Feeling Blocked? 6 Ways to Get Your Creativity Going Again
From stress-related burnout to simply growing bored with the same old routine, feeling tired or drained at the end of the workday can quickly blunt creativity. While a long vacation is often helpful, such drastic measures may not always be necessary. Say you’re wanting to come up ideas for a new website design or trying to come up with a new creative domain name, but none of your ideas are coming out quite right. You might be burnt out. In this case, look to small, easy-to-do activities to get your creativity blooming again.
1. Taking Up a New Hobby
While work often feels like the most important priority, especially when working on a deadline or trying to make it through the busy season, there is still plenty of life to be lived outside of the office. Picking up a new hobby is a great way to keep things fresh and interesting. The efforts needed to learn new skills or the unexpected experiences that may be had when meeting new people can have a very positive impact on job performance. Professionals who are beginning to feel worn out by their workload would do well to consider all the benefits that learning a new skill or taking up a hobby can provide.
2. Join an Exercise Program
Physical fitness is one of the cornerstones of a healthy lifestyle, yet so many busy professionals fail to make it out to the track or gym as often as they would like. Taking a fitness class or enrolling in a program that can provide the extra motivation needed to develop good exercise habits can have a significant and lasting impact. The extra energy, decreased stress and greater mental acuity and focus that may be achieved through vigorous exercise can greatly aid creativity, especially for individuals who may be feeling burnt out, blocked, or out of new ideas.
3. Get a Psychic Reading
Sometimes solutions may not always come in conventional packages. Professionals who are struggling to overcome a mental block and those who have begun to feel creatively spent, seeking solutions in new places can have a range of potential advantages. For example, if you go in for a tarot reading, the psychic will discuss different options that are available to you and how each one will affect you and your life in the future. Some say that this can be an insightful and useful tool if you want to explore your options and want to find out how you should move forward. The decision to try a psychic reading no doubt seems a little silly, but such an option may really be able to help. A reading can be a fun and novel experience, and by taking the whole office out to try a psychic reading (no really), it may be possible to enjoy a more unique and novel team-building exercise than many professionals might have imagined.
4. Spending Time With a Good Book
With so many digital screens, streaming media services and other distractions that are all competing for attention, reading for pleasure has become a pastime that is too often overlooked. Spending a few hours alone with a gripping novel can provide a much-needed escape, one that will help to ensure busy professionals can return to their personal and professional lives more relaxed, recharged, and ready to take on any new challenges that may be lurking just around the corner.
5. Taking a Short Trip
While a long vacation may not always be an option, a short day trip can often have much the same effect. Getting out of town for a day or even just an afternoon can provide the stimulation, relaxation and new surroundings needed to replenish creativity and ensure that work-related stress is less likely to get out of hand. Scenic areas, parks, and other natural environments can be the ideal destination for those who are feeling burnt out or creatively blocked. A brisk walk along a nature trail or a day spent touring the shops or seeing the sights can often have a bigger impact than many people might expect. Professionals who find they are beginning to lack the energy, focus, and stamina needed to give it their all might want to consider getting out of town for the day.
6. Redesigning the Workplace
Physical environments often have a profound impact on internal perception, mindset, and attitudes. An office or other workplace that fails to inspire creativity or that whose layout and decor may be causing unnecessary problems and needless complications is a liability that no professional can afford to ignore. Redesigning or updating the layout and decorative scheme of the environment to create a more ergonomic setting, improve communication and collaboration among workers or to ensure that creativity is not being stifled can be well worth the time and effort involved. Soliciting feedback and encouraging participation among coworkers and employees can also be a rewarding team-building exercise, one that will also ensure that workers, staff, and associates will be able to benefit from surroundings that will be better suited to their needs.
Keeping Things Fresh and Engaging
While creativity is something that will ebb and flow over time, there are plenty of ways that professionals may be able to unlock their full creative potential. Developing the lifestyle and work habits that will make it easier to foster and cultivate a more creative outlook is just the beginning. Creativity can be highly rewarding in the workplace, and to cultivate it, you will need to start with your habits and way of life. Seeking out and trying new ideas or attempting to find innovative new solutions to existing problems is a smart move, one that could go a long way toward ensuring individuals can achieve their full professional potential. And the best way to do that is to renew your creative wells, which can often go a long way toward ensuring a brighter and more secure professional future.