Notes from a Creative Rut (and How I Got Out)

A checklist for escaping the rut and finding your spark again.

Good Morning reader,

I hope you have had a lovely bank holiday weekend (and still enjoying it!) I wanted to share something slightly different to my usual Monday weekly notes. This is a topic that I have been thinking about a lot lately.

There’s something quietly unsettling about a creative rut. When the things that usually light you up suddenly feel dim. Ideas feel flat and dispersed. Output feels forced. And worst of all, you start to wonder if the spark will ever return.

I used to panic in those moments. Push harder, fill my calendar, chase inspiration. But lately, I’ve learned to treat the rut not as failure, but as a signal: you’re tired, you’re overstimulated, you need space to just be.

I think of it as content burn out.

This feeling usually occurs a few times a year for me. It’s like clockwork, as if I know it is coming like a seasonally holiday.

The start of a new season feels exciting. It brings with it a fresh outlook. New ideas. Creativity in abundance. Ideas overflowing. Inspiration around every corner. But as I work through this and the ‘newness’ subsides I get creatively stuck.

So I’ve stopped forcing it.

I let myself step back without guilt, of course the deadlines are still there, the brand work continues on. But the organic creation that carries me through my everyday takes a pause.

As if I give myself permission to look outside of my mind. I often find that when I feel in a bit of a rut I live way too heavily within my inner voice. I let the noise of my mind take over. The inner voice telling me I need to do more. Learning to quieten this is something I’m still working on today. But when I allow myself this space to step back that is when the magic happens.