3 Weird Tricks to Destroy “Creative Block” Forever

Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar.

You’ve cleared out your schedule in preparation for a creative session. Maybe you’ve found some time to start a new design, draw a new illustration, or even write a new hit song.

You sit down at your desk, eager to begin your masterpiece, but instead you’re met with an all-too-familiar obstacle.

Creative block.

Instead of an artistic masterpiece forming before your eyes, you’re met with a blank canvas, an empty page, an untouched Photoshop project. 

Minutes turn into hours, and the creative block morphs from a trivial annoyance to an immovable barrier. No matter how hard you try, you can’t find a way to open the creative floodgates and actually get started.

Eventually, your creative session ends, and you have absolutely nothing to show for your “hard work”.

 

Opening the creative floodgates

Regardless of your artistic pursuit (design, painting, music, writing, etc.) you will come across creative blocks from time to time.

Creative blocks can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you don’t have that much time to dedicate to your artistic pursuits. From my experience, they usually stem from 3 main sources:

• Self-imposed pressure
• A lack of focus / an abundance of distraction
• No creative direction

So in this short newsletter I want to discuss these 3 issues and how you can overcome them efficiently to destroy creative block forever.  

Habit 1 - Creative “blasts”

Creative blocks are often the result of putting too much pressure on yourself to achieve the “perfect” result on your first try.

Self-imposed pressure is the enemy of creativity.

The cure? Higher volume, lower expectations.

For example, let’s say you’re a logo designer. When you sit down to draw a logo for a client, your first sketch will rarely be the final design. If you’re sitting at your desk waiting for inspiration to strike, you’re going to be waiting a long time.

To combat this, remove some of the pressure you’re putting on yourself to achieve the perfect result straight away.

Let me share a method I use to solve this problem.

Set a timer for 15 minutes, and try to create as many “first drafts” as possible during that time without any pressure to create something amazing. 

Don’t overthink it, just let your creative intuition take over.

• If you’re a logo designer, sketch 15-30 logos.
• If you’re a poster designer, create as many basic poster layouts as you can.
• If you’re a musician, record 5 very simple grooves / musical ideas

The trick is to reduce the friction between your creative intuition and actually putting pen to paper.

After your 15 minute creative blast, you may be surprised at the outcome. It’s likely you’ll have at least one idea or concept that is worth fleshing out. If not, you’ll have probably stumbled across certain elements or “pieces of the puzzle” that you want to use in your final design.

Artistic creativity is your ability to translate the way you see the world into a tangible medium of expression, and like any other skill, creativity must be practiced.

Habit 2 - Limiting social media

We’re all fully aware of the detrimental impact of social media on our mental health.

We all understand the negative effects of analyzing our self-worth using likes and follower counts.

However, one element of social media use that is less often discussed is the effect it has on our ability to focus.

Excessive social media use (in particular TikTok / Reels / etc.) rewires your brain to become accustomed to rapid “context switches”. During a TikTok binge, you could experience hundreds of context switches within an extremely short period of time.

This absolutely destroys your ability to focus. 

If your brain becomes reliant on this fast-paced cycle of mini-dopamine hits, it becomes much harder to concentrate on a singular task for multiple hours at a time.

This is why I’m a huge advocate of “rewiring your brain” by taking extended breaks from social media (or at least certain aspects of social media).

For me personally, I avoid all short-form video content. I don’t have TikTok and I don’t use Instagram Reels or Youtube shorts. I also heavily limit my time on social media in general, unless it’s for my design work.

The impact this has had on my ability to focus for extended periods of time is incredible. I feel sharper, clear-headed and more creative as a result.

Sometimes a creative block can simply be a result of a cluttered mind and an inability to focus in a world of over-stimulation and constant distraction.

Bonus tip: When you’re working on a creative project, put your phone in another room and make sure it’s on do not disturb. Nothing breaks your creative focus like the tantalising sound of a notification.

Habit 3 - Journalling

If you’ve ever dipped your toes into the endless ocean of self-improvement advice, you’ll probably have come across the concept of journaling before.

In short, journaling is the regular practice of writing down your thoughts, ideas and goals. Personally, it has proven to be one of the most powerful techniques not only for general self-improvement and mental well-being, but for harnessing creativity too.

Here is a general overview of how I structure a journal entry:

• An initial “brain dump”: Firstly I write out whatever is on my mind at that moment, or potentially jotting down any ideas or thoughts that crop up regarding my personal life, career, artwork etc.
• Goals: Then I like to write down any daily/weekly goals I have. Physically writing down your goals increases self-accountability, meaning you’re much more likely to achieve them.
• Gratitude: Finally I write down everything I am grateful for, from my family and friends to the miraculous gift of life and human experience.

When we allow our fears, insecurities and negative thoughts to lay dormant inside our minds, they often mutate into overwhelming, anxious thought patterns. I’m sure we’ve all experienced “overthinking”, where a certain negative idea or perception will repeat itself over and over in our minds.

Journaling offers a way to translate these thoughts and anxieties from the mind to the physical realm. This is intensely powerful as it often highlights the triviality of these circular, anxiety-inducing thought patterns.

This all loops back to my earlier point, which is that a lack of creativity is often the result of a cluttered or distracted mind. 

Journaling is an incredible method for de-cluttering and re-organising your thoughts, which can leave more space for creativity to blossom.

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I hope you got some value out of this article. Viewing creativity from the perspective of self-improvement and discipline is something I don’t think is discussed very often, so I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

As always, have a beautiful day.

George