Overwhelmed and Uninspired? Try This Simple Mindset Shift
One of the questions I get asked a lot is:
“How do you break a creative block when you're not motivated to do anything?”
Or,
“What do you do when you have so much to tackle that you feel overwhelmed?”
The solution? Change your mindset by making bona fide progress.
How do I do that?
I’ve found that the answer is often pretty simple: do something.
Any small step forward helps. For example, if I’m working on a print ad, I’ll start by setting up the document. Once that’s done, I move on to the next small task. If I’m working on a brand or visual identity, I might begin with lists, research, or moodboards. For a website project, I could set up the dev environment or evaluate the navigation.
The task itself almost doesn’t matter—it just needs to be something that gets the ball rolling.
Every project is a mix of creative and non-creative elements. My goal is to get into a focused mindset, even if that means starting with something mundane. Once I’m in the zone, I can free up mental space for the creative work to flow.
But what if you have a lot of projects and don’t know where to start?
(That overwhelmed feeling—we’ve all been there.)
Prioritize by deadline.
Start with the project that has the closest deadline and work from there. However, if everything feels equally urgent—or nothing is due immediately—I take a different approach:
Start with the smallest, simplest jobs first.
The goal here is to clear items off your list.
A shorter to-do list almost always feels less overwhelming.
No matter what, the key is the same: clear the easy stuff first.
The simple act of making progress—any progress—can shift your mindset and get you moving again.