Here’s a quick guide for how to get over writer’s block. These are methods I’ve personally used very successfully, and I hope you scroll through this, find a good method, and get over writer’s block too!
Most people sit down at their keyboard and type stuff that looks like it was edited by an 8th grade English teacher:
“Dear sirs, to whom it may concern I offer our company services of supplying roofing shingles at an affordable price structure that’s cost effective for our clients……..” :::falls asleep:::
To get the most response, you shouldn’t bore your readers to death, and therefore should talk like you’re in a casual conversation. This casual tone of voice shows you’re a real person, who is cool, and would be fun to do business with.
“Hey Mr. Moneybags!
I figured out a way to save Acme Roofing 30% on your shingles cost. We got the manufacturer to ship them directly to Scranton instead of having to ship them to Boston first. Call me if you want the new rate.
Talk soon,
Sammy Salesman: 713.301.1546″
By first casually speaking out your message into your phone, you can see what your words will sound like in a casual tone. Then you simply transcribe these words into your computer, and you now have a great starting point for your copy!
Here’s the two methods I personally use to record on my iPhone:
- Open the Voice Memo app, hit record, start talking.
- I tell Siri: [“Make a note to…”] + [Start talking] = Siri transcribes it for me in the Notes app.
Sometimes there’s just too much clutter distracting you. Just a blank screen and some typing can go a long way.
Try out this distraction free writing trick to get the ball started.
Having a distraction-free zone to write is immensely helpful in getting started on your first few lines of text. Once you get past the first few lines, the rest are easy :)
Headline formulas are helpful in kicking off an article idea or angle. Here’s 3 quick sample formulas to get you started:
[End Result] + [Time Period] + [Address Objections]
5 Ways to Boost Your ____ Without Spending More _____
[X Number Of Ways] To Accomplish [Amazing Result] without [Negative Side Effect]
If you want more formulas and headline idea templates, here’s a giant list of headlines (including their open rates).
I don’t usually make headlines or articles out of formulas, but if I’ve got a case of Writer’s Block going…..I’ll try some of them out and quickly get a ton of ideas.
Simply changing up the environment your brain is experiencing can snap you out of a funk really quickly!
Here’s my personal suggestions:
- Change the location you’re in.
- Do a handstand to get the blood flowing.
- Do some pushups to get the blood flowing.
- Put in ear plugs to “get into your own little world.”
- Plug in some headphones and listen to music (my favorite work music is “Deep House Radio” on Pandora).
Basically by physically altering your location or pace of your body……your brain has to adapt a little and “wake up” to deal with the change.
This is a super-solid way to snap out of a funk.
Give your brain a punch and chemically change it up!
Heres some of my favorite ways:
- Drink Caffeine. Within minutes your brain will be buzzing with ideas.
- Drink a beer whilst working. Slowly sipping on a beer on a Friday afternoon and writing…..a fun time + a creative time!
- Take a shot of liquor. If you’re working with some buddies, down a shot and see if it doesn’t pump some ideas into you. I would recommend not over-doing this, otherwise productivity and creativity will rapidly tank.
Unless you want to get alcohol buzzed at 2pm on a Tuesday, I’d say the most effective way of chemically altering your brain is caffeine. There are many different caffeine delivery systems besides coffee. What you should pay attention to is how many milligrams of caffeine are in something, and modify to your capacity.
The upper-limit caffeine tolerance for a normal and healthy adult is around 400mg per day.
Here are some common caffeine delivery mechanisms (all these numbers can vary):
- Green tea = 50mg caffeine.
- Red Bull = 80mg caffeine.
- 1 Cup Coffee = 80mg – 150mg caffeine (varies by brand).
- Monster Energy = 160mg caffeine.
- Caffeine Pill = 200mg caffeine.
- Five Hour Energy = 200mg caffeine.
You can use this Caffeine Calculator to see which products give you the most caffeine and calories.
If I drink a healthy dose of caffeine (let’s say 200mg), I’ll definitely feel a strong caffeine buzz. Within 5 minutes I’ll feel extremely alert, a bit hyper, more talkative, and tend to have an increased flow of ideas. I try to not have caffeine after 2pm or else I find it difficult to fall asleep at night.
When you have “Writers Block” it usually means you’re having trouble STARTING an article. A “writing prompt” is simply a sentence, question, or “angle” to view the topic that can kick off your writing.
“This first time I used this product I…..”
“The most creative way I’ve seen this product used is…..”
“It was exactly two years ago when I…..”
“From my customers angle my product looks like…..”
“If I was super rich I would…..”
“The best way in the world to do [cool thing] is to…..”
Try following a writing prompt to snap you out of a brain funk!
I love the quote: “Constraints create creativity.”
Pretend there’s someone with a gun to your head. THEN can you get the job done?
A constraint can be anything:
- Finishing an article in a limited amount of time.
- Finishing an article that has to be written in the 1st person.
- Finishing an article that has to be written in the 3rd person.
- Finishing an article only using pen and paper….no computer.
- Finishing an article by limiting the number of characters you’re about to write.
This means you have some sort of time limit, deadline, or “angle” you have to complete the work through.
Here are some example constraints:
In (4 minutes) I need to (tell a personal story) about (product).
In (25 minutes) I need to (explain a unique way) to use (product).
In (1 paragraph) I need to tell website owners why they should be using (SumoMe).
With only (.gif images) I need to show (my software) working on a website.
While (inside a dark room) I need to come up with (3 business ideas) in (7 minutes).
Try adding a constraint (or multiple constraints) to your assignment, and see how fast you can finish it!
You. Have it. GOOD.
Your life has been enriched with thousands of years of human innovation that takes the drudgery and pain away from a harsh, violence-filled, disease-ridden, backbreaking-labor, hardship-filled existence.
Your ancestors would FLIP THE HELL OUT at how easy your life is compared to theirs.
If you were born just 200 years ago:
- If you had bad eye sight: You better start squinting. There’s no cheap solution for that.
- If you needed surgery: You better drink some whiskey before a guy saws your body open with a rusty blade while you’re still awake.
- If you got a weird illness: Some voodoo witch doctor would crush up some random leaves, cut you, rub them in the wound…..and hope for the best.
- If you wanted to know something: You better hope one of your friends knows. Otherwise you’re out of luck.
- If you wanted to travel somewhere: You better be super-duper rich and have 6 months of transit time.
Life completely sucked compared to what we have now!!
If you are reading this on a computer……you have access to tools and information that 200 years ago people couldn’t even fathom would exist. ……yet here you are complaining that “you don’t know what to write.”
Understand that your work will never ever ever ever be 100% perfect. So just type something out….then go back and edit it. It’s the best way to just start. It’s not the end of the world if you write something crappy. Just edit or delete it later.
So quit being a little bitch and finish off your work.
One of the problems people encounter when they sit down to write is the task is way too daunting.
It’s only daunting because they haven’t broken the problem down into little chunks.
This is where an outline comes in real handy. Just list out the main points (like our friend in the picture above has), and then fill in each section. Within just a few minutes you can finish a huge percent of your article just because you made a quick outline!
What is it about showers that jogs the brain so much?? In my own shower I keep a little Shower Notepad like this:
Believe it or not, many of the methods listed in this very post were jotted down whilst I was in the shower! Giggity.
Literally the best way to jog your memory is to see what other people are doing.
For Example:
If you are trying to write copy about a mattress. Go search for “Best Mattresses” or “How to find the best mattress” on your favorite search engine, pull up the first 5 results, and start reading!
By simply immersing yourself in other people’s writing, you’ll start stacking up some ideas.
But don’t just be a little copy-cat and do what everyone else is using. Use this information as research, and use it to IMPROVE upon what everyone else has done:
- See what other articles are lacking.
- See what people are asking a lot on Quora.
- See what your competition is doing wrong.
- See what people are responding to a lot on Facebook Groups.
By seeing what else is out there, you can see what YOU can contribute to it.
Download this entire Writer’s Block post for your own files:
Keep this in your files for whenever you have Writer’s Block and need to get rid of it!
P.S. If you want more help with Writer’s Block, checkout some of our Copywriting Tips for more inspiration!
P.P.S. Comment below what YOU do when you have writers block. I am going to add (and draw!) more methods here based on the comments!
Very helpful Indeed. BTW you should also mention how to consistently maintain writing habits.
See, I’m not quite sure that the ‘Chemically alter your state of mind’ works for me, drinking that beer or that shot could be a door I won’t be able to close later, hehe.
But the one that really works for me is altering my physically state of mind, every time I’m blocked I just go out and take a walk, I usually bring a little notebook with me so I can write down new ideas, but this trick of recording your voice on the phone is even better, it’s not just recording my text but also checking the flow, rhythm (or whatever) of my words.
Thanks, Neville.
Love the ”stop being a little bitch”, gonna print it and put on the wall. Damn, how lucky we are, how many resources we have!
Hahahah yeah that’s my favorite one of all :)
But that’s the actual issue, life too easy.
Great tips guys, especially the one about ‘copy someone else’ :) I read and enjoyed, as usual … Cheers !
Mad props for the shower image alone. However, they are also very good tips!
Awesome advice here, I especially enjoyed “stop being a little bitch.” :) And I’ll be using the “distraction-free writing environment” for sure.
One thing that’s worked for me pretty consistently since I figured it out in college is basically talking to myself about whatever it is I’m trying to write, but externalizing it by writing it all down. It helps get the ideas flowing, gets me in a writing frame of mind, and gets the thoughts onto the page/screen so I can review them without circling around and around in my head.
If I have the time, and I’ve done a bunch of thinking or research about the topic and I’m still stuck, sometimes I’ll just set it aside and come back to it first thing the next morning. Approaching the topic refreshed (and after letting my subconscious work on it while sleeping) usually unplugs me and lets me get the writing done even faster than if I tried to force it.
That “being a little bitch” point though, it works for everything not just writer’s block. I found this article on StumbleUpon and I’ve treasured it to my other lists of How to overcome writer’s block. Thanks.
What a wonderful topic of discussion because this surely is something most bloggers go through – writers block :)
I liked the ways you shared here, and while I do follow most of them when I get blank sometimes, I really believe that if you enjoy blogging and it becomes your passion with time, you have less of these blocks. I guess those who put up daily posts or every alternate days might be facing this problem.
The key according to me lies in the fact that you should write when you are focused in your work. I don’t think your mind would turn blank then, or you wouldn’t know what to write. But I guess it differs from person to person too.
Speaking of myself, I guess being a professional freelance writer and blogger – my work is to write! And I write a lot, whether it’s my blog posts, project work, or even replying to the comments on my blog (which are mini posts in themselves!) – all of that is writing. I never really get into such blocks, or perhaps my mind is always floating around with creative ideas that are just waiting to be penned down. However, when these is work pressure and pending projects etc., and when there’s stress all around – I do experience writers block, though it’s rare.
Thanks for sharing these ways with us.
I have found that we experience blocks for any activity we feel that we HAVE to do. If I have a sink full of dishes to do, I suddenly find writing ideas coming to mind. If I have a writing assignment to do, I suddenly have an urge to do the dishes. A method that I use is to “pretend” that I HAVE to do the dishes but I just need to write that headline or rewrite that last paragraph of copy. It tricks my brain into believing that the thing I HAVE to do is the distraction from what I HAVE to do. Also, when I was a child and had to do dishes at home, I would imagine that I was on a game show and was winning prizes every time I washed a certain number of dishes in a certain time. It made doing the dishes more exciting. If you use this game show tactic for writing, it can make it seem more exciting and rewarding.
Geniuuuus!!
I do what men who laugh last do: Laugh with no teeth. (go nuts)
I Call to report: that Captain Caveman Stole my Unicorn Sandwich
Fly an oversized kite then hand it to a complete stranger while crying.
Visiting the boys at the psych wards. . Preferably NOT the one the cops didn’t put you in before trial.
Have a serious chat with my dad about his childhood escaping the Israeli Occupation… fatherless, barefoot, 4 year old boy figuring life out on the streets of lebanon. Always ending with what he refers to as being shat out at birth (humouroulsy): Shit Comes out whether you eat or not.
(It does, doesn’t it… Yet, i walk away knowing full well he meant Shit Happens. But the way he phrased it, made me realize… (well,
Got back back to writing, no longer feeling shit because the block “it came… and it will come out”.
I may come off as incompetent, possibly lost… blame the Captain Caveman. I haven’t eaten. But I have Kite to fly.
Good Hunting All
P.S. Whale poop
I use Google Keep on my phone and on the computer (which get nicely synced instantly) to keep track of everything I think would be useful for a future article or email.
So it’s a preventive measure for writer’s block that immediately overcomes it because you can look at your bank of things you wanted to write about!
Nice tip Brian! I actually never heard of Google Keep till right now, thanks for teaching me something new :)
I grab a kombucha, lay out on my hammock and chill. Starring out at the beauty of the world. And ask the universe to enlighten me on what I’m having trouble with. Real talk.
Oh man, that sounds relaxing. I’d probably just fall asleep :-P
Great stuff Nev!
Let me throw my 5pence (I’m in the UK) to the conversation.
I thought I am weird, but after reading this post I feel free from the burden of such thought. Ehehe ))
1. I get goood ideas when manually washing the dishes or doing some other repetetive thing. I guess my mind just spaces out and goes to some other dimension.
2. I walk back and forth around my apartment for an extensive amount of time and after this “walk” I usually get a nice little basket full of ideas. (When I think about it it’s kind of similar to point #1, but the dishes remain dirty in the sink)
Cheers guys!
Hahaha…washing the dishes! Now THAT is definitely an unconventional method :)
I know what you mean though, repetitive tasks like that (or a shower) for some reason definitely open up creativity.
Thanks for sharing Jacob!
Enjoyed the words, and the artwork (Especially #4) :)
I alternate depending on the circumstances –
I go out, take a nap, see some TV, talk to someone (cats included) let social media swallow me…
I can’t drink coffee or alcohol but have my own little herbal mind softner…
But lately, I am trying to teach myself to simply plow through,
except it will probably be crap, and still put it on the page as part of the process.
Maybe it’s silly or cliche, but I feel that doubts and fears are my worst writers block
This is my way of showing myself “what is the worst thing that can happen”…
After that I can move on and know that what ever will come next will probebly be better :)
Hmmmm….doubts and fear are your worst writer’s block? Interesting. It’s perhaps comforting to know that simply writing something on a page (especially a digital page) is very temporary, and can easily be edited or deleted :)
Best of luck Dee!
Hi Guys
For me personally, I would bring the topic that I am writing up in a chat room. People here in Taiwan like to join English chat room and they always like to share: sometimes a book passage, or from their own reflection.
Also napping helps, as I read somewhere that many great scientist nap for new ideas and breakthroughs.
Cheers,
Ryu
Great suggestions Ryu! Sharing with others can definitely jog your memory and give you new ideas.
Perfection paralysis insists that I write nothing until I can exquisitely phrase brilliant ideas that will be loved by every person who reads them. Which means that I write nothing. So to get unblocked I go the opposite of #8 and totally release my Inner Bitch–employing profane language to throw off-the-wall, badly composed, poorly punctuated, incomplete thought fragments onto the page. Playing gangsta rap in the background is a bonus. (I am old enough to get senior discounts and not a fan of rap, but it has its place.) This process is the mud wrestling of writing–it’s fun, it’s ugly, it gets the ideas onto the page, and it gets me going.
Bahahah……I guess “Playing Gangsta Rap” should be the next one in the article :-P
I think you stumbled upon a common scenario which is:
Be Lazy For Long Time –> Get Disgusted With Yourself –> Get All Amped Up –> Get Work Done!
I go through a similar process all the time of laziness, then extremely productivity when pumped up. Thanks for sharing Lizzie!
The 5 minute mindset.
It’s something I learned about recently that has made a huge difference in my ability to follow through or start working on something. It’s a fun little productivity habit.
– Plan on giving up 5 minutes of your time towards your project, be it writing, business, exercise.
– Follow through & most often you’ll find that once you’re in the zone you keep going way past 5 minutes.
– AND… if not, well, 5 minutes done today. There are 5 more tomorrow. The fact is you made the effort.
Hmmm…..it seems you have away more discipline than I do Austin! However you’re correct in that just STARTING the damn thing will kick you off in the right direction.
Thanks for sharing.
Whenever I don’t get any ideas, I simply scan passerby’s expressions by standing on my balcony. As I live nearby buzzing road, l get the chance to a see a mix of a happy and sad bunch of people. The most hilarious are the telephonic conversations. Sometimes, people on phone forget they are walking on a busy road. As a result, they express they emote their extreme emotions without worrying about the surroundings. From small children to elderly citizens, I get the chance to read expressions by just standing on my balcony. At that time, I forget about any blocks (be it personal or related to my writing profession) and I completely immerse myself with their emotions. It may look absurd, but I feel relaxed by seeing the sea of emotions floating on people’s face.
Oh good one Yatin! I would say this one is like “Changing Up Your Physical Environment” because it gets your brain out of the monotonous environment you’re in and into a more creative and playful state.
It’s cool that works well for you :)
Love all the suggestions…But I’ve been getting into (again) something I got for free from Ramit Sethi’s mentor at Stanford – whose name I can’t recall right now – which was to form a tiny habit and grow it. So I make an agreement for a short period of time like so: “When I wash my hands in the bathroom, I will do 5 squats.” And whenever I do this, I have to give myself a little sign / reward. I usually do a corny fist bump with the air above my head.
So for writing, and trying to come up with a tiny habit, I’ve also taken to something that Norman Mailer (the writer) used to do. His assistant wrote a book that said every day before writing, Mailer would play a few rounds of solitaire to get his head right. And then he proceeded to go upstairs to write his arse off.
My habit has involved the dog. When I wash my hands in the sink (because god knows one should always wash hands after walking a dog), I go to my notebook and write out 3 images I got while walking. I always get pictures when I’m walking. Pen on paper. And once I’ve done that, I can sometimes switch over to the computer to continue writing, even if it’s a different subject. The hard part is if someone talks to me immediately after walking the dog. So I am considering another trigger.
Hmmmm, using a dog to combat Writer’s Block….now THAT’S a new one!
Awesome hacks as usual… I particularly love #8! And I totally love deep house music (jazz and latin house) too! I write to Pandora and YouTube mixes all the time.
Thanks Denise! I think #8 is getting the most attention :)
The Pandora Deep House radio also doubles as my background music when people are over, it’s great stuff!
Cool article Nevman.
When I can’t think of what to write about I usually set a timer for 5-10 minutes and use this time to brainstorm 10 ideas of what i can write about.
95% of the time (no joke) i get something good and motivating to write about.
I also took some notes while reading this article to give you some feedback if it interests you:
-I lol’d at the image you drew of a “writer’s block” you drew.
– transcribe sounds cool. Never thought of that.
– chemically altering your state: beer on a friday night post sounds cool. A beer can definitely make me loser and probably be a bit riskier in my writing which can often times be good.
– deephouse trick: i used to do this. I’d youtube a massive mix and zone out (lyric free of course)
– follow a writing prompt sounds cool and something i had never thought of.
– I like how you sneakily linked to Sumome in one of your examples! That’s a mad hack and i will steal.
– i like the idea of limiting your number of characters available to write a post as this will help to delete unnecessary junk and save only the best, as well as give you a stronger base to start writing.
– method 8. Stop being a lil biatch. Yeah awesome. So true haha, no better time to be alive than RIGHT NOW!!
Cool article man. Keep it real.
Jordan
Well I’m really glad you got something out of it Jordan :)
It seems like you add a constraint to start writing. You can also double-add another constraint like “I have to start writing in 10 minutes and the first sentence has to be “once upon a terrible time…””
That might poke your brain into thinking in a different way also!
Collect Your Stories
Your brain never stops so technically, which means Writer’s Block is more a fear symptom.
How do you break through the fear?
Collect your stories. Everytime you experience something that moves you towards an invigorating emotion record that moment immediately.
Do this when watching movies and TV. When walking down the street. Hanging with friends. Not oly will you become more mindful and present, but you’ll also be overwhelmed at how much fodder your life has. Even if you’re introverted homebody.
Use more than one tool to record. So pen & paper, cloud file, notebooke, etc. The more options you have the more likely you’ll do this in various contexts. I even have pen in paper in my car so I can pullover to record a story that moved me, usually based on the radio, traffic or car conversation.
Here’s my Evernote file for stories: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s537/sh/139ad37b-2a03-4b8f-8281-38c9d6303a12/57370e6d610d697089855bd35bc85ccc
When I’m ready to write, I think of the topic and then choose the best story to relate my topic for my reader. Since the story is so moving I know it all so well and it writes itself as well does the heavylifting of moving my reader like it moved me when I lived it.
Nice! Thank you Max :)
I keep a “Swipe file” on my computers and my phone that I constantly add things that make me go “hmmm”
Hi Nev
Wonderful Article, again. I liked the way you made me realize how lucky I am by having things my ancestor didn’t have. Yes, in this internet age, I can be everywhere and can learn anything.
Thanks for the reminder.
Best regards,
Waqar
Thank you Waqar! You literally have more access to information nowadays than the President Of The United States from just 20 years ago.
It’s amazing how many resources we have, yet many people don’t utilize them. They’re there for the taking :)
Clear clutter from your workspace, then close your eyes and imagine someone sitting at your desk opposite you. Out loud, tell that person what it is that you need to say. You might need to say it a few times to get it right, but when you do, write it down.
Then edit what you said.
Yup, this is much like what I do when I dictate into the phone. It’s such a great method!
Neville, my Mo is now jo’d ;-)
But are you OK with a PO on your JO without the GER?
Just took a shot of some weird sweet stuff that tastes like Goldschlager
and I’m going to write out 10 things I’m grateful for whenever I get the
dreaded “Writer’s Block”.
Here’s 10 RIGHT NOW:
1. I’m currently at home working in my Texas Rangers T-Shirt and
sweat pants.
2. I have A/C and it works PHENOMENALLY!
3. I have a beautiful girlfriend I get to have sex with, often :)
4. I have 20/15 vision when doctors predicted I’d be blind!
SIDE NOTE: I’m the only one in my fam that DOESN’t wear
glasses!
5. Les Internets at my disposal 24/7 son.
6. I know 2 languages (Spanish & English) by default. Thanks
for coming to the US mom and pops!
7. I can walk. I have a family member and know of other people
that don’t have this. BE GRATEFUL if your legs WORK.
8. I can type around 60 WPM, I used to suck ass at it.
9. I’m grateful for guacamole, oh heavens to Betsy I don’t know
what life would be like without it!
10. I’m thankful my Brosef Neville Medhora is a kick-ass kopywriter
that I can mimic. I LOVE your blog man, it’s the “tops” lol….
No Homo (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
BONUS:
“This one goes to 11”
11. I’m grateful for having food, a roof over my head
and hot water. Imagine ALWAYS having to take a cold
shower!
Love,
-Phil
P.S. Booze is kicking in, methinks it’s helping :)
BAHAHAH!! Goldschlager!
Love that you included: A top ten post, alcohol reference, and a Seinfeld joke. Totally worth the read :)
Glad you enjoyed it brah :)
I will write about something I’m interested in that no matter what level of energy I am in, or mood, I will write something about it. From that point, I will expand by googling information about it. There’s always some article that will get my attention or headline and from that point, I will tie into something that is associated with what I need to write about. For example, I am not interested in baseball. My day job requires me to know about baseball. Therefore, I picked the Boston Red Sox (I am a Hibernophile.) So, I take it from there…
http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/ticketing/irish_festival.jsp
Bahahha…..yeah it’s probably best you know a lot about baseball! I totally agree that thoroughly researching the subject will give you many different angles to write about it.
Thanks for sharing Lucia!
Hi Neville,
When I’m “creatively stuck” I do one of 3 things, but mostly, the first 2 will do the trick to get me going again. I either leave it “up” on the computer screen, make sure I can look at the screen from every angle and putter around the house. Literally looking at it from different viewpoints, most times will snap something into place and I’m “good to go”. If that doesn’t work, I will go for a walk, or a couple of hours zoo, just me and my thoughts, nothing to do but look around and be happy with what I see, and when I get back, I usually have a direction I haven’t thought of before. If neither of these work, I drudge thru websites for ideas. (Don’t like to do it, and thankfully very seldom have to)
I hope this helps :-)
Hugs,
Pauli
I like how you stick with the problem……sometimes just brute forcing the problem by spending a lot of time with it works. Other times getting AWAY from the problem is better :)
I get rid of the writers block with Google Analytics!
I just go to my blog, search over the most visited articles of the last year and find a path between them. If 3-4 have some in common I just find another keywords related to them, questions in forums or using BuzzSumo to find what can I write in depth from that topic.
Something easy: use your own content to beat the writers block!
Thanks Nevile!
PD: buying Kopywriting Kourse and Autoresponder Kourse, kmmmon!
Oh nice….very interesting method!
Hope you enjoy the KopywritingKourse and ARK!!!
Thank you for this and everything you write, Neville. Super helpful! Super entertaining.
Here’s my list of things that break me out of a funk:
1. Stop caring – “writer’s block” = too much emotional investment in the subject + perfectionism. I try to pretend that no one is ever gonna see my writing and I don’t care if it’s crap anyway.
2. The Anthony Trollope Method – seriously, Google this guy. He put his watch in front of him when he wrote and demanded that he produce 250 words every 15 minutes for 3 hours. He’d hit 3,000 words a morning before going off to his job as a postman (he even made those red postboxes in England). If he finished a novel and still had time on a clock, he’d just write THE END and start a new one. Crazy good productivity. This tip is similar to your constraint one.
3. Get in a REALLY good mood – Again, you’ve talked about this in your book and on this site. But it just plain works. Watch funny videos (e.g. Louis CK) before writing. Or you can tell really silly jokes to someone. Sometimes I will dress up in a nice shirt but only have my underwear on my bottom half. It’s hard to take yourself so seriously when you can see your pink boxers in your peripheral vision (just me?).
4. White Noise – Not the disclosure song. Literally get some white noise form YouTube and put some noise-cancelling headphones on.
5. Rewards – A piece of chocolate every 250 words is a good one. A line of cocaine is probably not.
Those are my tips. But seriously, on a list filled with AWESOME tips, the best tip here really is to stop being a little bitch and just do it.
Thank you again, Nev!
P.S. I’m having so much fun with that website editing tool. I teach English on the side and I’m gonna use it with my students. It will be a hilarious way to learn a language!
Fantastic (and possibly NevBox-worthy) list of suggestions Ben!
I’m so glad I don’t eat a piece of chocolate every 250 words…..the post I’m working on now is 4,000 words = 16 pieces of chocolate!
Very glad you liked the edit any website tool…..I personally use it all the time!
Thank you, Nev. I am super curious about the NevBox. It looks damn awesome.
As for the chocolate method, your concern is so valid. I’ve ended up eating whole slabs of Milka chocolate this way! Very dangerous combined with sitting for long periods of time haha!
Being reminded of method #8 is super helpful. I’d probably be on some farm in a 3rd world country if my parents didn’t take action and move to the States. Here I am procrastinating my ass off. Better get back to work!
GET BACK TO WORK!
It is funny to think of how much more work it was for our parents to immigrate here than it was for us to easily grow up here.
I take my dogs for a walk.
Whatever the weather, getting outside creates a break and a stimulating change from the environment. Doesn’t matter if it’s a cold wind in winter, rain soaking through my shirt, or radiant warmth from summer’s sun; a walk outside is guaranteed to get me out of my own head and allow room for creative thought to flourish.
And my dogs really appreciate it.
Dogs = awesome. You might see by my next post that I’m also obsessed :)
Cool you help them have fun, and they help you be creative. Definitely man’s best friend!
Number 8 made me smile. No joke. Go get out the country, huh? Went to Haiti back in ’13 and will never look at things the same way. Go to a place where there’s no escape from the aroma of burning trash… then [number 8]
I love a good mind map. I’ll open MindNode (Mac and iOS) and get to popping in all sorts of ideas. It’s a way to “feel okay” about one’s ADHD. Just open, plop ideas… stand back and look, drag ’em around and reconnect/rearrange them.
Mind maps have become a little like a “pretty” color-coded Excel file, knowwhatimean? Ya stand back and look… they become a thing of beauty! :-)
YES! I sometimes find it hilarious about the things I “complain” about in my life as if it’s really hard. Then I remember how good I have it compared to the past, and even compared to other people in the country….and I get back to work :)
Mind Mapping seems to be a super common theme here, might have to draw it and list it here. Thanks Drew!
Here’s what I do as a preventive measure against writers block. This method is especially helpful if what I’m writing involves lots of referencing notes or outside facts…
I try to keep left brain activities separate from right brain activities.
Basically, I do all my structuring, outlining, research and note taking (left brain stuff) before I start writing. That way when it’s time to let the words flow, everything is set up and I can focus all my energy on the creative aspect of writing (right brain stuff). Now, I’m no neuroscientist, but I feel like I’m onto something here.
I use Gingko App for most of my writing, and it works perfectly with my method, especially for research-heavy writing. It uses a tree layout with movable cards, and I like it because I can keep all my notes and reference material in cards right next to the cards that I’m using for writing. Kind of hard to explain, makes sense when you see it. The main benefit is that you can keep everything within one browser window, eliminating the need to toggle between tabs which always throws me off and slows me down which could lead to writer block.
Great read, Neville!
— Niklas
Thanks for sharing Niklas! It’s super cool to see how different people structure their work from others :)
Forgot to link to the writer’s block app.
You don’t even need to install it. It’s a portable exe file and less than 1 MB download.
Nice suggestion, thank you Raspal.
I love #2. I use the Writer’s block app for this. It works great because it doesn’t allow me to do anything, ANYTHING else other than typing in the editor, for the time I specify or till I have typed the no. of words I specified.
I also like #4 but I like it better to go out with my lappy or even better with a notebook and pen, sit in a park or library and type there.
I like your #7. We all forget to be grateful for what we get.
I had published a post about 21 ways to get post ideas for your blog.
There’s another old list post in which I linked to posts which give headline or post ideas – they were more than 2500 in all. Here’s the link, if it helps anyone.
Nev, absolute baller post as always.
I’ve been a freelance writer for the past 6 months, and I’ve had to ghostwrite a 70,000 word book under deadline.
So….let’s just say me and writers block have tangoed a few times.
Here are two strategies I’ve found to be instant K.O’s against writers block:
1.) Have a frikking outline.
Writing down an outline before you write seriously helps kill writers block. It might just be a list of ideas, but if you spend 5 minutes on working the outline, the piece will almost write itself. You’ll see how it all fits together, and your brain will start cooking before you put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).
2.) Just Write. Doesn’t Matter. What. Just Physically Write.
This one is simple. It’s something I picked up from doing morning pages everyday. When your stuck, just sit there and doodle. Write about why your procrastinating. Write about that girl your thinking of. Just fucking write. Get into the act, and then the ideas for your article will come and you can start writing on that. The beauty about word processors is you can delete all that garbage you initially wrote to get the “writing engine” going.
A few bonuses from actual accomplished writers:
– Ayn Rand used to just sit at her writing desk, no matter what, when she got writer’s block. She could be found playing solitaire or doodling, but she wouldn’t get up from her desk until she’d hit her writing quota.
– Voltaire liked to work in bed. He would spend his mornings in bed, reading and then dictating his work to his secretaries. This would happen until noon, when he would get dressed and receive visitors.
– Morton Feldman, the composer, used to copy his half formed compositions as a form of creative exercise, “It’s a very good idea that after you write a little bit, stop and then copy it. Because while you’re copying it, you’re thinking about it, and it’s giving you other ideas.”
These were from Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. A book I highly highly recommend to anyone engaging in any kind of creative work and have to deal with the daily battle of procrastination.
Awesome suggestions David! I think the outline is the best thing, and has been mentioned a ton of times in the comments. Pretty sure I’m going add that one into the article!
Possibly NevBox-worthy post David!
Aww yeaaahh.
I find that PLAY is one of my powerful block-busters. That can mean finding a park with swings somewhere nearby, or taking my pup out to throw a ball around. It can mean grabbing finger paints or Play-Doh and going nuts. It can even sometimes be a silly iPhone game. But breaking up the uber-serious “I have to write something important” mindset is crucial for me to get the creativity flowing once more. And if I’m taking myself WAY too seriously, I text a friend for an ice cream date and talk through it out loud.
Yup! Changing up your physical environment is a fantastic way to get the creativeness flowing :)
One of my professors used to say there was no such thing as writer’s block — your expectations are just too high. All you have to do is lower your expectations about what you’re about to write. Rather than trying to think of the best most amazing description to write, you just start typing. Eventually, you get everything written down and then it’s just a matter of improving what you’ve written, which is usually easier and less daunting than staring at a blank page.
This has helped me a TON in trying to get ad copy written or content done for presentations and landing pages. I just start writing short, curt sentences and then work on improving it later.
Hahaha, that’s a good way of putting! If you don’t mind writing crap, you’ll put SOMETHING out! I think starting is the hardest part for some people, so that suggestion is great.
I like researching the topic a lot and coming up with lots of ideas.
Thanks Andrew!
I read somewhere that if you can do something for 8-11 minutes, you’re likely to keep on going until you’re done.
So, I tell myself “Self, you only need to write for 11 minutes.” The odd thing is that I usually end up writing for much longer than that. Not every single time, but more often than not. So it’s in the arsenal.
Yup, that’s suggestion #6 of making a constraint…it works super well! Especially if you call a friend and tell them your deadline so you now have social pressure also.
I do the voice memo thing BUT I have to be walking outside before it yields any kind of presentable result (if I’m not walking, I just sound like a babbling ninny). In a pinch, I use voice memo but have the conversation with my dog – he loves everything I say so it’s always encouraging.
And when all else fails, I get up and go take a shower because for some reason that act tells my psyche that it’s time to work (must be left over programming from my pre-entrepreneur days).
That’s all I’ve got and one of these will usually work.
TALKING TO A DOG!! That should definitely be on the list :-P
And yes, for some reason showering is great for ideas. I have one of those waterproof Shower Notepads on my shower wall, it works great!!!
Thanks for the suggestions Debbie
I’ve found coffee naps works great for me! Drink some coffee then immediately take a 20 minute power nap. By the time you wake up you’ll feel refreshed from the nap and energized form the caffeine.
Oh yeah I’ve seen this mentioned my Tim Ferriss I believe. I tried this, but I think the caffeine hits me REALLY QUICK and I can never quite fall asleep :)
Just write bad crap. I like http://www.themostdangerouswritingapp.com/ they will erase everything if you stop writing in the time limit. So, if I am having trouble I just start a 5 min timer in there and just keep writing – even if I am just writing “I don’t know what to write so….” and then normally it gets me out a funk in the 5 mins and I can move on with real writing.
Bahaha, love it! It’s like it holds your copy hostage :-)
Thanks for the suggestion Jaquelyn! (it took me like 4 tries to spell your name correctly)
#8,im in a recovery house right now, i have to write, this one is a great motivator for me,actually most of the list,thanks Neville
HA! That really is the best way to start writing…..it has the least amount of “tactics”…but it DOES work :)
I go for a walk (except right now when the wind and snow are heavy). Walking always gets my mind flowing. Of course, I make sure I have my phone for dictating the incredible ideas LOL
Yup yup! Physically altering your state of mind is definitely a fantastic cure for Writer’s Block.
2 Steps to Annihilating Writers Block
1. “There’s no such thing as writers block. Its just a symptom of laziness during the research phase.” I heard that from Clayton Make peace years ago and it still holds true. Copy and paste every thing relevant you can find into one big ass document.
2. Get yourself a big ass dry erase board and create mind maps on the surface topics you came up with the data dump in step 1. Break down the idea into sub ideas and keep branching. Be sure to keep each branch focused on just one core idea. Also, don’t cheat and do it on the computer… Free writing by hand has magical powers.
BAM writers block has been destroyed. You now have topics and substance for your writing project ☺
1.) bahahaha, kinda true! I also think it might be a function of not knowing enough about a subject. That’s why reading others materials or doing some research will usually snap you right out of a writing funk.
2.) Mind Mapping is one of the items I need to put in this article. I personally don’t always use it in the traditional form, but I jot down ideas in a similar manner.
Thanks for the suggestions Ronnie! Possibly a Nevbox-worthy comment :)
Great Post Nev, Thanks!
I’ve used a lot of these but the best I have found for myself is a really intense 5 minute workout.
This stimulates a powerful hormonal response and every once in awhile I do my 5 minutes and it’s not enough.
Then I grab some material research and browse it on my rest times for 30 seconds and do another 5 minute workout.
Lift Life!
Interesting it’s like you’re doing a physical AND mental workout :)
All good ideas and even more in the comments. What works for one person may not work for another especially my method. Whenever I get stuck I fire up a cigar, crank up the volume of some classic rock to where I am sure neighbors two doors away can hear it (none complained yet). For some reason the ideas start coming and before I know it words magically appear. Crazy but works for me. Maybe a variation for others might be listening to mood music on low volume while a purring cat sits nearby. I’ll stick to my method which reminds me I need to buy more cigars.
BAHAHAHAHA!!!! Sounds like YOUR way of getting rid of writer’s block is pretty awesome :)
If I’m at home and trying to write, I actually like distracting myself by pickup one of my guitars or trying to learn something new on the piano. Even my iPad has a ton of apps installed that play music.
Was originally going to write one of the methods as “Jam on an instrument”….but I know a lot of people can’t do that one. Thanks for sharing Bob!!
Just write without predjudice. Doesn’t matter if it’s related to what you wanted to write about, just get the fingers and brain attached and go. Best – write a series of headlines then sub-headlines, then a sentence about each, jumping back and forth as inspiration strikes. Heck, I’ve written books that way!
Regards,
Steven
I think you said my Method #8 much more eloquently than I did :-P
Unlike the others who commented, meditation and pomodoro don’t really work for me when I have a writer’s block. What works is to get up and do the laundry, the dishes or vacuuming. Something boring and physical where you don’t need to think or be in front of the computer.
Hey Arnaud, I agree with you. I’ve used those in the past, but just cleaning my mind with mindless something-else-than-work always helps me also.
We’re Writer’s Block Twins!
I really liked this post, Neville. I’m one big essay edit away from a book contract and have been struggling with writer’s block for the first time in my life. A lot is riding on this so here is what I am doing to be proactive:
1. Read other people’s stuff that inspires me. It’s a bit different than copying someone else. I read or watch something that makes me want to be a better writer and inspires creativity. Sometimes it is a great short story or a video of say, Jaco Pastorius or a good dance company performance. Thats what works for me. What works to inspire your creativity?
2. I sit down to work before doing anything but eating breakfast. Give myself two hours. If the work is crap today, that’s okay….it is something to build off of when I come back to it. It will ALWAYS get better if you keep at it.
Oh snap, good luck on your book contract (that rhymed)!
Definitely reading other people’s stuff is great, that’s what I meant by “copying someone else”…..perhaps I didn’t really clarify that.
I think you might wanna try jotting down a bunch of random notes and ideas, then elaborating on them LATER. I have a giant file of ideas for articles that I keep, and am constantly adding them.
From this list most of the ideas either suck or are repetitive, but out of 100 ideas, about 10 of them will be pretty good. This might be a good technique for you to use, so you can only put the best-of-the-best ideas in your upcoming book!
Give myself a timer for 10-15 minutes to just write and keep going until the clock runs out.
If I’m REALLY stuck, I will spend the time writing about having writer’s block. At least I’m certain there’s something to write about!
A good hack for me is to do this writing longhand–sometimes staring into the blank screen really messes with my head. I don’t know a situation where I haven’t been able to get something out even if it’s not amazing.
The majority of the time I can work on what I want to work on after this 10-15 minutes, but worst case–if it was very painful–I just stop and take a break. It’s always easier to get started again after having forced myself.
Yup, that’s a constraint! I love putting those on myself to make me finish up the article quickly.
Bahahaha, I think it’s funny you actually writer ABOUT Writer’s Block to get OVER Writer’s Block. Sounds really meta :)
Thank you for sharing Rowan!
Not my original idea (I heard it on a podcast, think it was Tim F’s Seth Godin interview) but just start writing about something you hate. No matter how bad the block, if I start thinking about something that annoys me I can go on a tear. Wake me up at 4am with a baseball bat to the jaw and I could still do a 10 minute rant on flavored coffee.
Bahahaha…..that’s a new one :)
AND WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST FLAVORED COFFEE??!!?
1- wakeup
2- drink 500ml water
3- coffe (no sugar)
4- run for 2 min
5- thank me later xD
1- Sounds good.
2- Thank you PJ :)
Hey Neville,
Awesome list!
Here’s the only one I would include into your list…
If you have writer’s block – STOP WRITING (for just a bit).
Get up from the desk, go into nature, go for a swim and get away from screens for a while.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been stuck on copy and gone outside for a walk, then come back and the copy just wrote itself.
Nice Will!
I would classify this one under “Change Your Physical Environment.” I originally wanted to put “go for a run” or something, but then I would have to make a million other sections for “go for a bike ride” and “Do some push-ups.”
You’re right though, pausing work and doing some physical activity is one of the greatest ways to drum up ideas!
Hi Neville
`the best method I have for clearing the mental block is just to write with a pen or pencil. Don’t use any punctuation and write whatever comes into your head, free flow. % minutes like this usually clears the brain.
Another way is to take a pen in the hand you normally don’t write in and try writing your name address or anything you can think of. The concentration of forming the letters seems to dispell all other thoughts
Hmmmm…..a couple of people have mentioned this, perhaps it deserves to go in the article?
I definitely grab most of my ideas with a pen/paper originally (although actually now I’ve transitioned to just writing on my iPad Pro)……definitely in consideration!
Great post thanks Neville. Particularly like (and agree with) the recommendation for a little alcohol to get the creativity flowing – very risqué but totally true! Hope you don’t get sued by some anti-booze Christian group or something.
Anyway my top tips for the mix:
– distraction free: turn off or bar all phones/e-mails/social media
– change of environment: go to a public library, or go to someone’s holiday home for a day or two and just get stuck in
– Just Start: be absolutely ruthless, just start the writing for 5 minutes, anything: much easier to continue than to start
– Do a Hemingway: you can do whatever else you want as long as you write between 7am and noon every day.
bahahaha…I’m sure some people will not like the alcohol suggestion. I obviously don’t condone it ALL the time (it’s 10:20am as I write this and I’m totally NOT in the mood for anything with alcohol, but maybe on a Friday evening……)
I like the Hemingway idea! Kind reminds me of the “Stop Being A Little Bitch About It” mentioned in #8….where no matter what you just got stamp some words out.
Thanks for letting me know!
My thing to do when I’m completely overcome by writers block – I usually grab a small bag of Oreos and some milk and I play act out the scene that I’m trying to write. Sometimes it’s something out of Star Wars, sometimes it’s an episode of Star Trek, sometimes it’s a scene from a corporate boardroom, like I’m trying to pitch it to a Fortune 500 company. It really helps me look at my writing from a different perpective and usually makes writer’s block go away.
Now THAT is a super-unique method! What shall we call it? The “Play With Oreo’s Technique” ?? :-P
I rarely get writer’s block, but when I do, one or more of these 4 boring and common-sense things helps me get unstuck:
1. I stop writing mid-sentence, or I just jot down 2-3 things I need to write about. Then I go do something with my hands: cook, wash the dishes, etc. Then I get back and see if that helped (usually does). Similar to physically altering your state of mind.
2. I open up my email and start a fresh email to a friend, where I explain what I’m writing about. This feels like a much easier / lower-pressure way to make words flow than properly “sitting down to write”. Very much like dictating into a phone.
(If I remember correctly, that’s similar to how Tim Ferriss wrote 4-Hour Workweek)
3. Instead of starting from the beginning, I try to write from the middle, or the end, or some other pivotal point in the copy. E.g. if I know I’m gonna need to manage objections at some point in the piece (and if it’s sales copy, you bet your ass I will!), this is exactly what I start with.
4. 9 times out of 10, I just use an app that doesn’t let me quit or alt-tab until I’m done writing X words, or for X minutes (aptly called ‘Writer’s Block’) -> I’m not sure if links are allowed, but you can google “writer’s block app” and it will come up.
Honestly, though, the best way to avoid writer’s block is to have an outline ready. Not just talking points, but pics / quotes / facts and figures / ‘hooks’ everything you need in advance. More often than not, it takes care of the problem. Writer’s block is just another word for “holy shit I didn’t put enough thought into this”. :)
P.S. And yeah, alcohol helps a lot — I sip good Scotch when I do creative writing, which I still find ridiculously hard. Just never edit anything when you’re drunk — use it for inspiration only. ;)
Nice NevBox-Worthy list Oleg!
I’ll have to try this Writer’s Block app…..I know there’s a lot of apps like that, but I personally just need to maximize the window on a notepad-like app and get the same effect.
I think I’m going to add the outline method here. I kind of rolled that into the “use a formula” method but I think it might warrant it’s very own section in this article. Thanks again Oleg!!
I’ve already won a NevBox from you, Neville. :) So maybe let someone else have it this time.
> I know there’s a lot of apps like that, but I personally just need to maximize the window on a notepad-like app and get the same effect.
That’s pretty much what it does. You can even disable copy-paste, Delete, and Backspace, to have a properly “free-flow” writing. :) #1 thing I don’t like about it is that the word count feature seems inaccurate.
> I think I’m going to add the outline method here.
I was surprised you didn’t have it on the list, actually. :) What with your love of AIDA and all.
I do an intense workout then take a long hot shower. Works every time.
Physical Activity + Physically Changing Your Environment = Works all the time :)
Great list.
The most effective way for me to work through what it is I actually want to say in my writing is to try explaining it to someone else in conversation. I find teaching to be the best way of learning because it becomes obvious to you very quickly whether you really have a good grasp of the concept you want to explain. If you can’t answer a question the other person has or you stumble to explain a certain element, you know to go back and polish up. If you explain it well, you can normally write it well, too.
I also love using the pomodoro method (hence agree with you time constraint suggestion). I heard about it years ago but only starting using it recently and it has been life-changing! Talk about addictive.
That’s a great way…..I would include that in the “Talk to Siri” method #1 I wrote. I usually tell people to “explain the product like you’re sitting in a restaurant booth with a friend.”
This Pomodoro Technique has been getting a lot of attention recently, I hear about it all the time now!
Me hitting writer’s block. Me running to the bed. Me dozing off. Yeah I literally sleep. My golden period is early morning. So I wake in the morning around 4-5 am and get the laptop out. If ideas still don’t come out, I listen to podcasts, it is great for two reasons. Number 1, you are just listening (preferably with your eyes closed) and someone else’s research is going into your mind and helping you form your opinions. Number 2, they are real conversations, it is like a person talking to you – so the tone and voice are spot on. ;) Try this people, it works. Oh btw Nev – I listen to your landing page critiques on Youtube the same way. And did I say I love em? ;)
4am….geez, you must be a REALLY REALLY early riser!
That’s a great idea……I’ve never used podcasts specifically to get over Writer’s Block, but I do get TONS OF IDEEAS after listening to a good podcast, so I can def see how it works.
Thanks Tavleen, and glad you like those YouTube critiques, I may have to do more soon. Possibly a NevBox-worthy suggestion!
Hello Neville,
How do you come up with your animated images. they look peculiar to only you and funny. Some of the most effective ways I kill writers block is to go to the bestsellers on Amazon.com in whatever niche I want to work in and get inspiration from there.
Another thing that has really worked for me in killing writer’s block is I keep a swipe files of killer openings and closings I come across for any article I found interesting. So, whenever I feel like coming up with something unique and I don’t want to use that first method, I just pop into it and start writing.
Ohhhhhhh good idea, the swipe file! I always talk about the importance (I guess so does every other copywriter on the planet), and totally forgot to include that one!
THANK YOU! Perhaps a NevBox-worthy-suggestion Olajide.
My images are made on a tablet, then I Photoshop them from there.
Explain everything you know about the topic to a friend.
Boil your writing down to the length of a tweet (requires you to know exactly what you want to say)
Find an article/essay/ad you like and copy it, filling in your ideas (don’t plagiarize though)
List all the things you’d like to know about your topic in questions, then look up and answer those questions
Open up gmail and pretend you are writing to a friend about the topic you have writers block on. Tell them about the writing and what it will look like when it’s done.
Draw a picture of the structure of your writing.
Switch from typing to hand writing or vice versa
Check the comments section of Neville’s post on writers block!
Daaammnnn! Gerard shows up with his own list!!
I like the “Draw a picture of the structure you’re writing.” I think that one goes along the lines of making a quick outline so you know what order to write in. Thank you Gerard!
Great article, Neville. I love your DISTRACTION FREE WRITING ZONE…Taking that a step further… I make sure my working space (desk) is free from clutter. No mail piles or more than ONE coffee mug that I’m actually using. Then, to take it a step further…clearing up the whole ROOM can work miracles. As does adding a nice sized green plant or vase of flowers to the now CLEAN SPACE. Ah….
YEAH! I love doing that too and having a clean space!
The reason I didn’t put that there is a lot of people actually have no problem working in a cluttered space. I personally don’t get it because I love a clean workspace just like you!
Hi Nev,
Writer’s Block has always been gnawing at my very existence. Even now when I was browsing 9gag and occasionally refreshing my inbox, your mail knocked me out!
Meditating seems to be a good one to start because I have been feeling overwhelmed with all the information overload recently.
Haha you rocked with the last one! Will try it out!
Have a great week ahead!
-Swadhin
GOOD! These tactics are essentially just tactics to be more productive. If you’re browsing sites like Digg, Reddit, of 9gag….you might wanna use an app called Self Control. I personally use that to disable all the distracting websites on my computer for a certain period of time.
Works super well!
Your article is hilarious, as always :). Wait…that didn’t come out right. I mean hilarious in a GOOD way ;). I basically suck at writing so my method is very simple. It’s called the “Wait until the absolute last minute when you have no choice BUT to put something on paper” method. That’s usually when I stop giving a damn if what I put on paper is good enough and stop caring about what people will think of me.
Cheers!
I always thinks hilarious = good…..so you’re fine :)
I think most people (including me) are like you in that they wait till the last minute. HOWEVER, I can’t include that as an actual strategy because that happens anyway.
Method #7: Make A Constrant might actually work really well for you!
But then there’s the issue of getting yourself to BELIEVE your constraint (especially when it’s time-related)…
Damn good stuff, Neville! I LOL’d at #8 but holy crap, some people need to shut up and get on with it.
The most effective thing I’ve found for overcoming any sort of mental block is somewhat similar to #4. But rather than just changing up the environment, the key element for me has been to do something repetitive. Something that literally requires no thinking and can be done completely on auto pilot.
For example, if I’m stuck for content ideas I’ll quickly blast myself with information. See what others are doing, run a search in BuzzSumo, maybe a keyword research tool – then step away entirely and do something else.
Then my subconscious starts working out ideas. Some of my most inspired content ideas have been thought up while making a sandwich or eating a yoghurt.
If I’ve got the content idea but can’t figure out where to start, I’ll do some quick research on the topic then repeat the same process.
Bahahaha….I’m glad you laughed! I knew that one would cause a bit of cringing in some people, but the point WAS to be very blunt about it.
Interesting, I never thought about doing something repetitive. It’s so interesting to hear the different ways everyone works!
Been following to some of mentioned methods for a while. I believe that these methods could be ranked similar to Maslows hierarchy levels, bcs for me, when copywriting, the physical part (atmosphere, earplugs, quick exercise, power nap etc.) comes first to actually start using all other methods… and Not Being A Little Bitch most likely is the last one on the list (lack of gratitude when dealing with overload or unpleasant orders).
Btw, have you discovered the “magic hours” throughout the 24h day, that builds a pleasurable & healthy routine, whilst still getting everything done before deadline knocks on the door?
Hey Ansis, I think my “Magic Hours” through the day actually vary quite a bit depending on the day.
Sometimes I’m bright and bushy, and words flow through my fingers quickly in the early morning. Other times it isn’t until after procrastinating for a few hours do I get in the mood.
Essentially it’s whenever my mind is at it’s most playful that I get the best writing done :)
Dope list. I’ve started meditating recently and it’s been helpful for getting out of a brain funk. Still trying to find out the best method for myself. Would love to hear recommendations from others.
I was almost positive someone was gonna mention meditation! Perhaps I should add that one in there :)
It’s a relatively common way to clear your mind and get back to work!
I especially loved don’t be a little b. Sometimes it’s hard when you’ve developed so much resistance. You know you have it good but you’ve tricked your mind. Procrastination or a block for me is when something isn’t quite fleshed out- either I know it or it’s more subtle.
Here’s the simplest thing I do that works.
I keep a rubicks cube at my desk and when I’m stuck I try to solve it to work another part of my mind. After a while, maybe it’s the click of the cube, I realize the cube is harder than I thought, and I’d much rather write.
At this point, I write in bear bones outline form – like the quickest thing possible as if my life depended on it being done. I take a breath and stand up.
I started.
When I sit back down, all I need to do is make it better (knowing there’s a song and dance e.g. Drafts and Revisions)
Best,
Tina Shah