How To Get Out of a Creative Rut | AD

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After my post last weekend on general life updates and feeling a bit ‘meh‘ during the month of January, I don’t think I’ve ever had as many comments or emails asking me to share the tips that got me out of my creative funk. Thank you so much for the kind messages; sometimes it’s nice just to feel like we aren’t the only ones who want to fall asleep in our dressing gowns and hope that motivation gives us a little prod to wake up when it’s ready. Now I don’t think that my advice is particularly groundbreaking, but it might be the prod you need. It certainly was for me…

SORT YOURSELF OUT. Now this is a really obvious one, but are you looking after yourself? Are you eating wholesome homemade meals? Have you drunk enough water? When was the last time you worked out? Is it time to wash your hair and put the can of dry shampoo away? When I truly asked myself all these questions I realised that it was time for me to down some water, head to the gym, stop by the supermarket on the way home and treat myself to a bit of a pamper evening. If you’re not feeling 100% then it’s pretty much guaranteed that your brain is going to feel like poop too.

CHANGE YOUR SURROUNDINGS. Swapping desks for the day with a colleague or going to a different coffee shop for your morning round of caffeine and email tackling, really does make all the difference. I’m a real fidgeter when it comes to my workspace. Sometimes my desk gets me for the whole day, other times I sit up to my kitchen table and then there are moments when Mark comes home to find my laying on the floor, with my legs on the sofa and my laptop resting on my belly – Chiropractor’s look away now! Instead of my usual home-hopping, I headed to a local cafe and set myself down for an afternoon there. Aside from the constant distractions of cute dogs and way too interesting conversation-snooping, it really helped me to knuckle down (and got me out of the house and out of my PJ’s).

DEFINE YOUR MISSION. Working out how I want my content to serve you as a reader, has really helped me to nail down ideas and direct me to the topics that feel right to talk about currently. I’ve been reading a couple of business books and in them things always seem to boil down to the elusive idea of a ‘mission statement‘ which is something that I just hadn’t been able to get my head around in the past. After some thought I’ve realised that I want my content to be helpful and informative in some way, but always with a dose of light-heartedness and humour. Hopefully I’m back on track and on my mission again.

IMMERSE YOURSELF. Whenever I want to get back into the swing of a healthy lifestyle, I pick up an issue of Women’s Health. If I need to clear my head and remind myself what’s important I have a read of Sarah Knight’s ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k’. If I’m unsure for content ideas I watch a tonne of videos and read blogs that both inspire me and get my creative juices flowing again (side note: I’m LOVING Lizzy Hadfield at the moment). Basically I immerse myself into some kind of literature that relates to the area of my life that I need an injection of motivation in at that time. This is the thing that always helps. It’s just impossible to read Women’s Health whilst eating a bowl of Coco Pops. Trust me I’ve tried it.

Photos by Lauren Shipley

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