Rekindling creativity: How to generate ideas when you’re stuck in a rut
For my marketers, content strategists, and copywriters out there, this scenario will be all too familiar: You’re staring blankly at your computer, completely out of ideas, and worrying that you’ll never be able to come up with another one (at least, another good one), for as long as you live.
It sounds dramatic, I know, but that’s how it feels – your upcoming marketing campaigns feel a bit stale; your content calendar is looking frighteningly barren; or you just have plain old writer’s block.
I know because I’ve been there. In fact, I’ve been in every single one of those situations.
But I also know that there are things you can do that will leave you brimming with fresh content ideas or ready to conquer the blank page.
You need to take a holistic approach to rekindle that spark, one that combines practical solutions with creative ones. Here are four methods I use to generate ideas flowing again whenever I feel like I’ve used them all up.
Go back to basics
Now, I apologise if I’m teaching you how to suck eggs here (not that I’m convinced that’s something anyone’s ever actually done), but sometimes it really does pay to go back to basics, especially if you’re struggling to come up with marketing campaign ideas or to fill out a content calendar that might as well have tumbleweeds blowing through it. Here are a few places I like to start:
Do some keyword research and uncover trending (but brand relevant!) topics you haven’t covered yet.
If you haven’t done one for awhile, why not do a content audit? Like keyword research, you might be able to uncover gaps and opportunities, like content that could do with a refresh or be repurposed.
Check out what your competitors are doing and what topics they’re covering – and what they’re not covering.
Do a deep dive into your customer reviews and queries – these can be an absolute goldmine of ideas, full of insights into the challenges and questions your audience has.
Infiltrate the niche Facebook groups, forums, and Subreddits your audience belongs to find out what people are talking about.
Two heads are better than one
If you’re truly stuck, don’t try and go it alone; set up a brainstorming session with your team. Grab a stack of Post-Its and some fresh Sharpies (multi-coloured, naturally) and let everyone go wild. If you’re working remotely, use a tool like Miro for a virtual brainstorm.
My favourite way to start a brainstorming session is with this question: “If money wasn’t an object, what would you want to do?” The idea behind this is to think as big as you possibly can: You would take over every screen in Piccadilly Circus with an advertising campaign; you would start the next SXSW, with Beyonce as your keynote speaker; you would send every single one of your customers a new car a la Oprah.
Then – assuming you don’t have the budget of a billionaire – you think about how you could bring those ideas down to earth. Maybe you can’t take over Piccadilly Circus, but could you afford a billboard? You might not be able to start the next SXSW, but is a conference or roundtable within reach? Sure, sending all your customers cars is a bit ridiculous, but what about some merch?
It’s important you split this process into two parts, so you don’t constrain your thinking, notes Nicole Velik of The Ideas Bodega.
First, you want your brains to “flow freely and generate many different ideas” – this is called “divergent thinking”. Then, you start “teasing, building, culling and choosing the best ideas to move forward with” – convergent thinking. “The danger of allowing both phases to happen simultaneously is that no new ideas see the light of day.”
Switch things up
Sometimes, simply doing something completely different can be just what you need to jump-start your creativity. When I’m faced with a blank page and a blinking cursor, I switch to a completely different project I’m feeling excited about. The key here is not to work on something else you’re feeling stuck on – that can be disheartening and will only exacerbate the problem.
Something I love doing when I’m feeling a bit uninspired is to write a piece for our own blog (so yes, right now I’m writing a blog about coming up with ideas when you’re stuck because this is one of the ways I come up with ideas when I’m feeling stuck. Meta, I know).
Changing locations is often a good tactic too. If you’re a remote worker like me, get out of the house and explore new places to work. If you’re Sydney based, I highly recommend a visit to the Mitchell Reading Room at the NSW State Library or the MCA Cafe on the sculpture terrace, with its stunning views over the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, which never fail to inspire me.
For office workers, an offsite can often yield some more exciting ideas, because your team is energised being in a different space. Try and find a fun spot for your off-site, like a cool hotel or a local cafe – don’t just book a staid meeting room in another office building, which is unlikely to spark anything creative. Or book-end your offsite with something
A change is as good as a holiday, as my Mum likes to say.
Do something you love every day
Keeping yourself inspired outside of work is just as important as keeping yourself inspired when you’re sitting at your desk. Falling into a bit of a rut can seriously sap your creativity, and impact your ability to come up with new ideas at work.
So, do things you enjoy every single day – go to the beach, take a class, do some gardening, or even binge every season of The Handmaid’s Tale (which I admit is a bit of a dark one, but how inspiring is June Osborne?!). The point is, you do you.
Perhaps you could start and finish work earlier so you have more time in the day to rest and replenish your energy. Or put in a little bit of extra time throughout the week, so you could take an early mark on a Friday and really stretch out that weekend.
Another thing I personally think is really important (though your mileage might vary on this one) is to consume content that’s completely unrelated to your field outside of work hours. I know there are many people out there whose podcast or reading diet consists of entirely work-related content. And while I commend their dedication, inspiration often comes from unlikely sources.
I subscribe to several Substacks (support journalism!), including Amy Odell’s Back Row for her brilliant analyses of the fashion world and Hunter Harris’ Hung Up dissections of pop culture. I listen to dozens of podcasts a week (no exaggeration), from If Books Could Kill, about the dodgy science behind airport bestsellers, to Sounds Like a Cult, which discusses the modern-day cults we all follow.
You never know, listening to the Las Culturistas podcast might just spark something great.