Overcome Your Creative Block

Creative Block, Why It Happens and How I Work Through It

The build up to Christmas

Creative block is one of those things that nobody really talks about enough, yet almost everyone who does something creative experiences it at some point.

For me it crept in towards the build up to Christmas 2025. That strange period where your mind is half thinking about work, half thinking about the new year and half wondering whether Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to get Turbo Man for his child and whether this will finally be the year that a Ferrari appears under the tree.

There is always a lot of pressure around that time of year. The whole “new year new me” mindset starts creeping in. It is the same with weight loss, stopping biting your fingernails and all the other little promises we make to ourselves. I am not doing brilliantly on those ones either.

What creative block looked like for me

The creative block itself was not dramatic. It was more subtle than that.

I stopped being consistent with my own social media. There was no accountability because it is my own work. I felt uninspired. I would find myself putting off creative work and doing other things instead. At one point I even caught myself cleaning the house when I could have been designing something.

That is usually a pretty good sign that something is not quite right.

More than anything I just felt unmotivated and frustrated with myself. When you are trying to build something new like Smudged Media you want to keep pushing it forward all the time, so there was definitely a bit of guilt there as well.

Reconnecting with creativity

Eventually I realised that the best way out of it was not to force creativity, but to reconnect with the things that inspire it.

One of the biggest things that helps me is walking. When I am out walking I am not really thinking about anything in particular. My mind just drifts. That is usually when little ideas start appearing. A design idea, a project concept, a new direction for something I have been working on.

It is amazing how often solutions appear when you stop staring at a screen.

Finding inspiration again

Another thing that always helps is looking at other creative people.

I enjoy following creators like Elliot Is A Cool Guy on YouTube, Made By James and others who share their work and their process openly. It is not just about the finished design either. Seeing how people think, experiment and push through challenges is often more interesting than the final result.

Sometimes inspiration comes from completely unexpected places as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDX6l9_58RA

One of my favourite videos is Damon Albarn talking about how the Gorillaz track Clint Eastwood came together. He describes using one of the preset sounds on a keyboard to build the whole track. It is such a simple starting point but it became something iconic. It is a great reminder that creative sparks can come from absolutely anywhere.

What helps me break through creative block

If someone tells me they are struggling with creative block my first suggestion is usually very simple.

Sit down and listen to a full album of music. No pauses. No phone. No laptop. Just listen and let your mind wander for a bit. It sounds small but giving your brain space like that can be surprisingly powerful.

Since coming out the other side of this little creative lull I have tried to put a few small things in place to help keep momentum going.

• Plan and set goals, including a weekly posting schedule

• Read more and give my brain a different kind of input

• Stop letting my YouTube watch later playlist control my life

• Avoid doom scrolling and focus more on a intentional creative crawls

• Pay attention to design when I am out and about (Design inspiration is everywhere if you start looking. Terrible posters, strange signage, brilliant t shirts, movie posters, album artwork, photography that catches your eye. All of it feeds into how you think about creativity.)

Creative block is part of the process

Looking back now I do not really see creative block as something negative.

In many ways it is just part of the process. Every project has its own little moment where you get stuck and have to find a way through it. It is just another stage of creating something.

So if you are feeling a bit stuck creatively at the moment you are definitely not alone.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is step away, go for a walk, listen to some music and give your brain the space it needs to reconnect the dots.

You might be surprised at what appears next.