Getting unstuck
Throughout my adult life I’ve gotten into the occasional rut. We all do.
Sometimes it happens at work—when we’ve been focused on a problem for so long that we start to get tunnel vision.
At home, we face similar problems. We get into habit loops or ruts that might lead to feeling creatively stagnated, or like we don’t really know what to do next.
Its hard, and can sometimes feel painful, when you’re in that mode of stuckness.
Sometimes we can rely on others to call out our ruts and help us see a way out. Sometimes we burn out.
So, today I want to share with you a few ideas for getting unstuck.
1) Change the rules
Something that helps me get unstuck is changing the rules. Sometimes this means stopping the work I’m doing to explore the work using other media or materials; sometimes it means going back to the drawing board at a point in a project when it feels like the drawing board is the last place I should visit. Here are a couple of ways you can change the rules:
Experiment with different materials
Once I was feeling burned out from work, and thought I’d take a week off to focus on my creative projects; but then I struggled to get back into those, too. So, I decided I’d go to the craft store and pick up some materials I don’t normally use. I found this colored paper and started thinking, “what if I tried painting without paint?” I got home and started experimenting by cutting out squares, rectangles and triangles and quickly realized I could create some interesting effects with paper by juxtaposing contrasting colors together and then picking a color that looked like the mix of two colors to create the effect of transparency. This was so much fun to do, something a little different, but I loved the results.
I channelled my inner Josef Albers that day. What a treat!
Impose a new constraint
Journalling is something I’ve done my whole life, but there was a period of time where I changed the rules and decided that instead of filling my journal with my writings and sketches—I would write and sketch with ephemera—with found things. It meant I was picking up random magazines, pamphlets, flyers—even an interesting cigarette box I found on the sidewalk became part of this piece. It became a regular meditative practice taking all of my little treasures and cutting them up to create weird and interesting compositions.
Go back to the drawing board.
Sometimes you simply need to stop working and take things back to the drawing board. I do this a lot at work, when I’ve been focused on a problem too long and need a fresh perspective. I’ll sketch something like its a new problem and jot down notes and thoughts about it. Or I’ll pause to draw a mind map or concept map of what I’ve been focusing on. Sometimes pen and paper are the best tools to get unstuck (especially when you’ve been constrained to the computer for too long!)
2) Learn new things.
Another way I like to get unstuck is by learning something new or further developing an area of knowledge.
Take an online class.
There are so many brilliant courses online that you can take—from MIT lectures on EdX to simple how-tos on YouTube. My favorite site is Masterclass—the classes there are really high quality. But I also take classes from people I know and respect. I’m currently taking a class from Holly Becker about blogging and creating content online.
When you take an online class, you get served up content that has been curated for you (some better than others, obviously).
There’s something really nice about having content curated for you around a topic, rather than scrolling on social media where you encounter hundreds of topics that you’ll hardly remember later on.
Try out a new hobby.
Go to a workshop and try a new hobby—like pottery, macrame or wood-working. These activities are so beautiful and therapeutic, and there’s so much joy in making things by hand. Plus you tend to meet kind, like-minded people in those settings.
Watch documentaries or lectures.
This is my favorite lazy day activity—finding some interesting documentaries to watch whilst cozied up on the sofa.
Another thing I love doing is finding lectures or podcasts from interesting people on YouTube. I tend to seek out authors on YouTube to help me decide whether I really want to pick up a book or not, or else to help me revise on a book I’ve read in the past.
Read / listen to a new book or podcast.
There’s something comforting about curling up with a good book from time to time.
Some books are nice to consume via audiobook too—If there’s a book I feel I need to read to help me at work, then I tend to listen to it so that I can bundle book consumption with walking.
3) Do something new and novel.
When you’re feeling stuck, sometimes the best thing is change the scene you’re in. Some ideas:
Go for a walk, but take a new route—go somewhere you haven’t before. Soak up the new scenes and surroundings.
Go to a new place like a museum or a shop—maybe one that you’ve wanted to visit but haven’t yet.
Go to a new event—a festival, a show, an open-mic night or pick up tickets to a meetup or conference.
Book a trip to a place you’ve never visited before!
Exposing yourself to new environments, new people and new ideas changes you.
Don’t forget to look up!
4) Change your environment.
Your environment shapes you as much as you shape it. If you’re feeling stuck, consider changing your own environment (home or work).
Rearrange the furniture.
Switch up your space by rearranging your furniture or changing the decor. Sometimes refreshing the spaces you spend the most time in (particularly at home) really helps to make you feel more motivated.
Clean your space up—get rid of stuff that no longer serves you. De-clutter your environment.
Keep good things to hand.
Its going to be harder to do your hobbies if they’re stored in a box in the bottom of a dark closet. Find ways to bring the things you love doing into your environment so that they are readily accessible.
If your partner or house-mate gets annoyed because your stuff is like an eye-sore (been there), then find something to contain your stuff that works nice in the environment, like a bench that opens up into a chest or a couple of storage containers that look nice on the shelf.
Now its your turn.
What do you like to do to get unstuck? What tricks and tips might you share with someone else who is in a rut or experiencing creative blocks or burnout? Drop any comments on Substack.
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