5 Practical Ways to Overcome Creative Block
A lot of times I couldn't come up with a single sentence, but I still publish every week.
Creativity is a wild beast and just when you thought you leashed it, it maliciously shows you that you haven't.
When I sat down at my desk to write this, I couldn't come up with a single sentence that made sense.
But I did it anyway. I know that creative block is normal, comes sometimes and you have to fight it like an illness, with medicine.
Here are 5.
The difference between simple and difficult
Working out is difficult, but it’s stupidly simple.
You will never hear someone saying, “Man, I didn’t finish that workout because I didn’t know how to put a plate on the barbell.”
You will hear “I didn’t work out yesterday because I didn’t feel like going to the gym.”
That’s lack of motivation, and it’s not the case with creative block. Here, you want to do something, but you don’t know how. Your mind is bricked.
You know the tools and shortcuts in Photoshop, you know how to write, you know how to edit videos. It’s easy, but not uncomplicated, for those times, this post is for.
1. Unquestionable 45-minute warmup
The Rule: No matter what, sit through the first 45 minutes.
Sometimes you need to force yourself before the spark hits and the fire starts burning. That's the most powerful technique in this inventory. It may take less, it may take longer, but the inspiration strikes eventually.
45 minutes is long enough to get rid of the initial resistance. Like a rusty faucet: the first water that comes out is brown and gross, but if you keep it running, eventually it runs clear.
On those bad days, when you feel dumber than usual, most people quit after a few minutes. If work is not obligatory, they leave it for tomorrow.
By minute 45, you are either in flow or you have enough garbage to find something worth keeping.
Set a timer. No distractions. Just you and the work. Even if what comes out is terrible. Train yourself to show up on bad days too. Consistency beats inspiration every time.
2. Go for a walk
The Rule: When you are stuck mentally, get unstuck physically.
No earphones, preferably forest.
The solution isn't always at your desk. Sometimes it's three blocks away.
When you are walking, your brain switches from focused attention to diffuse attention.
Focused attention is what you use when you are trying to solve a problem directly. Diffuse attention is what lets your brain make unexpected connections.
That's why you get shower thoughts. Your brain isn't actively trying to solve the problem, so it has space to find solutions you couldn't see when you were forcing it.
Start so you have a general idea of what needs to be done and clues on how (45 min).
Go for a walk to refresh your mind. (20-30 min).
Return to work for another 45 minutes.
Still no ideas? If it isn’t urgent, leave it to ripen and do something else today.
Remember when fast internet wasn’t a common thing and we had to leave movies and YouTube videos to buffer?
Good idea to do the same with your mind. If the deadline isn’t 2 hours from now, leave it and come back tomorrow. The first seed is planted, you know what there is to do, and that will not vanish from your head anytime soon. Let it ripen.
3. “Good enough” is sometimes your 100%
Reality Check: Your creativity baseline is relatively stable, but external factors affect it daily.
You can control your sleep, diet, and optimize everything to be in the best mental and physical shape, but there are too many external factors to have 100% control over your creative output.
A master's lowest point of baseline is way better than the highest point of someone just starting.
That’s just natural progression. Your skills are there, and you are getting better over time. Your best few years ago is mid now. If you look at your old stuff and don’t see anything to improve, you made no progress.
The bottom line is: you won’t always be able to create your best work, and that’s something to make peace with.
As directors have one beloved movie, they have few that aren’t great.
As you find a song you instantly fall in love with, you find out that the rest of the artist’s catalogue isn’t that good.
As you read a great book, the author had ones that landed in a drawer.
This step is the least actionable, but I want you to keep this in mind. It will help you push through when perfect isn't available.
If you don't create anything because it's not your best, you get nothing.
I have published posts that I thought were mediocre, only to have them perform better than pieces I spent weeks perfecting.
The market doesn't grade your work the same way you do.
Your internal critic is not your audience. Stop letting it make editorial decisions.
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4. Silence and analyze
This technique has two parts that work together to clear mental clutter.
Part 1: Silence
By silence, I mean: do nothing.
Meditate, sit, and stare at a wall. Let your mind process without input.
I bet you had at least one great idea in the shower or in bed, trying to sleep.
I have never met an anxious person who meditates for an hour a day. Read this:
Part 2: Analyze
By analyze I mean: journal, write what’s on your mind.
I find it best to write in the second person. Nothing unclogs the mind like a session of writing what’s on it.
Sometimes creative block is about too many thoughts fighting for attention.
Silence clears the noise. Analysis organizes what's left. Together, they give clarity.
Steps to use next time:
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Sit without any input: no music, no thoughts, no distractions. Don't try to solve anything. Just observe what comes up. Meditate in other words.
Write for 10 minutes, whatever’s on your mind. Dump it all onto paper.
Extra quick reset like that will work like unclogging fluid.
5. Fuel yourself
Reading works the best here.
You see, when you have set your mind on some micro purpose, which is your work behind the creative block at the moment, your mind will search for ways to solve it.
Your brain is constantly filtering information based on what matters to you. If you are not intentional about what you focus on, you will end up absorbing random, unhelpful ideas instead of the ones that actually move you forward.
What if you could train your mind to filter for success? To spot patterns, connect the dots, extract insights that change your life?
Four people watching the same movie will pay attention to different things depending on their goals and motivations.
A bodybuilder will pay attention to actors’ physiques and google their training plans.
A fashion geek will wonder what brands they put actors in.
A guy starting to bald will carefully inspect every character's hairline.
A schizophrenic will… notice something the rest of us don’t.
Same input, different takeaways. Your mind filters information based on what matters to you. This principle applies to everything you consume and participate in—books, podcasts, conversations.
The ideas you focus on shape your reality. You don’t see everything—you see what aligns with your goals, fears, and obsessions.
From:
Sometimes you just don’t have enough grasp on a thing to make a decent whole.
Sometimes you need to learn and gather inspiration. Creative work is mostly remixing. Shot you have seen watching a movie, a sentence that stuck with you, a photo that brought out a hidden memory, a story where the protagonist is relatable.
Those things are saved and reinterpreted in your mind. You can’t create without consuming.
When you are born, your mind is mostly a blank book that gets filled up as you go on with your life.
Input.
Remix.
Output.
That's what creates the best work.
There’s no shame in taking inspiration.
Bryan Cranston said that the character of Walter White was inspired by James Gandolfini's (absolutely great) performance as Tony Soprano.
If you consume great content, it slowly becomes a part of your identity. You are what you think of most of the time, and what you think of most of the time is determined by your inputs, including what you consume.
That advice is for the long term. If you want to instantly relieve creative block, start with these above.
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