10 Innovative Ways To Get Yourself Out of a Mindblock
We all have great ideas, but finding them is the difficult part. When you can’t think of an article to write, a way to attract more readers, or the next chapter of your book, you’re suffering from a mind block. What do I do, is the question you might ask yourself. It is important to get you thinking, get your mind in motion. Here are ten steps to keep you innovating.
1. Newspapers/Magazines
Pick up a few newspapers and magazines and start flipping through pages. Search everything including advertisements and classifieds. Read the articles that are really interesting. The New York Post always offers an odd article and their cartoons are great. Cartoons can even help you relate to something and come up with an idea.
2. Blogs
There is pretty much a blog on everything. Search blogs similar to the content you offer. Read the RSS feeds of your favorite blogs. Maybe find a new blog in a completely different field. All these will help you create ideas.
3. Books
Read something. Learn about something you never knew about. Getting knowledge on a new subject will create a lot of opportunities.
4. Music
Insert the mixtape that you love and groove to. Music is motivational, inspirational and symbolic. If you don’t think of something while you’re listening and bopping your head, you might learn something within the lyrics.
5. Phone a friend
Call someone you can talk to and also listen to. Ask them about problems they have been facing or if they have anything exciting to talk about. They might say one thing and it will click for you.
6. Ask the audience
This is starting to sound like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire! In all serious though, ask your audience. Bloggers, write a post asking the readers what they want to see from you. Ask for feedback. Let them know what you want to do and ask for ideas. Remember that the readers are the one’s keeping you going, so they will love that.
7. Go for a walk
Fresh air is a beautiful thing. Take deep breaths of it. Get your blood flowing and the ideas will come too.
8. Meditate
Just relax and let go. Go to another place. Come back once that innovation wakes you up.
9. Eat
Mmm…cheeseburger and french fries. According to The Thinking Business, proteins and carbohydrates are essential in business. They explain that carbohydrates leave you feeling “calm and relaxed” and proteins “improve mental performance”. After a good meal, your brain will be back on track.
10. Get your mind off it completely
If nothing seems to be working for you, it might be because you give yourself no down time. You give your work time, but you don’t give yourself time. YOU time is extremely important because it gets your mind off your work. You have been working so hard being innovative that you exhausted your resources. Go to the movies, play a sport, watch some movies, and then when you return to your work the next day you will feel refreshed and ready to exhaust yourself again.
You know what to do now. You have ten ways to get innovative. Now do it!
Alex Monroe is the founder of GetYourBizSavvy.com, a source for entrepreneurs featuring interviews with leading entrepreneurs from around the world.
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For me a walk in my terrace always helpful specially either in early morning around 4 AM or in night around at 10 PM.
Yea where I live has a nice place to walk too. Or sometimes I’ll just go hang out for a bit in my buildings’ jacuzzi and sauna to chill.
I guess it is because it make you relax.
I think just stepping away for a while and letting your brain have time to just start thinking creatively again!
..and napping!
I just saw on Reddit that napping in the afternoon greatly increases your ability to learn/function.
Usually on Sunday I don’t get on the computer till 6pm or so. And by then I’m full of ideas.
I love going through magazines and books for inspiration, ideas, etc. Going through comments and forum posts to gather questions to answer is an awesome way to build posts with the reader’s interest in mind.
Forum posts and comments are also great ways to get out of a mind block. Good points man.
My biggest resource is the internet and newspapers (over the internet). Going for walks or getting out of the house/office to clear your mind helps a great deal with gathering ideas too.
I don’t know if I would call reading a newspaper for ideas very “innovative.”
It is if you take it down to reading everything, including all the classifieds…..
Some time classifieds can give you really good idea believe me.
I think that I have read this post too many times before this is post here!
Fish oil also does increase brain function too, so go to the store and load up on fish oil. Also, meditation techniques can help calm you down too. When you are calm you think better.
When I read your first two words FISH OIL I thought we got spam here … lollzz
I just like to veg out sometimes and listen to some music on my iPod in my favorite chair, then I’m ready to go again.
How about a great workout and get yourself sweat? I found this is one of a good way to refresh your mind.
Any time I’m done working out there are only two things on my mind:
1. Shower
2. Relaxing to television or a movie
But I’m glad it works for you
Some really great and useful advice to fight that dreaded thing called writer’s block as well….
Stepping away, out the office space, and taking a brisk walk around the block, or sitting in the sun in the park across the road for 15mins works wonders for me. When you work form home the time outs become really important in order to keep a good flow going.
Its so easy to get distracted from home. You lose concentration and have trouble thinking of new ideas. Great points here man. Sitting in the sun is a good one.
Working at home is great, but you do get distracted.
No kidding, i visit this blog and i have got an idea
Why books in Mintblock
This is the similar kin of post that I published long back
http://infopediaonlinehere.blogspot.com/2010/02/puzzling-what-to-blog.html
I am trying to update my new blog at least once daily and I’m just managing to keep it up.
I find because my blog is heavily focused around design I can find stuff to write about quickly because it’s my profession, yet I still suffer from hours-long frustration blocks because I want the content to flow and be captivating.
simple tip …………drink plenty of water……….it relieves us of mindblock
to add two cents….doing simple pranayama helps a lot
Or best, just play video games, LOL.
Do you really think that by playing video game this will help your business and your strategy.
I do not think so mate.
This is just waste of your time and will block your brain more.
I’d have to agree, I don’t think video games would help much.
When I say I’ll just play video games for an hour, I look at the clock and it ends up being 5 hours.
So depends on the person I guess
I think each of us will have a different way of getting out of mindblock. Taking a walk does wonders for me. While once I start reading blogs, I get completely distracted.
Yea, it’s hard to read blogs and not get completely off track when you end up following links.
I’m sure many of you have seen some of these before and there are others, but it’s nice to have a checklist to keep handy and this 10 things may be on them. Having a reminder is always helpful. Thanks for all the comments
I love magazines- especially local ones. You get to read about what your competitors are doing and it only costs $5! What a steal, I say.
Just go to your local Barnes and Noble and look at the magazine for free.
They don’t stock the local magazines since they aren’t big enough. My city is only about 100,000 people so the publication, while big, has a very specific market.
I often use local newspaper for writing idea source. It work great for me to overcome mondblock.
I do the same Dana. I use local newspapers, the new york times and the usa today. I find interesting things and that helps generate new ideas. By reading something I can relate to, it helps me get things flowing.
New York Times is a great resource for inspiration, ideas and intellect. If you’re looking at getting out of a brain fart, I highly recommend it.
The newspaper in our town is a rag, but I’m sure I cold get a few good ideas from it.
Magazines are always great for new ideas.
Some newspapers are just awful. You may just want to stay away from those and read the USA today and others ones available online. If you have an iPhone, there is tons of great newspaper content
We have the baby brother of the USA Today right here in Melbourne FL, it’s called the Florida Today and it is a complete rag.
As an aspiring author who is now editing my first book, I’ve found TV and music to be a great help. I just watch shows and take the personalities of characters and add twists to them, give them a new name and look and presto, something to use.
I would add that visualizing yourself in real life scenarios is a great way to get out of a mind block. I will walk myself into dangerous situations, such as a fight, or being the star of a sports team and visualize what I would do. This helps me write as well.
Visualizing is an awesome way Jeremy. Visualizing is great in all different ways, but a mind block is definitely one of them
I usually go for numbers 4,7,9 and 10. I have found that these helps me out to unwind from the complicated thoughts finding a way out of my head.
And I do think that number 10 is really the best that you could do, just don’t take it to days or weeks.
10 solid options. I fav is just to walk away and take a little time doing something else to clear the head!
That is sometimes all it takes Brett!
A good walk and great nap helps the best
http://infopediaonlinehere.blogspot.com/2010/02/hale-and-healthy-life-simple-lifestyle.html
I’m a big fan of #10…..getting away from it all for at least a little while. Took a nice snowshoeing hike in the Rocky Mountains yesterday!
I agree but cheeseburgers and french fries are not really proteins and corbonates
Gisbert
I find that a little trick I learned while doing a course on Children’s lit…works for me.
When I am stuck trying to write something, like an article or blog post, I just think of five words and write them down. Then I build my story around that. It’s like taking your first steps and then all of sudden you are running.