How to Level Up Your Design Skills
Part 7: How to get out of a creative rut
Creative ruts usually appear somewhere in the middle of your design process, when you’ve been slaving away for hours on end and somehow, the work doesn’t appear to be getting better. You’ve stopped evolving the solution and your ideas have come to a grinding halt.
It’s a frustrating feeling that can spiral into paralyzing self-doubt, yet unfortunately, also common one for many designers. Here’s some ways you can face it:
Establish a focused routine
It may be boring to think about creativity as a result of sustained, scheduled work over time rather than a jolt of lighting, but that’s often the case for building up any craft. It takes focused effort to work through moments where you lack inspiration or feel overwhelmed by having too many alternative ideas, but taking one step everyday in a space where you have access to your tools is the way forward. Having a schedule for work may seem restrictive but it’s important to set aside time for working through difficult problems, and also makes it so you have scoped out time to do research, ideation, or whatever else needs to be done.
