How Having A Designated Side Project Facilitates Movement When We're Stuck

At the end of last week, I was having a hard time writing new content for the blog. My first two articles of the month looked back at March and looked forward to the end of April. Those two monthly articles are fairly structured so it doesn’t require much creativity or energy to draft and publish them.

But there I was stuck and unable to move my writing garden forward. It actually happened twice last week. I just couldn’t muster up the energy and motivation to write, but I wanted to move something forward. 

The good news was I had clear steps on what to work on next with my book project. While stuck on creating new blog content, I shifted and worked on migrating existing content to my manuscript document. It wasn’t planned this way, but it was a pleasant lesson learned that a different type of work clearly defined makes it easier to move forward when feeling this way. 

Having this alternative outlet to get something done (that was not writing) when I felt like I had no energy left to create, was just what I needed. And doing something that didn’t require the type of energy I was clearly out of, helped me feel accomplished. 

On Saturday, I was compelled to write but chose not to as a way of resting and allowing the energy to refuel before stepping back into it. Writing this blog post was also helpful in expressing the state I was in and how I was able to climb out of it.

While I've got a slew of ideas, outlines, and drafts in the works, sometimes its just super hard to keep moving forward. But the key is to know it won't last, to set up ways to rest from the activity, rekindle that fire, and share about our struggles with others.

What about you? How do you respond when you feel stuck writing?

Hero Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash