One of the HARDEST things about being an interior designer is having to switch between your left brain and your right brain – often in the same hour!! On the one hand, we are CEOs running our own companies, paying attention to profit margins and payrolls. But our ENTIRE businesses depend on our creativity, too! It just isn’t easy to be expected to create the most fabulous interiors for our clients when we’ve been looking at spreadsheets all day, right?? We all need a kick in the creativity occasionally, a way to fill up our tanks so we can become the artists we really know we are. Here are 4 ways to help you get the mojo back when you need it most.

1. Set Aside Creative Time

There are times when you need to just shut your office door, turn off your phone, and really let your creativity fly. Too often we let people interrupt that time and that can really knock you out of your flow! Put blocks of time on your calendar for creative work – and be sure your team (and your family) knows that you cannot be interrupted during that time. And each week, be sure you’re doing something that inspires you! That could be going to a museum, reading your huge stack of shelter magazines (mine is about to topple), painting, reading, or whatever fills your creative tank!

2. Plan Your Travel

There is nothing – and I mean NOTHING – that inspires me more than travel!! In fact, I started a whole new series about how and why I’m inspired by my trips around the globe. If you’ve missed any of those, click here to read about how Sweden inspired me and here to see how I went gaga for the colors of India. So where do YOU want to go?? It could be a quick trip to the beach, or an amazing European adventure, but plan something NOW for 2023 that will help you come back refreshed and inspired!

3. Go Outside

Every single day, get away from your desk. Break that bond with your office chair!! You need to step outside, even if it’s for 15 minutes, and take a deep breath. Even better, schedule a walk during your lunch break or in the middle of the afternoon. Of course exercise is good for you, but taking that break in your day also helps break up the non-stop busyness that we all fill our lives with. Notice the leaves, look at the flowers, watch the clouds – just do NOT use this time to have a meeting or to think about what you have to do next.

4. Meditate!

New studies are really showing all the benefits we can get from even a 15-minute meditation session every day. It has great benefits for your health, but it ALSO has shown to make people much more creative. Why? Because meditation helps clear out the clutter in your brain and to quiet all those voices and all the list-making you’re doing every minute of every day. It opens up your mind and lets fantastic new ideas and thoughts come through. Try it!

These 4 tips will help you engage that creative side of your brain and will open you up to fabulous new design ideas! To help you even more, download my FREE Guide to Organizing Your Creativity.