldn't want to have more than I need, though. One shelf would contain some gear. Then a different shelf for aesthetics that would contain relics mostly and would be in the angle of view for my videos. The former would be closer to the work space.

There would be a very minimal furniture in this type of environment for work and creativity. There would only be those necessary for aesthetics—nothing to make the entire space cumbersome.

Now, on to the other room for relaxation and music. Just like the former, the room would be split into two. This time, I would have a glass wall between both worlds—something oblique to truly provide that severance from both words, particularly for rest and meditation. I tend to feel drawn to my guitar just by having it in sight.

Relaxation is different from bedtime to me, so the room would definitely not contain a bed. A convertible sofa would be nice, though—something that I can turn into what I need it to be.

And then I would have a spot with TV for Netflix and Chill, with a game console to cool off with, and some nice speakers around to listen to my favourite playlists with. The sofa is where I would do most of my reading and meditation.

The other half of the second room would then contain everything that concerns playing guitar and making music. There would be guitars hung on the walls, a shelf to house accessories like cables and strings, and things of that sort for organization. And there would be a recording setup in a corner, just if I wanted to record something. This room is where I'd try to keep in touch with another aspect of my life that I love, music.

It's hard to put a budget into place. Many of the things I would like in a place are not exact yet. What I do know, however, is that I would try to minimise the cost of realising this dream space of mine.

I would actually undertake DIY projects to design them just how I wanted them with my own hands, and then only seek professional help when I really needed it. And then I would go for cost-friendly alternatives for certain items. After all, I wouldn't want to break the bank to do this alone when there are other things to invest in.

With funds available, achieving this dream space of mine in one year seems pretty doable. I wouldn't want to rush it anyway.

The picture in my head may not have been sufficiently described here, but the general picture of such a space that I would really like for myself has to fulfil the aforementioned details at least. Let's see how it goes in the next year to realise this. I would need to be done with serving my country first.