get inspired
It’s so easy to fall out of inspiration. Like falling in and out of love in middle school (ha), I find inspiration to be rather fleeting. I can sometimes, like once or twice a year, find creativity in small bursts while I’m at my desk and actively concentrating on the task at hand, but it usually tends to strike at much more unassuming, and inconvenient times: in the shower. In the middle of the night, etc. I’ve also found my brain telling me really weird things about inspiration and creativity like: oh if only I could be doing this on my laptop in my bed at home I'd be able to focus, and this would be so much better. Or, you can only write between the hours of 5-6am.
I do think that there is a sort of secret sauce to creativity. It really cannot be like a normal desk job where you’re staring at a screen and willing a spreadsheet into life by mere brute force. It doesn’t work like that. Not for me at least. If I’m at a child’s soccer game, or watching a really boring show (football), or on a walk I can find myself frantically reaching for the notion app on my phone because suddenly I am overflowing with ideas. But when I tell myself - OK it’s time, let’s figure this out, there’s usually just a loud chorus of crickets.
But, if you have a job, like mine, that requires a certain level of creative thinking - whether it’s design work, or creative problem solving, there are some tricks that we can deploy to put ourselves in the right frame of mind.
First of all, a busy brain is not a creative brain. If I try to shove in a block of creative work in an otherwise hectic day/week/season, it never works. Of course I have slapped together a design plan, talked through a problem, or edited a newsletter under less than ideal conditions, but a quiet mind will yield much better results.
This brings me to my next point, which is so boring, all of your creative juices might actively dry up at the thought, but truly, block scheduling is the absolute best tool that I have found for fostering creativity of all kinds throughout my career. If you’ve been reading along since the beginning of my newsletter, you’ve probably read all about my love of block scheduling. For the rest of you, here’s the link. Focusing on one type of work at a time gets you in the flow. Jumping around between designing, accounting and email maintenance will result in crap work.
When you have a creative block on the calendar (which can be a morning, a week, or a quarter of the year depending on your actual job), there are some things that I have found that work to prime the pump and get you ready for the deep thinking and instinct driven action that creative work requires:
Consume content. This can mean literally anything, but for me it needs to be visual, and it needs to be specific. Pop into a shop that you know is always beautifully styled and aspirational. Watch a film (not just any old movie, but something that you know will deliver on the aesthetic front). Read. Flip through an actual hard copy magazine. Pinterest, if you must, but not instagram. Create a textured, layered visual landscape for yourself that will get your brain spinning with ideas.
Make sure that you’re intaking creative content that doesn’t necessarily apply to the project you’re working on. I’ll use a wedding design plan as an example: in the past when designing weddings was a major part of my job, I would try really hard not to look at photos of weddings when hunting for inspiration, because the risk of subconsciously ripping off someone else’s work was far too great. Instead I’d look at interiors, fashion and art.
Really clear your mind. For me, as mentioned above, this means going for a walk, or taking a shower - that sounds so weird but something in the combination of the coziness and doing absolutely nothing allows my mind to wander. I’ve never been able to get into meditating, but I’m sure that would work too.
Start with the easiest project - something that you can easily dip in and out of. For me, this is redesigning and dreaming up ideas for my own home. It’s something I love to do, and has been an ongoing project for me since I got my own room in third grade or so.
Lastly, get out of your own head. Sometimes I find if I try too hard to get in a creative mindset, the opposite can happen and I start overthinking everything (see… it’s fleeting!). When this happens, take a break. Or better yet, ask someone else what’s inspiring them lately for a mind shift.