Introduction
“An environment where you can focus” and a “well-organized workspace” are often considered essential for sustained efforts such as daily work or creative activities.
A more comfortable setup, convenient tools, and a wider range of options — we tend to assume that more is better.
Of course, this depends on individual needs and use cases.
However, there is also a clear counterpoint: the more we expand our environment, the harder it can become to keep writing consistently.
What a Small Table Creates: The Case of J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling, famous for Harry Potter, went through a financially difficult period as a single mother before achieving global success with the series.
She did not have a stable workspace at home, and during the day she reportedly wrote in cafés, sitting at a small table with her daughter’s stroller beside her. On the table, there was room for little more than a cup of coffee and a notebook. There was no space to spread out reference materials or line up tools.
Once she sat down, she opened her notebook and wrote. Little else could happen in that setting.
Whether this situation arose by chance or was deliberately chosen is something only she could truly know (she later noted that the inability to spread out materials helped her concentrate). Still, it is reasonable to say that it was not despite the lack of a perfect environment that she kept writing, but because the environment was small.
Hemingway’s Standing Desk
Ernest Hemingway, known for The Old Man and the Sea, is well known for writing while standing.
He drafted his work with pencil and paper, then later typed clean versions on a typewriter. On his desk were only paper, a few pencils, and the typewriter — nothing more.
The standing desk, set at chest height, is often said to have helped relieve back pain from a knee injury and to maintain concentration. But what it ultimately created was an environment where there was no option other than writing.
Whether to sit or stand, what to use, where to begin — those decisions were removed in advance.
Facing the desk meant writing. Nothing else.
When options are reduced, action stops being a decision and becomes a motion.
Hemingway’s writing habit was supported not by sheer willpower, but by an environment stripped of choices.
Why Small Environments Support Consistency
The examples of J.K. Rowling and Hemingway are not really about creativity or concentration.
In both cases, they ended up in environments with extremely few elements that could interfere with action.
This structure can be explained using established concepts from behavioral science.
Behavioral Friction
Behavioral friction refers to the total amount of effort, preparation, and hesitation required before an action can begin.
- Choosing tools
- Setting up the environment
- Deciding how to start
As these steps increase, the action itself becomes less likely to happen.
A small table or a minimal desk dramatically shortens the distance to writing.
Decision Fatigue
People become depleted as they repeat decisions.
Where to write, what to use, where to begin — when these choices are required every time, writing itself is more easily postponed.
In environments where options are reduced in advance, decisions do not arise at all.
You sit at the desk and write. That is all that remains.
Conclusion
Rich, comfortable environments and abundant choices may appear, at first glance, to support consistency and achievement.
Yet the more they increase, the more the burden of starting an action grows as well.
By contrast, in environments where the scope of action is deliberately narrowed, very little judgment or preparation is required to begin.
Small desks, tight spaces, and simple work areas do not draw out human potential because they strengthen willpower or heighten concentration.
They reduce the friction required to start and eliminate repeated decisions.
As a result, action begins to occur naturally.
If there is something you truly want to continue with sustained intensity, you might find unexpected results not by improving your environment, but by deliberately making it smaller.
Thank you for reading.
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