Tools · · Updated
10 Tips for Overcoming Creative Blocks
The grey wall of doom has a door. Ten of them, actually.
Greg Murray, Founder, Human Creative Coaching
In short
A creative block is not a talent problem. It is usually a state problem: too much pressure, too little novelty, no rest, no play. Ten ways through it: play, give yourself freedom to fail, go outside, try something new, be with others, stop fighting the block, do something boring, just make the thing, take one step, and find flow.
In this piece
Blocks. Rocks. Sidewalk chalk. What? "Okay, I'm leaving." Hang with me. See, now your neurons are firing in all directions.
If you're human, chances are you've met a creative block: the grey wall of doom as you search for a door, a tool, dynamite, anything to get back to the open fields of inspiration. You've come to the right place. Ten tips that, put into practice, will get you through.
Change your state
- 1. Play. Turn up the music and get lost in a dance party, make a silly video, write a scene and act it out, shoot hoops. Play gives the mind a break and is closely tied to the growth of creative capacity.3
- 2. Give yourself freedom to fail. Quiet the inner critic and write out every idea as though it could change the world. Psychological safety is what lets ideas surface at the millisecond they appear;1 you can circle back with a critical eye later, and you'll have a much larger list to judge.
- 3. Go outside. Time in nature helps the mind recover from directed-attention fatigue and restores focus and mood.8 In one classic study, hospital patients whose windows faced trees recovered faster than those facing a brick wall.7 Take a breather, notice the details in the plants, or, if it's deep winter, close your eyes and picture a field.
- 4. Experience something new. Children seem to have endless creativity largely because everything is new. Go to a part of town you never visit, read a different genre, order a dish you've never tried, rearrange the apps on your phone. Anything that fires the neurons differently.
- 5. Spend time with others. Connecting with other creatives normalizes the block, provides strength, and delivers what John Townsend calls relational nutrients.[^undefined] Someone else's lens on the world may open territory you'd never have found alone.
Stop pushing
- 6. Don't fight the block. Sometimes you simply need a brain break. Grace relieves the pressure that stifles ideation, and the resting mind does remarkable work: in one study, ten-second rests while learning a new skill let the brain replay the activity about twenty times faster than real time, and most of the learning happened during those rests.4
- 7. Do something boring. Ever wonder why your best thoughts arrive in the shower? A familiar, safe environment plus memorized motor movement frees the mind to wander without an agenda.
The grey wall of doom has a door.
Then do the work
- 8. Just do it. "Make! Your dreams! Come true!" Thanks, Shia LaBeouf. Sometimes you need to put in the hours, flesh the idea out, and make the best of it. The great artists and innovators had thousands of ideas the public never saw. They sifted.
- 9. One. Step. At. A. Time. Perhaps your idea is massive. Big projects can shut you down entirely. Breaking the work into what needs to happen today lets the mind see it as possible.
- 10. Experience flow. Flow is the state in which we feel and perform our best, fully absorbed in a challenge that matches our skill.5 And it carries over: research on affect and creativity found that people are more creative the day after a good day, not just during it.2 Dive into a ping-pong match, go climbing, do something fully immersive.
Closing
We hope your life bursts with even greater color and possibility after this. If something here moved you, tell us. For more on the subject, read the pieces on what creativity is, creativity and mental health, and expanding your imagination.
Questions I hear
What causes a creative block?
Usually a state, not a deficit: pressure, fatigue, sameness, isolation, or a project too big to see. Change the state and the ideas return.
Should I push through a creative block or rest?
Both, in order. Rest and play first if you have been grinding; the resting brain consolidates and replays. Then break the work into one small step and take it.
Does going outside really help creativity?
Yes. Nature restores directed attention and improves mood, and even a view of trees has measurable effects. A short walk is one of the cheapest resets available.
References
- Amabile, T. M., & Khaire, M. (2008). Creativity and the role of the leader. Harvard Business Review, 86(10), 100–109.
- Amabile, T. M., Barsade, S. G., Mueller, J. S., & Staw, B. M. (2005). Affect and creativity at work. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50(3), 367–403. DOI
- Bateson, P., & Martin, P. (2013). Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation. Cambridge University Press.
- Buch, E. R., Claudino, L., Quentin, R., Bönstrup, M., & Cohen, L. G. (2021). Consolidation of human skill linked to waking hippocampo-neocortical replay. Cell Reports, 35(10), 109193. DOI
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row.
- Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15(3), 169–182. DOI
- Townsend, J. (2018). People Fuel: Fill Your Tank for Life, Love, and Leadership. Zondervan.
- Ulrich, R. S. (1984). View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science, 224(4647), 420–421. DOI
This article is written from a coaching perspective and is for general information. It is not psychotherapy, counseling, or medical advice, and it is not a substitute for care from a licensed professional.
Greg Murray · TPRAT certified, TLP Director, TPRAT co-facilitator. Coach to founders, executives, and artists. Writes here about what actually changes a person.
