We spend a good portion of our days worrying about nothing but work issues. For some of us, those issues don’t go away when we clock out for the day.
If you have a creative hobby such as drawing, creating music, or woodworking, it can be difficult to get into the right headspace for those activities when your mind is preoccupied. Work and stress shouldn’t take over every minute of your day. That’s why we’ve come up with a few tips for switching to a creative mindset so you can enjoy yourself during your free time.
Change Your Environment
The environment we place ourselves in has a large impact on how our brains work. Trying to be creative in the same area that you do work in may not be conducive. Putting yourself in different surroundings—such as going outside when you make art or writing music in a rental studio can help your mind realize it’s time to create. Even just moving to a different room of your house can give this effect.
Allow for Downtime In Between
It’s difficult to make your brain go from work mode to creative mode in an instant. Know that it’s okay to take a little bit of downtime in between to reset yourself. Our minds, just like our bodies, need time to recuperate. Pushing past what you can handle at one time will only stress you out more and make creativity that much harder to grab hold of.
Move Your Body To Move Your Mind
Our bodies and minds are inextricably linked. Sometimes if you want to get your mind moving, you need to get your body moving. Especially after a long, sedentary day at work, it can be beneficial to get your blood pumping. This doesn’t just push more blood to your muscles but to your brain as well, allowing you to think a little faster and more clearly.
Reduce or Remove Screen Time
In this day and age, it can be very easy to simply drift away looking at our phones or computer screens for hours at a time. This kind of behavior is toxic when it comes to creativity. Endlessly scrolling or watching shows doesn’t stimulate your mind in the way that it needs to get your creative juices flowing. Limiting the time that you spend looking at screens can be a good start towards getting your creativity back.
Start Even When Unmotivated
One of the best tips for switching to a creative mindset is to get started even when you don’t really feel like it. It can be difficult, but if you can push past that first barrier, you’ll find that motivation comes much easier. Once you’ve started, you won’t want to stop and interrupt your flow, which is a crucial element of creativity. Just tell yourself that you’ll do one small thing creatively and see how you feel afterwards. You’ll usually want to keep going.