I was thinking about the post with WheezyWaiter’s video talking about inspiration.
“If you want to create something and you’re not feeling inspired, take a closer look as to why that is or just ignore it and start doing stuff” – Craig Benzine
This came up because I was having a hard time coming up with a topic for this post. I couldn’t think of anything to write about and wanted to move on to something else. Basically, I wasn’t feeling inspired.
I remembered feeling similarly when I was a programmer/developer. There was a specific task or program I needed to work on, but I really didn’t want to, I wanted to find anything else to do but that task or program. I felt like if I tackled it while I was feeling like this it would take twice as long to complete than if I waited until I felt like it.
I realized that the thought or feeling is the same even though I would have never said that I didn’t feel inspired. Telling your boss or client that you weren’t inspired to work on something just wasn’t an option. So, why is it different when it comes to something like writing? It doesn’t have to be. As Craig said, “just ignore it and start doing stuff.”
There are a couple other similarities between the two for me: the distractions. Because I wasn’t inspired to work something, I would take a break every 15 minutes and do something else. Things like a quick check of my work and personal email or Facebook or Twitter. The problem was that I wasn’t really giving myself a chance to really become involved in what I was working on. When I stopped allowing myself to be distracted I would generally become pretty involved with whatever I was working on after a little bit.
I still occasionally find myself doing this. The difference is I recognize it a lot sooner now. One way I combat this is a timer. I set the timer for however long I want to commit to working on the task without distractions and then do it! I find it also helps to close any windows or browser tabs that might be distracting.
When you’re not inspired and are allowing yourself to be distracted, what do you do?
Actually, I’ve been very inspired lately and been blogging away. But when I’m not inspired I can look at why. Maybe something is bothering me that I need to work on. Maybe I just need to take a time-out and go for a walk. Sometimes if I want inspiration for writing, I look up quotes from famous people that inspire me. We can’t all be inspired all the time. Sometimes, like you quoted, we just have to ignore it and get busy.