Have you ever found yourself staring at a blank page or screen, unable to come up with any new ideas, or simply feel a lack of motivation to put in the work you need? Yeah, me too. This frustrating “creative block” (or whatever you wanna call it) can be incredibly discouraging for anyone who relies on their creativity for work or personal projects, and unfortunately I’m pretty sure all of us face it at one point or another.
There’s a ton of strategies for combating creative blocks out there, but one of my personal favourites is to change up my environment. If I’m stuck in the same place for a prolonged time it feels like my brain gets too used to that same set of sights and sounds. The world ends up feeling a bit stale, like nothing’s happening and you’ve seen it all before.
The good news is you don’t need to do something as drastic as move to a different city or even take a week-long vacation to change things up enough for it to have an effect. Even small changes – like working in a different room – can help a lot. I personally tend to change which room I work in every few months or so, and before that, when I lived in a small apartment, I’d rearrange the furniture so my desk stood in a different place. To me, there’s just something inexplicably motivating in making that change – making it a fresh start, if you will.
Other people I know enjoy working at a coffee shop or café for a few hours every week. That way they change up their environment, see some new sights and get to listen to that awesome coffee shop ambient live 🙂 I haven’t tried that myself yet – I personally prefer to work alone and in silence, but I definietly like the idea of it and I can see how it might work wonders for some people.
If you don’t have the opportunity to do any of the suggestions above, you could always attempt the staple advice of taking a short walk before you sit down to work and see if that sorts it out. Getting into the routine of getting out of the house and seeing something different, even for just a little while, can certainly do wonders. Physical movement and exercise can also help to reduce stress and anxiety, both of which are often contributing factors to creative block.
Whatever you do, don’t allow yourself to get stuck in the same place with no changes whatsoever, unless you’ve found the perfect setup that simply works for you indefinitely (in which case – wow, I’m jealous)! At least for me, that’s the biggest creativity and motivational killer of them all.
