Have you ever found yourself staring at a blank “canvas” (whatever that might be for your art), cursor blinking mockingly on an empty document, or your mind drawing a complete blank when you need ideas the most?
Creative block is a phenomenon that plagues artists, writers, designers, and creatives of all stripes. And although it feels like it’s impossible to get through, I promise you, it is.
If you like to watch instead of read, here’s the reasons why creative block is happening:
🤔 What Is a Creative Block?: Creative Block Meaning
You know it, I know it – having a creativity block is like trying to squeeze water from a stone — frustrating and seemingly impossible.
But remember that everything – including creative block – is temporary. It’s not a reflection of your talent or potential. It actually just reflects tension.
📝 Common Causes of Creative Block
🏡 Home/Environment Tension
Your surroundings play a crucial role in your creative process. A cluttered, noisy, or uninspiring environment can contribute significantly to blocked creativity. If you’ve ever gone into a store or someone’s home (or your own!) and just felt uncomfortable, try exploring what’s going on in the space.
Maybe it’s too cramped, cluttered, filled with distractions, or even has colors and shapes that are messing with your energy. Environmental tension is a real thing, and can subtly influence your mood and ability to focus, making it harder to tap into your creative wellspring.
🧘♀️ Mind/Body Tension
Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s intimately connected to your mental and physical state. Stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, or poor nutrition can all contribute to a creative block.
When your mind is cluttered with worries or your body is depleted of energy, it’s challenging to access the free-flowing state of creativity you need.
👩💻 Career Tension
Sometimes, creative block stems from deeper issues related to your career or creative path. Are you feeling unfulfilled in your current work life? Do you doubt whether you’re on the right track? Do you feel stuck in your position and feel like you’ll never get out of your role to pursue your artistic dreams?
These underlying tensions can manifest as a creative block, making it difficult to produce work or come up with new ideas.
👊 9 Quirky Ways to Bust Through Creative Block
These techniques might feel random, but they’re actually each just simply addressing a certain area of tension. That’s it. 👏 Sometimes, the best way to overcome mental barriers is to shake things up and try something completely different.
🛼 1. Roller Skate
Lace up those roller skates and hit the pavement. There’s something inherently joyful and freeing about gliding along on wheels. And for me, it really helps me embrace my inner child.
Especially when I got started, I felt like a total fool in front of my neighbors, but that’s actually 100% what being creative is. You’re trying new things, in front of an audience. Plus, the physical movement helps alleviate physical tension in your body (and mind).
Simply letting yourself get up and move around can do wonders for your inner creativity.
🎨 2. Design Your Home
Who says thrifting and home decoration can’t be creativity exercises? When we first moved into our place in South Carolina, I knew it would be a while before we’d set up our studio to write and record music. So I used our home as my canvas and created mood boards for every room.
I spent weekends in thrift stores, trying to match those dreamy Anthropologie frames to ones I could find vintage for a fraction of the price. And honestly? It was so much fun. I used Spoak as my design tool of choice, which was not only there to help me design my home, but it had creative challenges with other designers that were so much fun to do!
This is especially for those of you who aren’t typically interior designers – take a break from your usual medium and channel your creative energy into redesigning your living space — or a conceptual living space! Yes, you can use Spoak even if you’re not redesigning your home, too. You might just find that the act of visualizing and creating in a different context can help unlock ideas for your main projects.
💃 3. Dance the Chakras
Here’s a technique straight from my days in acting class at the Esper Studio. My teacher, Nancy Mayans, would have us dance to different chakras during voice and speech exercises to open up our energy centers. There’s something incredibly liberating about moving your body along with music. Again, back to the inner child — when was the last time you just danced? 💃
This is the playlist she used for us, from root to crown! This practice helps us open up and release tension, increase bodily awareness, and stimulate our entire bodies and minds.
🥴 4. Revisit Your Job: Is It a Starving Artist Job, or a Cozy Girl Job?
Sometimes, overcoming writer’s block requires taking a hard look at your career. Are you in a job that supports your creative endeavors, or are you stuck in a minimum wage, starving artist role that’s draining your energy?
I get that it can be really hard to find something that’s not minimum wage – this is in no way shaming at all. You worked hard for where you are today. And you are 100% capable of getting a Cozy Girl Job so you can pursue your creative dreams.
Sometimes, just that slight career adjustment can remind you of your worth, your greater purpose, and bust through that creative block.
📒 5. Theme Your Days
Speaking of working and productivity, sometimes it’s easy to feel like you’re doing the same thing day in and day out. So, I’ve started experimenting with theme-ing my days when I feel things are getting repetitive.
For example, if you’re a content creator or artist, maybe Mondays are your planning days where you are mapping out the week. You’re delegating tasks to different days, you’re writing scripts, planning shot lists, designing slides, etc.
Then Tuesdays are your filming/creation days, where you actually create the content. Maybe it’s when you write music, or create the art you want to see in your Etsy shop. And so on, and so on,
Adding structure and variety to your week can help you create an environment that’s conducive to fresh ideas and the artistic inspiration you might feel like you’re missing. ✨
⏲️ 6. Time Blocking
Some of my favorite productivity tools for artists are ones that have time-tracking or time-blocking capabilities. I’ve been using one that I’ve loved called Blitzit.
This app has helped me plan out the tasks I want to do, estimate the amount of time it will take, and then has a time tracker right on the screen reminding me how long it’s taking. There are options to make it a pomodoro-style timer, and so much more.
There are lots of plans on its roadmap, which I like being able to see. It helps me dedicate specific chunks of time to different tasks or projects while staying focused.
Because we all know how easy it can be to drift off into doing something else while you’re on the computer. Plus, once you’re done with the annoying tasks, you can alleviate the pressure of having to do them later, when you’d rather just be creative! 🌸
🍪 7. Find Ways to Batch Your Work
Batching similar tasks has literally changed my workflow when it comes to overcoming creative block.
Group related activities together — for example, set aside time for all your brainstorming sessions, or tackle all your editing tasks at once. For me, I’ll use the Blitzit app to give myself 1-2 hours to write blog articles, and you’d be surprised how much more I get done compared to trying to do them one at a time!
This approach can really help you be productive when you need to be and get into a nice flow state to make progress — whether it’s on Cozy Girl job stuff, or your creativity!
☕️ 8. Find a Cute Coffee Shop
Sometimes, a change of scenery is all you need to get those creative juices flowing! When I notice that I’m feeling stir-crazy from working inside my house, I know I need to change my environment.
I always feel like I have a breath of fresh air when I can change my environment a little bit — and the energy of being in a cute coffee shop alongside other people who are also being creative/productive is a really nice feeling.
If you find a nice big spot, even better. There’s something about expansive spaces that can make your thoughts feel more expansive too.
👯♀️ 9. Go to a Community Event You’ve Never Been To
Step out of your comfort zone and attend a community event you’ve never experienced before! This year, I’m going to some outdoor Halloween movies that will be in our town. I’ve always found an excuse to miss them, but not anymore!
You might want to find a buddy to hold yourself accountable for this if you think you’ll try to skip out of it on your own. It could be a local art exhibition, a cultural festival, a little black box show, a farmer’s market — anything you’d been eyeing but haven’t quite done yet.
Exposing yourself to new experiences and perspectives can spark unexpected ideas and connections. Plus, interacting with different people can provide fresh inspiration for your work.
All of these ideas are not meant for you to try to have more creativity. It’s switching up your day-to-day a little bit to remove any tension and blocks that are going on in your environment, body, mind, or career. By doing that, you’ll likely have a fresh perspective of something.
Alleviating creative blocks isn’t actually actively trying to think about something differently, but just giving yourself something different to do. It’s something that will happen underneath the surface. 🙌
👋 Subscribe to My YouTube Channel to Combat Creative Block
I love sharing my experiences as a female singer-songwriter looking to enhance my creative journey through productivity and intentionality in my day-to-day life.
Subscribe for doses of inspiration so we can all alleviate our creative blocks together. 💖
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9 Quirky Ways to Bust Through Creative Block
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