Lay on the floor, shovel manure, and other ways to get unstuck in your creative work.

What does your creative process look like? Up until recently, I didn’t even realize that I had one. 

I now have a better understanding of what it takes for me to do my best work, and it turns out my creative process isn't exactly what I would have pictured. But it works for me. 

If you’re ever feeling stuck in your creative work, here are a few things you might want to try. 

Lay on the floor
(AKA: Let your mind wander)

I’ve long been a proponent for floor time. Got something on your mind? Lay on the floor. Sad about something? Lay on the floor. Feeling frustrated and stressed out? Lay on the floor. 

Maybe it’s because when you’re laying on the floor, without a phone or a book or other external stimuli, you’re kind of just stuck with your own brain.

If I’ve been staring at a screen, unable to write or focus for a while, I’ll go lay on the floor. (This is one of those times when I’m VERY glad to work from home). I won’t purposely keep thinking about my current project, but I won’t necessarily try to block it out of my mind, either. Unlike meditation or other mindfulness exercises, I won’t actively be trying to just focus on my breath or draw my attention to a certain part of my body or mind. 

Sometimes that means I lay on the floor and think about cheese. Sometimes I’ll fall asleep. Sometimes it means that by the time I go back to my desk, I have a perfectly-formed idea in my head ready to write. 

Ultimately, creativity needs room to breathe and grow. So allow it to do just that. 

Shovel manure.
(AKA: Change your environment)

I own two horses and care for them daily, which means that a large part of my daily routine involves shovelling manure. Maybe it’s the repetitive, almost meditative movements. Or the chance to be outside every day, or the physicality of the work. But it never ceases to amaze me how many creative ideas seem to crystallize during this time. 

I’m not saying you need to go out and find some poop to scoop. But I do think there’s value in changing your environment to something that’s completely unrelated to the work you’re doing. Get outside. Move your body. Find something that grounds you (even if it smells). 

Talk to someone (or yourself
(AKA: Zoom out)

The most difficult part of the creative process for me is when I know I have all the right ideas floating around in my head and am trying to get them out on paper. It’s like as soon as I start typing, the ideas get stuck. 

I tend to be a bottom-up thinker, which means it’s difficult for me to not get caught up in the minutiae like sentence structure or formatting when what I really need to do at this stage is just get SOMETHING out of my head and onto the page. I struggle to see the big picture unless I already have all the details. 

So I’ve stopped trying to do that. Instead, I’ll ask a teammate if I can jam with them in a call, or I’ll just turn my voice notes on, start talking to myself, and let the stream of consciousness begin. Talking through something verbally reduces some of the barriers I encounter when I start to write—maybe because it’s more difficult to edit myself as I’m speaking compared to when I’m trying to write.

Some good thought starters you might use with this approach:

• Tell me about [creative project or brand or story that you’re working on]

• How does [project] make you feel?

• What do people need to know about [project]?

Take your “bad” ideas and run with them
(AKA: Figure out what you don’t like first)

Sometimes when I am two or three sentences into writing something, I’ll start to feel like I’m not going in the direction I wanted to. But at that time, I won’t actually be able to put my finger on why what I’ve written doesn’t feel right. 

So instead of immediately deleting what I’ve already created, I allow myself to go down that road a little further. Write a few more paragraphs. Try to make it work. At times, all it takes is a few more steps in the “wrong” direction to gain the clarity I need to pivot. But sometimes I’ll write nearly an entire article or section of a strategy, and I won’t be able to see what I don’t like about it until I’ve almost finished it. 

And while it might feel counter-productive, whenever I go the “wrong way” for a little while, I always bounce back and find the right path more quickly and effectively than I would have were I to have simply stuck at the crossroads and wondered which direction I should take. 

Embrace the panic
(AKA: Trust that it’ll all come together when it needs to)

As I was working through the first draft of a strategy the other day, I jumped on a video call with Tyler Butler to run a few initial ideas past him. 

“Hmmm,” he said after hearing my ideas. “I don’t think you’re panicked enough yet.”

After years of collaborating on creative projects, Tyler understands that I will likely come up with a dozen crappy versions of something before I eventually nail it. And I always do. But before I can nail it, I need to iterate and iterate and iterate. To spend the time feeling like I’m banging my head against a wall. To see the looming deadline get closer. To start wondering if maybe this is the one time that I won’t actually pull it together in time to deliver. 

I’ve started to learn to trust this process and recognize that when I start feeling like I’m not going to make it happen, that’s actually a sign that I’m about to do just that.