5 Practical Ways To Beat Creative Rut

There are a ton of videos & blogs on beating creative rut with a strong focus on a more philosophical or mindfulness first approach to this problem. I 100% support this approach and think it is invaluable as a long term permanent solution. However what about the short term? Is there anything you can do that can potentially yield results sooner? Personally I think there is a huge practical element that can really help here and in this blog I’m gonna share with you 5 things I personally do any time I feel creatively empty, in a rut or generally suffering with brain fog.

There are many definitions of what a creative rut is. However the simplest way to put it is that you are temporarily struggling to do the very thing you love doing (and are very good at) but you don’t know why. Although this is a photography blog, these principles apply across the board and even beyond traditional creative pursuits. 

Move To The Morning

This is a big one and I also understand that it comes from a place of privilege as not everyone has the luxury to move their schedule around if they have work, kids or other real life needs. However if you do have some flexibility then I really suggest moving whatever you are struggling with to first thing in the morning even if it’s just one day a week. As the day progresses and we deal with more stuff, we make more decisions and we use our focus and energy on other things, there is less and less left for what we actually enjoy. So if you are exhausted after a long day and then sit down to edit before bed, you might not have the same level of enthusiasm or creativity compared to an hour after waking up in the morning. Same for photography, why not have one day a week where you pop out first thing in the morning for a photo walk or dedicate an hour to editing over a coffee? Basically find time in your week so that at least one day you start by doing whatever it is that you’re struggling with. 

Sleep, Food & Exercise

I’ve bunched these up together because they are all related to each other. To be blunt, if your idea of exercise is getting up from the sofa to go to the bathroom, your diet consists of the McDonalds menu and you sleep 5 hours a night, then no wonder you are in a creative rut. If that’s you I’m actually surprised you have enough energy to do anything. Seriously though you can’t over look these basics. If you look after your body, then you will find creative ruts happen much less frequently. Personally I aim for between 7 and 8 hours of good sleep a night, an hour of exercise per day and food which has not been processed a million times. This is not an exercise or diet blog, this topic is basic fundamentals of being a human, I feel I’ve made my point so let’s move on. 

Change The Pace

Change is amazing even if it is temporary especially change which is the opposite of the usual. Even changing something small can have profound effects because it can alter the experience enough to make it feel like a new experience. Here are some practical examples. If you mainly shoot street photography, why not go on a hike or do something in the countryside. It will have a huge change to the pace of your photography. If hiking is not your thing then why not visit a small seaside town or just a different town to the one you usually go to. If you are stuck in a rut when it comes to editing, why not pack your laptop in your bag, find a nice coffee shop and spend an hour there editing but in a different environment. What about if you are always stuck in front of a massive desktop when editing, try to do it on an iPad in the park or by the beach? And if you just don’t feel like doing anything, then go and do something completely opposite. For example if you always shoot alone, go to a photo meet. Or just put your camera away entirely and go for a walk with just your phone. There is a lot you can do to switch things up. Even if editing on the beach from an iPad is your idea of hell, at least you will appreciate sitting in front of your 27 inch monitor at home so much more. As a society i think we fear change, but personally i think change is the best thing that can happen and where the most growth and progress is made. 

Bite Size

It is easy to get overwhelmed especially if you have a lot on your plate. Let’s say you’ve just come back from a photography trip and you are sitting on 2000 photos, you are going back to work tomorrow, your family wants your attention, you have other things coming up and very quickly a month goes by and you haven’t touched these images. With each passing day you get less and less enthusiastic with sitting down and going through this and even though you do enjoy the task, the sheer volume is just putting you off. Well why not break it down into manageable small tasks. 

For example each Saturday morning you will sit down for 30 minutes and go through a handful of images. Or maybe on the train to work each morning you will go through a few at a time. 

The thought of going through 20 photos is a lot more appealing than 2000 and although it might take you a month or two to get through them at this pace, at least you will get there in the end and most importantly approach each editing day without the dread of going through 2000 odd photos. Finally there will be a day or two where you are in the flow of things, you zone out and you go through 100 photos without even realising. Whatever the creative task is, look at it from a birds eye view and see how you can split it into bite size chunks that take less than 30 minutes each to do. 

Be Realistic

So this final point will require a strong degree of self awareness however it is just as important. If you are still feeling creatively empty you need to really think about what could be causing it. Is there an external factor like work or family pressure that is having an impact? Or could it be burnout from too many things on your plate. When we are burned out or we have something bigger going on, it is completely normal to feel creatively empty because our attention and energy is going else where. If you’ve just lost your job or you’re going through a breakup or maybe you’ve been unwell, then your priority should be to deal with those things before trying to push your creative hobbies. Because if you add the frustration of being in a creative rut on top of the other things that you are trying to deal with, then you’re only gonna make the problem worse. So maybe putting your creative hobby down for a minute to focus on other aspects of your life is what is really needed. This is not quitting or giving up, this is taking a small step back so that you can take 2 giant steps forward when you’re ready.