The creative cul de sac

© Brian Jackson – 123RF.com

Your mind is blank. The keyboard fails to respond or accept anything you try to type. When all you want to do on your computer is surf the internet – play poker or annoy people on Facebook.

It's called “creative block” and there is no easy solution. There's no formula yet developed that will overcome it. Some people go out walking. Some take out a bottle of whisky and work their way through it. Others just turn out the lights and sit there quietly sobbing until the clouds lift.

Personally I always take my dad's advice; I store as much of the problem information away in the back of my head as possible and then try to forget about it – doing other mundane things like re-arranging the ID labels in my wine cellar and tasting them to see if they're okay or playing my ukulele.

When the 'solution' is ready it just pops out naturally – normally in the middle of something far more stimulating like when you're having a shower or trying to figure out who Xavier Petrovksy is and why he wants to give you $1million.

Of course this approach isn't always practical when you have a deadline to meet. And trying to force out something is like trying to get an American to use a knife and fork properly – it's not going to work.

I did hear about one guy (a big deal, as a matter of fact) who said he simply had to refuse to allow creative block to exist. He summed it up by saying “It's an excuse we cannot have and if it happened to me I would quit – if it happened to someone working for me then I'd fire them.” For him it's a problem he just cannot afford to have. Personally speaking I don't believe that bullying your brain into submission is the answer.

Get out

However, one of the better ways to get out of 'creative block' is, quite literally, 'to get out' (not out of the business but out of your office). Take a couple of hours, days, even weeks. Get out – away from phone calls, the office, those irritating people around you. If there's a mountain nearby then go and climb it. If there's a bench then sit on it. If there's an ocean – go swimming. Go anywhere as long as it's away from your normal environment.

The same goes for those terrible creative/strategy meetings. Ignore them and call your own meeting – NOT in your boardroom but check into an hotel, sit in a pub all day, sit chatting under beach umbrellas, anywhere out of the ordinary.

Your daily environment may be the biggest cause of creative stagnation - or maybe you really have completely lost it, in which case you may need to look for another job.

Read my blog (brewersdroop.co.za) or see what other amazing things we do at brewers.co.za

*Note that Bizcommunity staff and management do not necessarily share the views of its contributors - the opinions and statements expressed herein are solely those of the author.*