How To Break A Creative Block

Sometimes there’s nothing more scary than a blank page. The act of creating – an idea, a thing, a solution – is tough enough, but made worse when we also hit the proverbial brick wall, known more commonly as the creative block.

Whether you’re trying to write the next best seller or solve a Gordian knot of a problem, here are fifteen suggestions which I’ve used to break a creative block.

19 Suggestions to Break Your Creative Block

1. It’s time to drink or eat something.

A car can’t run when it’s out of gas. Your brain can’t be creative when it has no fuel.

Research suggests that nearly half of the population doesn’t drink enough water. Being under-hydrated means your brain works less effectively, including reduced creativity. The same is true with food – although you don’t want to eat heavily if you’re trying to inspire yourself, because your body will prioritise digesting food over thinking imaginatively.
For a quick fix, eat something with the two most common (legal) stimulants: sugar or caffeine. When you combine the two, you get what many consider the perfect brainstorm food: chocolate. If you don’t want the added refined sugars, try fresh fruit.

What about wine? By nature, alcohol is a depressant. It’s more likely to reduce your creativity, but I know many people who find it does the opposite. Use your common sense.

2. Clear your head of debris.

If you’re human, you probably have heaps of tasks nagging for your attention. Looking at your To-Do list reminds you of your obligations in the present, and so you focus on the urgent priorities instead of the important ones. That also keeps your brain in the  state when it should be in the Open Mind.

Instead of forcing your imagination to work, stop and get the important tasks debris on your desk finished and put away. Set a timer to work for an hour on vital tasks so you don’t lose the whole day to Closed Mind thinking. By scheduling Open Mind thinking, you can also mentally prepare your brain using unconscious thinking, plant seeds early, or do some easy homework.

3. Refocus the objective.

Oftentimes the problem is the objective or purpose. Your brain works best at problem-solving when the goal is clear, specific and provocative. If you don’t feel the objective enables creative thinking, you might try to reframe the problem. Or, create a metaphor to force a change of perspective. Ask someone else to change the objective for you if you’re too involved with the problem to be unbiased. When you change the problem, you change the solution.

4. Turn off your devices.

Research shows that people are most creative when they’re bored. Who has time to be bored when we’re constantly on our iPads, smartphones and laptops? In other words, they are diminishing our long-term ability to think creatively. if you find yourself relying too much on electronic devices, wean yourself off your gadgets for a few hours prior to a brainstorm, just to get your mind edgy to be creative.

Not to be a complete Luddite, bit devices can be brilliant to stimulate creative thinking if they’re used in the right way. Read on to see how your devices can be put to beneficial use.

5. Find visual stimulus.

Thinking visually is one of the fastest ways to trigger the imagination. I keep lots of visual stuff around exactly for this reason. For example, I have several folders full of random pages ripped from magazines that sit next to my desk. I collect postcards and other free materials from coffee shops and retail stores. I keep old magazines on hand to flip-through for ideas. There are hundreds of websites offering visual stimulation. Start with the goal or problem (or both), then start scrolling slowly, letting your brain absorb what it sees and potentially merging disparate elements together into new ideas.

6. Go talk to someone.

It’s easy to have a meeting with yourself which (more often than not) ends your creativity due to negative self-talk. When my brainstorming gets stuck, I find someone to talk out the problem. Even better, you might try re-charging your creativity by switching from talking to listening. Go find your customer or client to discuss the situation or idea. There is nothing like hearing first-hand background or experiences from the people who will actual engage with your ideas. If you have to talk, ask open questions, which prompt your audience to talk about the possibilities of solutions. Closed questions do the opposite, simply reinforcing what you may already know. Try Different Types of Questions for more suggestions.

7. Find another ‘creative person.”

If this cliché is true – Two heads are better than one – then another trick to break your creative block is to find someone else to ignite your imagination. I define a ‘creative person’ as anyone who’s prolific with ideas and absolutely without bias to the project.

People say kids are a good source. Perhaps, but I always end up going to the swing-set with them … and maybe that’s not a bad idea either.

If you’re stumbling because you’re working as a part of a team, another variation might be to find new people to brainstorm. I look for people around the office who look like they need a break from their work. And it’s definitely someone who isn’t working on the same project as me. Or, gather a smaller team of 2-3 people and head out of the office to a nearby coffee shop or similar place where the environment is completely different than your office.

8. Read.

This is entirely personal, but when I need to re-invigorate my thinking, I find something to read, either a book or magazine with words, or online sites like Substack, Medium or Ghost to name a few. Honestly, one of my favourite books to stimulate imagination is a dictionary or thesaurus. Open it to a random page (or pop a random word into an online search) and see what words jump back at me.

9. Listen to music.

Sometimes it’s listening to music on iTunes or Spotify, other times it’s playing the piano. In either case – which includes tasks like reading – you’re getting your brain to focus on something else for a bit, rather than wallow in a problem and feel like you’re drowning. I’ll say this again in a second, but sometimes you simply need to let your brain rest and do something else. (Trust me, your unconscious thinking will take over.)

10. Try games and exercises.

The brain never comes to a brainstorm prepared. Most people – myself included – need to switch our thinking styles from Closed to Open. I’ve included several brainstorm techniques here and ideation games, all of which can work with group or solo brainstorming.
https://andyeklund.com/brainstorm/games-exercises/

11. Change the environment.

Perhaps the most common problem I have when I’m stuck in a creative rut is feeling chained to my desk. To sit in the same spot where I do all of my business and admin work only reminds me what I have to do, so I grab my keys and wallet and go somewhere else. Go to busy places like coffee shops, or try quiet places like parks. I think nature is its own creative inspiration, and if there’s a swing set involved … even better!

12. Think smaller.

It’s not uncommon to bite off more than you can chew when you’re being creative. Solving a massive problem. Solving a complex problem. Solving a massive complex problem. Like everything in life, it’s easier to tackle a problem when you break it down into chunks or smaller problems. This way, it allows you to take baby steps forward, feel or gain confidence, then an ability to move on to bigger problems.

13. Try storytelling.

When I’m stuck trying to unlock a creative block, I turn the problem into a story. Organise your story around the the lead character, supporting characters, the hook, the problem, the villain, etc. It’s simply a way to look at the problem through a different perspective which sometimes helps me get unstuck and moving again.
Having tried this just a few days ago, I realize too that I spend a lot of time playing with the lead characters, building an entire persona which matches the situation my idea needs to help resolve. It’s not too long before I’m back working on ideas, but now through the mindset of my protagonist.

14. Doodle.

Another variation on visual thinking, doodling helps the brain think more efficiently and retain information better. (It’s funny to think we need research to tell us this because doodling, like storytelling, has been part of the human experience since the first cave drawings were discovered 30,000 years ago.) A pencil and paper are the only utensils necessary, although you can make it more engaging by using different colours and sizes of pens.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle for many people to try doodling is to suppress the critical eye. You aren’t drawing a masterpiece along the lines of Rembrandt. You’re only sketching out the problem, the thought process, or the tree of decision-making. To get started, one of the best videos I’ve ever watched will introduce you to the visual alphabet with its easy shapes. Go here to enjoy Forms, Fields and Flows by Dave Gray.

15. Look for inspiration from other successes.

In addition to the visual images, I also keep a file of things I consider “brilliant ideas.” I keep records of award-winning campaigns, photos I capture on the street of unusual things, bookmarks on Safari and Chrome to reference. Yes, sometimes these things inspire me, other times I find they limit my imagination because I try to replicate. If so – like any suggestion here – I switch to another one and keep going.

16. Take a nap.

I’ll add this here, knowing it’s not always a solution from some people. But I tell ya, there is nothing better than a nap to re-energize the mind. Some days, 15 minutes of shut-eye (with the dog beside me) is as good as a night’s sleep.

17. Allow your unconscious thinking to take over.

Speaking of a good night’s sleep, I find that it’s best to get entirely away from the problem or situation altogether. My mind is simply too stuck or biased, and the best way to break that block is to go do anything else. The good news is your unconscious thinking will jump to the fore. No one knows when inspiration will hit, but I keep either a pad of paper with pencil nearby, or I take a pix, or write myself a SMS. The key to making this suggestion work is remembering to record your thoughts quickly so a brilliant idea isn’t a passing thought.

18. Pause or postpone.

It could be that you need to stop brainstorming. For a variety of reasons, your brain isn’t ready to think creatively. More often than not, the only alternative is to stop. Do anything else. Perhaps unconscious thinking may step it, but not always. But giving your brain a chance to re-charge is never a bad idea.

19. Just push through it.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t suggest Nana Eklund’s advice: sometimes you need to push through it.

I put it this suggestion last because when your head is in the wrong place, continuing to work on something can be destructive too. But at the same time, creative thinking is a combination of so many variables based on personalities and situations that the most persuasive gesture is to keep going, using the demands of the deadline or the client request or whatever else may be blocking your thinking, to create its own form of creative energy.

What other things have you tried to break a creative block?  Please add your thoughts or comments below.