Avoiding Creative Block

3rd Jul 2026

Trying to be creative under financial or time pressure is a fast track to creative inertia or creative block; that self-perpetuating spiral of inaction, distraction and worry when you’re desperately trying to be productive but can’t.

Try these Seven steps to break the cycle and escape from creative block.

Be kind to yourself
Strange as it may sound, the trick is not to try ‘too hard’, allow yourself plenty of time, (even if that means resetting other people’s expectations) and keep your body well rested, hydrated and nourished.

Light duties
Maybe some low intensity repetitive tasks like gardening, walking, preparing some food, nothing too strenuous, just let your mind wander and creativity will find you.

Sweet solitude
You’ll find you have more capacity for creativity if you distance yourself from other people’s problems and priorities – there isn’t an app for that.

Embrace boredom
Nature abhors a vacuum, so a slightly bored mind is a fine fertile tilth for new ideas to germinate in. It’s especially important to be alone in your own head for the first fifteen minutes when you wake up - the most productive piece of the day.

Be ready to capture the moment
Leaving freshly sharpened pencils and paper laying around the place makes it easy to jot down fleeting ideas or sketches as they occur, but please don’t just sit there gorping at a blank sheet

Record first
Write everything down, even if you don’t think you’ll use it, capture the lot and then tease out which concepts to develop in a completely separate process.

Edit Later
Before the ‘choosing which ideas to pursue’ stage you’ll need to switch back from an ethereal to a logical mindset. Use pros and cons lists, bullet points, mood boards etc to help you process your outcomes in a structured, disciplined and realistic way.

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