Managing the highs and lows of work-from-home life is a wild ride. If you were forced into remote work in 2020, there was that initial period of chaos. Then, you developed a set of skills and a new routine to work effectively from your kitchen table or home office.

But as we round the corner to year three of the pandemic, some of those tactics may be growing stale. Only now, WFH is supposed to be old hat, and the leniency your higher-ups may have shown you in the early days is gone.

So how do you continue to deliver high-quality work–particularly of the creative variety–when you’re feeling more burnt out, isolated, and stuck than you were in March 2020?

So how do you continue to deliver high-quality work–particularly of the creative variety–when you’re feeling more burnt out, isolated, and stuck than you were in March 2020?

Believe in solo creativity

Sometimes our biggest barriers to success are our thoughts. If you’ve heard that creativity can only happen in spontaneous group interactions, you may feel defeated before you even begin to attempt some solo creativity.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of evidence to back up this pervasive myth. Interestingly enough, some studies indicate the opposite–that solo thinking is crucial to the creative process.

Don’t get us wrong, we love a great brainstorming session. And those same studies touting the benefits of solo contemplation say a combination of independent and group thinking is actually the best possible scenario. But if you’re afraid you’ve lost your creative spark simply because you’re still working from home alone, rest assured: It can be rediscovered.

Embrace time blocking

Remote work can mean lots of calls. But deep creative work requires meaningful stretches of uninterrupted time. If you have meetings throughout the day with 15- or 30-minute breaks in between, you’re toast. Thirty minutes might be enough time to fire off some emails. It’s not enough time to get into the creative zone.

That’s where time blocking comes in. Build stretches of uninterrupted creative time into your schedule. You can decide when–this may be dictated by your at-home responsibilities, your energy levels throughout the day, or any company routines you must accommodate. But no matter when it is, add it to your calendar and stick to it.

If you’re a recovering people-pleaser, you may feel tempted to start accommodating meeting requests that fall within your creative no-fly zone. Resist the urge.

If you can’t say no for your own sake, reframe preserving that time as a benefit to your team or client. You need that block of uninterrupted thinking to deliver the best creative product.

Practice makes perfect

Since it was first published in 1992, The Artist’s Way has become a bible of sorts in some creative circles. Author Julia Cameron bills it as a 12-step program for artistic recovery. The three-month regimen she prescribes is a guide to nurturing your wounded inner artist child.

A little woo-woo? Sure. But if you can embrace (or at least look past) the New Age talk, the core tenets of the book are valuable.

The program is underpinned by two main exercises: morning pages and artist’s dates. Your morning pages are the first thing you’re supposed to do each day–three pages, handwritten, stream-of-consciousness right as you roll out of bed.

Morning pages are not about writing something “creative,” or even good. Instead, they’re about getting the gunk out and clearing the way for creative flow throughout the day.

Once a week, Cameron asks you to plan an artist’s date. She’s flexible about what this is–strolling through a museum, planting flowers in the garden, taking a dance class. Whatever you opt for, it should be freeing and tap into sensory experiences you don’t usually have throughout the day. The primary goal is to incorporate play into your adult life.

Our society often discusses creativity as if it’s an elusive and innate characteristic–a rare gift one is born with. In reality, I think creativity is more like a muscle. With the right mindset, training, and time commitment, any of us can get creative in just about any situation.

Ready to work with a team who does daily creative calisthenics? Give us a shout.