Lots of things can block your creativity. Maybe you’re burnt out. Maybe you’re not challenged. Maybe critics are getting you down. Whatever the reason for your block, here’s a fun way to get past it: make something just for yourself.


Herbert Lui, creative director of Wonder Shuttle (and former Lifehacker alum) explains:

If any of this happens to you, I want to suggest a simple exercise: Every week, set aside a few good hours to create something just for yourself. By good hours, I mean do it first thing if you’re a morning person. If you’re a night owl, do it at night...Here’s why it’s valuable: When you’re creating for someone else—a client, a huge group of users, or for critics—your success is determined externally. And as management wiz Peter Drucker says, “Wherever there is success, there has to be failure... When you’re creating something just for yourself, you neutralize any possibility of failure. And what seemed so difficult becomes easy again.


In other words, there’s no structure, guidelines, or deadline you have to follow. This exercise promotes creating for the sake of creating (and for your own satisfaction). It’s just you and your skill, talent, or hobby, reconnecting. Check out Lui’s full post at the link below.

The cure to a creative block is making something you’ll never show anyone else | Quartz

Photo by Victor Hugo Abel Miranda Soza .

Contact the author at kristin.wong@lifehacker.com .