Content Creation: How to Inspire Yourself When You’re Tired
This tired feeling has been stealing all my creativity lately, and maybe it has been stealing yours, too. Writing sometimes feels like an obligation. Even though we know that blogging is good for our websites, sometimes our personal lives take precedence. Things like napping suddenly seem so much more important. Ever since I returned from a trip overseas, I’ve been wanting more and more naps. Darn that jet lag!
I’ll tell you what has worked for me to help with the tiredness.
Write a Bunch of Headlines
I spent four hours creating headlines, so that when I go into my blog now, there are 26 topics (one for each remaining week of the year). That way, I don’t have to rack my brains trying to figure out what to write. And if you don’t think writing headlines is a lot of hard work, you haven’t read Headline Writing: Ten Reasons It’s a Pain in the Asterisk. Yes, it’s from 2015, but it’s still a pain in the asterisk in 2018.
Think Like Your Customer
Find four topics that your potential customer might like to hear about. Write those down on an index card. Now write about those things. Chris Lema suggested that at a WordCamp Orange County conference, and it was very helpful. By the way, if you don’t know Chris Lema, go and read his blog for some wonderful ideas.
Take a Walk
This wakes up the little gray cells. And you could even take up the tradition that Aristotle began of taking a walking meeting, rather than sitting. After all, sitting is supposed to be as bad as smoking these days. Here’s an article and Ted Talk about walking meetings: Walking meetings? 5 surprising thinkers who swore by them. There are lots of ways that walking can boost your creativity, and I talked about those ways here: How to Unleash Your Creativity with One Simple Trick.
Journaling
If you’ve never tried journaling, I highly recommend it. Now you might think that journaling is something that you’d only try for personal reasons, but it can be highly effective for business reasons as well. Free writing, doodling, and drawing are three ways that you can gain access to your creative side. For more about journaling, see: 7 Ways to Use Journaling for Creativity.
How Do You Get Into a Creative Zone?
Do you have a secret for getting into a creative spirit? Let me know in the comments! And thank you!
There are so many great ideas in this post, Carol. I love the pictures too. (I know I always write that, but it’s true.) I too have been super-tired and I didn’t even go anywhere exciting! ;) We leave for Lake Tahoe tomorrow and it’s one of my happy places as you know, so I can’t wait.
While I’ve heard that relatively short naps (taken in moderation) are healthy and I’d imagine they can foster creativity, it’s easy to go a little wild with those naps and extend them and then feel just kind of blah.
I wish I had a secret for getting into a creative zone to share here but I don’t. If anyone else comes up with something cool, I’d really (really!) like to know! :)
Hi Dyane,
Thank you so much. I’m sorry you’ve been tired, too. And I know what you mean about taking naps. Sometimes I’ll close my eyes for what I think will be a 20-minute nap and then two hours later the afternoon is gone! Coming up with 26 headlines really made me feel much better about blogging. That took about four hours, but it was so worth it!
Look what I read literally five minutes after writing my other comment:
“2. The beach boosts your creativity
Feeling like you’re in a creative rut? Well, scientists now believe that the solution to this is the beach. Being in blue space allows you to clear your head and approach problems or projects in a more creative way. Much like meditation, the beach triggers a feeling of calmness that allows you to tune everything else out and reflect on what it is you’ve been needing to focus on.”
The complete article is here & it’s worth the read – it’s fairly short:
http://mysticalraven.com/health/9646/neuroscientists-strongly-recommend-that-you-visit-the-beach-regularly-heres-why
Hi again, Dyane!
Good article, and I appreciate the brevity, too. Those positive ions really do help, don’t they? And something about the sound of the water is soothing, too.
Thanks for sending along the article!
Carol
Walking helps me quite a lot. I like your headline idea, too. Honestly, apathy has taken root and I need to figure out the cause and deal with that. I’m doing to think about this for a while.
The same goes for me and walking, B. I think those Greek philosophers were onto something when they recommended learning combined with walking.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you figure out the cause of the apathy.
Carol
Hi Carol,
Great information in this post for me.
I have 17 tabs open on my Mac with most of the links you recommended. It might be summer changes or an unexpected trip I recently took but I’m digging down trying to find that spring of creativity this month.
Walks are generally my normal inspiration but I need something more.
Thanks for the inspirational push.
Patricia
Hi Patricia,
I’m trying to imagine all the 17 open tabs you have open! That might take the whole summer to get through.
Walks and photography are always good for me. Especially if I go someplace new or try to photograph in a new way. That gets the little gray cells active again.
Let me know what you come up with! And thank you for the blog comments.
Carol