Whether you consider yourself a writer, painter, blogger, or entrepreneur, it’s helpful to have a few tools up your sleeve that will enable you to combat creative blocks and overcome them as quickly as possible. Here are six tips you can use to get your creativity flowing again:
1. Journal
Journaling can help you overcome creative blocks in a number of ways. Stream-of-consciousness journaling helps you get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper, clearing your mind for the task at hand. As a creative block is essentially a thinking rut (in other words, a stuck thought pattern), you can also use specific journaling techniques that encourage your thoughts to flow freely. Free association encourages you to be receptive to unconscious thoughts and suggestions: Begin with one word or phrase, then follow on with the very next word or phrase that comes to mind, then the next, and so on. Don’t over-think your words—simply wait to see what comes up. You can also use another fun technique called Lists of 100. This involves writing a list of 100 items to do with a certain theme, for example, a list of 100 places I’d like to visit, a list of 100 things I own, a list of 100 things I’d like to own, a list of 100 people I’d like to meet, a list of 100 things I’d like to do before I die, and so on. Your list doesn’t have to be related to work: the point of this suggestion is to encourage you to think around a certain topic and transition out of your usual way of thinking.
2. Change your scene
Changing your scene can do wonders for overcoming creative blocks. Take your work outside, to a local cafe, to the beach, or wherever you can go that feels new and unusual as a working environment. If you usually work on a laptop or computer, try working through the project using traditional pen and paper, or dictate your thoughts into a voice recorder. Any activity that encourages your mind to think in a different way can be helpful.
3. Brainstorm
Brainstorming has a similar effect to making a List of 100: It encourages you to think about all possible options, then choose those that are most realistic and doable. For an effective brainstorming session, start by listing everything you can think of in relation to the topic. Include the impossible, the wacky and the downright insane. It’s really important to make sure you get everything you can think of onto paper, no matter how silly it feels, to get it out of your head and get a different perspective on the task at hand. Once you have all your options on paper, you’re in a much better position to take a step back and look at each decision one by one.
4. Develop a routine
In his must-read book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield highlights the importance of routine in overcoming resistance. Having a regular routine can also help us overcome creative blocks: When we experience these blocks, it can be tempting to take a step back and say “This isn’t working, I’ll come back to it later”, but sometimes, the most effective way to overcome a block is to grit your teeth and experience it. Even if your imagination looks more like a barren wasteland than a magical factory, show up every day, sit there and experience it. You’ll overcome any creative blocks much more quickly if you turn your creative sessions into a routine than if you step back and simply wait for your creativity to reappear.
5. Accept it
Creativity is an unconscious process. As much as we might will it to appear (and as much as having a routine helps), sometimes it won’t. There’s nothing wrong with that—it doesn’t say anything about our individual creative ability, and it’s not necessarily a sign that something is wrong either. Fighting a creative block, berating yourself or judging your artistic integrity is not going to help; in fact, it’s likely to make the block even more prolonged. Instead, accept that the block exists, try to remove any internal judgements you might have surrounding it, and see it for what it is: a mind rut. However bad it feels, it will pass, and you will create again. What are your tips for overcoming creative blocks? Leave a comment and let us know.
