Welcome to the second installment of our blog series Reigniting Your Creative Self’. In today’s post, we’ll be discussing ways to find inspiration and offer a useful guide for those days in which your creative self is lacking vision or motivation.
So, what is inspiration?
Inspiration refers to the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, particularly of a creative nature.
It is important to note that inspiration is completely unique to each person and is sparked differently for each individual. Some people may look at a Da Vinci piece of art and feel their neurons firing away – whilst others may need a little more hands on approach in order to find their inspiration.
You might need to try a few methods before your creative self is inspired, so here is our top list of 7 things that you can do to find that #inspo (oh, and they won’t require a costly trip across the globe to the Louvre either!)
Words: Yaren Ugur
7 things you can do at home to find inspiration
1. Change up your day to day routine
Humans are totally creatures of habit – but sometimes these habits can be limiting when it comes to finding inspiration. Make note of the current routine you have and see if you can adjust or shuffle your day around, to give yourself some time to have a break in between tasks! This will allow you to get up, stretch your legs, and perhaps look at something other than your computer screen.
Try out these easy ways to switch up your day:
- Rather than starting your day off with your usual coffee, opt for a glass of water with lemon. We know this might be a difficult habit to break for all you coffee fiends out there, but trust us – lemon water has a number of benefits and tastes really delicious too!
- Wake up earlier! Waking up early gives you a head start on your day and enhances your productivity, so you can enjoy that afternoon sun later on.
- Enjoy your lunch break outside instead of at the computer desk. This enables you to create a barrier between your work space and your ‘play’ or downtime space.
2. Find a healthy work-life balance
Too often we find that work becomes a priority in our lives, which can often leave us feeling stressed, demotivated, and uninspired within our day to day. Finding a healthy work-life balance is crucial in maintaining a flow of creativity and inspiration.
Setting boundaries is really important, and your working hours should reflect this! It can be as easy as putting away your laptop at 5.30pm, or putting your phone on ‘do not disturb’ to avoid responding to work related emails or texts.
As small business owners, we understand the need to wear ‘all hats.’ Many often need to do all the admin and accounting themselves, the social media, marketing, actual client work and general management of staff and workflow. Thankfully, you don’t need to do it all if you’re in a position to outsource some tasks. Outsourcing will allow you to share the workload and switch off from your business when you need it most.
This is exactly why the team at Content Savvy exists – to help you take control of your social media or copywriting when you don’t have the capacity to do so. Taking a break from the work hustle and bustle will enable your mind to take a breather – allowing it to refresh and spark new creative thoughts and ideas during your much needed ‘me time.’
3. Listen to a new playlist
Chucking on our headphones, and listening to some chill beats is definitely one of our favourite ways to unwind after a long day of work. But if you’re anything like us, you’ll listen to the same playlist over and over again – until you’re eventually sick and tired of every song on there. This is a surefast way to feel irritated and lack inspiration.
A really simple way that you can get inspired is by listening to other people’s playlists – Spotify is really great for this! You can explore other playlists, genres and even share your own library of tunes as well.
Try swapping playlists with a friend or colleague and explore different tastes and genres.
4. Use social media for the good – not just for mindlessly scrolling into the abyss!
They say that social media is the enemy of productivity, and when it comes to procrastination it really can be distracting. Having said this, social media really does have so many benefits. it brings people from far and near closer together, and helps build a community of like minded individuals.
If you’re finding social media demotivating, you need to start using it for the good!
How?
Well firstly, it’s so important to curate an Instagram feed that is relevant, and inspiring to you, you can do this easily by refining your following list!
You can also use social media to find inspiration by:
- Connecting with others in your niche
- Finding information you wouldn’t find otherwise
- Taking inspiration from other stories similar to yours / or stories which tell a new narrative that you weren’t aware of prior
- Discover trending topics/ideas
- Following accounts that resonate with you
- Seeing images which spark your inner creative
5. Create a mood board – Pinterest
For those of you who aren’t already aware, Pinterest is THE place for visual discovery! It’s a fantastic tool for finding ideas for recipes, home decor, personal style, and all sorts of inspiration. It’s basically a creative’s Mecca – and acts as a virtual mood board that you can always have access to via your phone or computer.
Pinterest is really fantastic because you can curate a ‘Home Feed’, that shows you pins (posts), people and brands that you’ll love which is based on your recent activity! There is also a search function on Pinterest, that allows you to look up anything and everything and find posts related to whatever you are looking for.
Not only can you curate an awesome home feed, but you can actually categorise and save pins to different boards, and arrange them on your profile! Pinterest also allows you to share and invite other people to see and collaborate on a board – perfect for sharing with others in your workplace.
6. Read trade publications and magazines relevant to your industry
Trade publications are basically publications that have been written for specific audiences with specific industries or interests in mind.
These types of media exist because people enjoy exploring their hobbies, occupations or industries further, and learning how to best stay current regarding the latest trends in their field.
You can gain a bunch of really useful information from publications including:
- Current events or new events relating to the industry
- Informative/investigative articles that are well researched
- Advice from industry experts
- Interviews with industry leaders, and those at the top of their trade
Not only can you benefit from these publications by learning heaps of new info, but they can also provide you with opportunities to interact with others within your industry and create vital networking opportunities!
7. Give journaling a try!
Stephan Covey – the author of ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ says that:
‘Keeping a personal journal, a daily in-depth analysis and evaluation of your experiences is a high-leverage activity that increases self-awareness and enhances all the endowments and the synergy among them.’
Journaling is a fantastic way to get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper. If done consistently and effectively, it can really impact all aspects of your life – including sparking your inspiration.
If you struggle to think of what to write – start by writing the small details of your day, or even list down 3 things that you are grateful for, or write about people in your life and how they inspire you.
Find your inspiration!
Finding inspiration is a really personal journey, and it can often be found in the most unlikely of places. We hope that after reading these tips, you are now feeling those inspirational neurons firing away and fueling your creative potential.
If you have any questions on how you can translate this inspiration and creativity on your socials, feel free to get in contact with us for a 1:1 consult, or Instagram audit, so that we can give you an abundance of inspiration to get you started!
Leave a Reply