Some days everything feels like walking through treacle. For me, sometimes that’s just where I am in my monthly cycle. Sometimes it’s because I’ve been focusing too much on one thing and my brain needs a rest. And sometimes, like today, it’s because I haven’t had any time to do anything creative for the last few days.

I know that my thinking energy is best in the morning, and I find that if I start my day with something else, for example necessary tasks to keep a project moving, my brain just won’t create after that because it’s in the wrong state of mind.

So I have to be very careful how I plan my weeks to allow enough creative brain space. Whether that’s leaving a couple of mornings free of other tasks, or looking at where in my monthly cycle I’m most and least creative, and adjusting my activities accordingly.

One thing that always helps if I’ve got myself into a head space where everything feels like it’s closing in is to get out of the house. Specifically to go out for a walk. (Or if it’s raining to go to a nice cafe for a cup of tea.)

Today I decided to venture out and go somewhere different. I couldn’t decide what to do, whether I most needed a walk or a cup of tea. So I chose to do both. I drove around for a while and pondered, and then saw a sign for somewhere I’d been meaning to explore.

I had a fairly short walk, less than half an hour, but it was somewhere completely new. That meant there were different sights, sounds and smells to take in. I always find something to take photos of, even if it’s just weird close-ups of leaves or flowers. And just walking quietly gave me a new perspective on an idea I was considering.

I still needed the cup of tea, and I realised I was near a cafe I hadn’t been to before, by a fishing lake. So I stopped there, had my tea in the sunshine and wrote this blog post. No effort, the words just flowed out. And I took some more photos as there was a cheeky goose floating around on the lake.

So having felt like I had too much in my brain, and many of the thoughts were frustrating me, I went home feeling ready to get stuck into some other writing and thinking. My creativity restored for today.

Do you find a change of scenery makes you more creative?