FreelanceM.ag

We freelancers are a highly creative bunch. We are freelance writers, freelance designers, freelance photographers, and more.

A big part of most freelancing businesses depends on the creativity of the individual freelancer. A successful freelancer needs to be able to come up with original and workable ideas on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes, we freelancers fail to come up with a new idea. We freelance writers call this writer’s block, but it doesn’t just happen to writers. Other freelancers struggle to find creative ideas too.

In this post, I’ll give you ideas that you can use when your creativity fails you. I’ll also explore some of the things that might cause you to struggle with your creativity and explain how you can avoid those creative obstacles. If you liked this post, you might also like Capturing Your Creativity.

My Top Tips for Boosting Your Creativity

If you’re feeling stuck as far as coming up with creative new ideas for your projects, try one or more of these tips:

1. Pay Attention to Your Environment. Freelancers are often more sensitive to their surroundings than they realize. A messy room, a noisy room, or a poorly lit room could be enough of a distraction to keep your creativity from flowing freely. If you’re struggling, look around and see what you could change.
2. Let Yourself Brainstorm. Set aside some time and write down all the good ideas and bad ideas that you can think of. In fact, write down whatever comes in your head about the topic. A lot of brilliant people have used brainstorming over the years. You could also try mind mapping, which uses a diagram to represent ideas.
3. Hoard Extra Ideas for a Rainy Day. Do you ever have those days when you have more ideas than you can possibly execute? Me too. The next time this happens to you, take a few minutes and create a rough sketch of those ideas or jot them down. Put them in a safe place so that you can reference them for your next creative dry spell.
4. Get a Creative Partner. Many people, including freelancers, work better with a partner. There’s just something about the combined synergy of two minds working on the same problem… If you think that having a creative partner would boost your creativity, look around for another trustworthy and compatible freelancer.
5. Look for a Different Approach. Too often, we get stuck because we don’t consider every angle of a situation. The easiest ideas to think of are often not the best. If you’re having trouble coming up with something creative, try looking at the situation from a different point of view. The results may be just what you need.

Even when you follow these tips to boost your creativity, you may still face some creative obstacles.

Avoid Creative Obstacles

Fortunately, most creative obstacles can be avoided. Here are some common obstacles to creativity that you should steer clear of whenever you can:

1. Pressure. While stress and pressure may stimulate some freelancers, most do not do their best work under extreme pressure. Stay calm and don’t sweat the small stuff.
2. Rush. A hurried job is often a sloppy job. Whenever possible, avoid projects with extremely tight deadlines so that you have enough time to check over your work. Avoid work that has to be done “yesterday.”
3. Illness. No one does their best work when they are sick. So, make safeguarding your health a top priority. This means eating right and getting enough exercise and sleep.
4. No Passion. Some projects just seem like busy work. You will probably do your best work on projects you care deeply about. Try to find something you care about for each of your projects.
5. Interruptions. Interruptions can cause you to lose focus and forget what you were doing. Try to minimize them. If your home office has a door, shut it. Let the machine screen your calls.

With a little extra effort on your part, you should be able to avoid most common creative obstacles.

Your Turn

What do you do when your creativity fails you? How do you handle a creative block?

Share your tips in the comments.

Image by R@jeev