You know all those great spots around North Jersey where you can relax and have a cup of coffee?

You need not be tempted to feel guilty about the hours you spend there. They're not wasted. In fact, research shows that the opposite is true. According to an article in The Atlantic, crowded coffee shops actually fire up your creativity.

The article said rearchers led by PhD candidate Ravi Mehta found that "a moderate level of ambient noise enhanced subjects' performance on the creativity tasks, while a high level of noise hurt it. Modest background noise, the scientists explain, creates enough of a distraction to encourage people to think more imaginatively."

That gentle buzz and background noise may be just the key to writing an article or developing a proposal. In fact, you might do better in a coffee shop than you would in a library!

So the next time you want to think outside the box, do that thinking in a coffee shop.

Make mine a decaf.

Mike Tully helps teams, business and individuals get better at what they do. He is author of "The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success." You can reach him at coachtully@totalgameplan.com