I feel a bit stuck right now.

I came across some notes to myself in my notebook that I find useful and motivating. I’d like to share them here:

Analog Is The Way

Use your hands, use pens and paper and your old calculator from school. Whenever you want to reach out for your phone for anything other than phoning, find an alternative physical object to perform the task.

Engineer Things in Your Life

Build useful things that solve your own problems. Like bookends out of pallet wood. It is a creative act, and it’s fulfilling to fix your own problems yourself, by hand.

Keep Paper Around

Scribble. Abuse sticky notes. Leave messages to yourself on big notecards. Colour them. It’s fun and it makes things stand out. Stick things on the wall. Move things around in space.

Write Letters

Send snail mail. To your friends. Your loved ones. To yourself. Write them by hand and post them.

Draw Cards

For your family and friends. Keep it simple, you don’t have to actually be good for them to be touching. Use crayons, or watercolour.

Write Documentation For Future You

Document all the places where you updated your address when you last moved. Write checklists for travel packing. Create a reference sheet about your flat, with name/contact/account ID for every provider you use, and all ways to contact the landlord. This will help make space in your head.

Don’t Look Down

Don’t look at your phone. Look around. Resist the temptation to use your phone. Set it on airplane mode for a while.

Get Bored

Just to see what happens. After a while, you will start getting ideas, and being more curious. Boredom is one of the most powerful ways to get inspired.

Be A Curator

An archivist. Walk inside your own museum. Look at the old pieces, the extinct species, the periods that are over. Don’t get too attached. Don’t torture yourself. Use this for learning.

Smile At Yourself

Be kind to yourself. Look at yourself in the mirror, and smile. Start with words and habits, and maybe the mind will follow.

Grow Plants

They are a good reminder that things take time to build, that things grow a little bit every day.

Get A Nice Pen

One you enjoy writing with. With paper that feels good to write on. Don’t protect them. Tools are meant to be used.

When I’m stuck, I focus on one of those things for a while. It usually helps me find clarity by making some space in my mind and allowing myself to do something else for a bit.

You don’t have to do all of them at the same time. Just start with one.