10 Tips for Recharging the Creative Mind

Insider Tips on Fully Recharging a Burned Out Brain

Yes, you want to be creative and productive. You want to write your script, shoot your movie, maybe even write a new blog post. But you also want and need REST. Here’s how.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

1. Prioritise a day off by saying ‘it’s a day off’.
   

2. Realise you don’t know how to take a day off. Proceed to have a 15 hour battle inside your own head where you spend equal attention a) Sunbathing, b) Watching independent movies you are guilting yourself into watching because you feel you ‘probably should have seen them by now’ c) Spend the next 5 hours reading ‘Moby Dick’ because you’ve convinced yourself “it’s time to start reading long-form classics.”
   

3. Find a Facebook post from 2009 where you said “Oh my God I am so creative and inspired right now.” Stare at this post repeatedly, feeling equal waves of nostalgia and self-loathing.
   

4. Make plans with friends.
   

5. Cancel plans with friends, as actually you need to rest at home on the sofa.
   
   

   

   Photo by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash

   
   

6. While resting on the sofa, come up with a limited series idea that would be perfect for HBO. Outline the entire series.
   

7. Go on LinkedIn and add anyone who’s ever worked for HBO.
   

8. Visit your local hospital because of your unexpected heart palpitations.
   

9. After waiting two hours to see a doctor, begin filming a makeshift documentary about the hospital as you’ve just this moment realised you are going to shift into documentary filmmaking.
   

10. Remind yourself of ‘the importance of rest’. Google “importance of rest.” Write a blog post about the importance of rest, and be sure to make additional notes incase one day you pitch the idea to HBO.