3 Things I Would Do If I Felt Creatively Burned Out
Burnout is complicated.
It can be caused by one big challenge or hundreds of little one that have added up over time. It can arrive as a sudden collapse or a slow unraveling. It doesn't always look like exhaustion — sometimes it's numbness, avoidance, over-striving, or self-doubt that starts to eat away at our edges. As a creativity coach and a writer myself, I’ve found that creative burnout often isn't about being “out of ideas,” it’s about being out of alignment.
If I felt creatively burned out, here are three things I’d do to begin gently returning to myself and my creative energy:
1. Stop Producing, Start Noticing
In burnout, it's tempting to push harder. To write more, think more, make something happen. But often what we need is the opposite: to stop producing and begin noticing.
Go on a “perspective walk.” No podcast, no phone catch-ups or work meetings, no expectations. Just walking and noticing: the type of bird you see most often, the new store opening around the corner, the peonies that are just starting to fade. You can turn it into a game of noticing five new things each time you walk.
Creative energy needs room to breathe, and sometimes just paying attention with no pressure to make something can begin to open that door again.
2. Ask Better Questions
Burnout can make us ask questions like, “Why can’t I keep up with everyone else?” or “What’s wrong with me?” But questions like that make us feel judged and hopeless (which is just reinforcing the hopelessness that arrives with burnout). Instead, try asking yourself some deeper, kinder questions, like:
What could burnout be trying to teach me?
What is my creative self longing for right now?
Where am I saying yes out of fear, instead of desire?
The insight isn’t always instant, but asking better questions can start to shift the terrain.
3. Have a Play Date
We stop playing as adults. We get swept up in the demands of adulthood—making money, gaining professional respect—and we forget the way it felt to explore and experiment just for fun. When my creativity feels tired or transactional, I know it’s time to start playing again. Pick an activity that you used to love as a child. Finger painting or sidewalk chalk or bike ride to the nearest Dairy Queen (a personal fave). The goal here isn't to produce or accomplish something, its to experience joy.
Burnout tells us there is no room for new perspectives. Play disrupts that cycle.
Burnout doesn’t mean you’re irreparably broken.
It usually means you need to pay attention to something that isn’t working. Slowing down, listening, and inviting joy back into the process are small, but effective acts of resilience.
If you’re feeling creatively burned out right now, know this: your creativity isn’t gone. It’s just asking for a different kind of attention.