Inevitably, it happens. You run out of ideas for content. This usually happens to me when I’m busy or stressed about something. Some people can set a deadline for themselves; they work well under pressure. Maybe this comes from years of schooling. But now, deadlines don’t fit my life. Here are some ways you can renew or boost your creativity:

Stop overthinking it. You’re probably thinking too hard and talking yourself out of ideas. Take that idea that you’re turning around in your head and break it down to its simplest parts, yes, even the parts that you think are too simple. You’ll find they’re really not. And they may not be as intuitive as you think they are. Stop trying to sound smart and get out of your own way.

Take a break. Go do something else. Go think about something else. Go catastrophize all the possible negative outcomes of sharing your ideas if you want.

Stop worrying about others’ reception. It really depends on where this worry is coming from. Sometimes we have ideas, we just don’t want to share them because of what we think others will think. Stop it. More than likely, they won’t think anything, or at least not anything negative, and certainly not as negative as you think they will. On the other hand, you could be worried about other people’s reception because you’re not confident in your ideas. This could be a sign that you need to research more or fact-check some information.

Ask for help. It’s always great to have someone you can brainstorm with. Talking through your ideas or sometimes talking about something else entirely, can trigger an idea and renew your creativity.

Share your imperfect or incomplete ideas. Nowhere does it say you have to have everything figured out before you share it. We fear being judged. So we pre-judge ourselves in an effort to soften the blow of others’ judgment. No one can judge what they don’t know. But guess what? You didn't escape judgment because you judged yourself. And how many of us are our own worse critics?

Change up your routine. If you’re someone who likes a deadline, maybe try working without one. If you’re a pantser who normally just sits down and writes, try creating an outline. Changing things up allows you to see your writing and your process in a different way.

Immerse yourself in some other art. Create a playlist or listen to a new or different one. Look at some pieces of art. Read in a different genre. Play a video game or watch some gameplay. If you’re not feeling creative, someone else is and is creating. Maybe their vibes will rub off on you.

Keep an ideas notebook. Write down ideas regularly, whether you keep them digitally or the old-fashioned way. I would suggest picking one and sticking with it so you don’t have a house full of random scraps of paper and digital documents. Digital note-taking gives you the option to make them searchable which is nice, but there’s something to putting pen or pencil to paper that helps you remember what you wrote. (There’s science behind this and everything.). Try writing down 10 ideas. If you can’t think of 10, try writing 20. I know it sounds counterintuitive. After all, if you can’t come up with 10 ideas, how in the world would you come up with 20? If coming up with 10 ideas is hard, it’s usually because you’re self-censoring. If you have to come up with 20 ideas, you’ll generally write until you have 20 ideas. If you have 20 ideas, you have 10 ideas.

Freewrite. Freewriting is exactly that–just writing whatever comes to mind. If you pause in your thinking, you pause your writing. If you say “um” or “right” or some other filler word, you actually write “um” or “right.” Write whatever comes to mind, even if it has nothing to do with your current assignment. Freewriting is a great way to get all the information you're holding in your head out of your head.

Try a thought exercise. Try writing from a different point of view or as a different person. This person can be your idealized self or maybe someone you know. Think about how this person would approach writing. If they would avoid it, why? Think about how this person would perform daily tasks or how they would react to some surprising news.

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