Creating During the Mid Year Slump
How to keep creating mid year when motivation is down
It’s mid winter here in Australia, and I live in one of the colder parts of the country. While that Aussie winter may seem mild to some, with houses not really built for the cold, so we really feel it. This time of year things always feel a bit slow online. Most of the world is busy basking in the sun and enjoying summer and spending less time online and those of us in this part of the world are slowing down and trying our best to get through winter.
There is something about mid year, that leaves us all in a bit of a slump. Maybe you went hard at the start of the year and are feeling exhausted. Perhaps sales and engagement have slowed down and you feel less motivated. Or it could simply be that you just feel the need for rest right now.
The internet never rests however and to keep things running you need to create and design. Social media posts need designing, thumbnails need creating, marketing emails need to be sorted and new products need to be produced. So how can you ease the load and keep going while in that mid year slump?
Make Design Simpler
There is nothing harder then staring at a blank screen. Starting from scratch can feel daunting especially if motivation and inspiration seem to have evaporated. This is where templates will get you through. Templates mean you aren’t starting from scratch and you can design faster.
You can create your own sets of on brand templates. So spend some slow days creating sets of templates for the things you design most to then use again and again or you can purchase templates or even explore the Canva template library to find a starting point. A purchase or found template may even spark fresh inspiration as you have something coming from another designer with a fresh creative perspective to freshen up your graphics.
Make the Most of Creative Flow
On those days you are feeling more inspired and in a creative flow, make the most of that feeling and batch design. This is a great time to batch out your own templates or makes several weeks worth of designs at once. Instead of pushing yourself every time you need something and just not feeling like it, do more in the moments you have momentum. This will feel so good on a slump day, as you will already have something ready to go and it then feels easy to show up and share.
It’s a great idea to have a list on hand of designs you need to work on or templates you need, so in those perfect flow moments you can work on things on the list and not waste time thinking about what to work on but stay in flow and get designing right away. I like to use Notion to keep lists of thoughts and ideas to go back to, it’s an easy way to add things to the list as you think of them and have a database you can return to when you are ready to dive into working on them. It also allows you to add any links, images or reference that might be relevant, so you can build up a great starting place for ideas and things to work on. Ideas and thoughts no longer get lost and forgotten but have a place you can return to them and build upon them.
Find Fresh Inspiration
Everything is feeling the same and stale and it’s making you feel stuck. Often if you keep following the same people and returning to the same places (often with algorithms that keep serving up the same stuff to you) you can start to feel uninspired. Nothing sparks new ideas or gets you feeling ‘motivationally inspired’ (is that even a thing? Well, I have decided it is, you know that feeling when you suddenly feel full of ideas and creative motivation after seeing the perfect thing that sparked your imagination.. it’s that moment).
The best thing to get that spark back is find new places and sources of inspiration that let you see things from new perspectives and from new creative minds. Maybe its a platform your rarely frequent, work from international creatives (I always get really inspired when I stumble on Russian designers for example), magazines, books, art galleries, events, boutiques, new places, random lesser known websites. There are all kinds of rabbit holes and locations you can explore that will take you into new worlds and re-inspire you.
Romanticise the Process
I feel like this sounds like some cliche instagram thing, but it does really help. You need to create an environment that changes your perspective and makes things feel fun again when you have been stuck in a slump. When I had my 3rd son last year, I saw a lady who said she got through those hard newborn nights by making it special. She would have a hot drink in a thermal mug by the bed ready to drink in the night while sitting up for those late night feeds, and she’d make her environment feel cozy and special so it made those rough moments easier. I loved that idea and soon tried making a hot chocolate to keep by the bed and some little snacks as well as a cozy maternity Oodie to make the experience of getting up to feed on a cold night feel a little more cozy and special.
Consider how you can make your work environment feel more special and inspiring. It could be candles, new artwork, special stationary, mood lighting, a fun mug, set up a picnic and have a laptop picnic, fun work snacks or drinks, a cool snack box or tin (I love the snack tin trend).
It might sounds silly, but those little things can give you a motivational boost. It takes you out of a rut in a cold boring environment and transforms work time into something more fun and playful, so you look forward to those moments.
Get Lazy
I get it, you just don’t feel like doing it. You are drained and not in the mood. So let’s get lazy and still put this out into the world. Pull out old work and repurpose it. It could be changing up the design just slightly or changing putting different content into an old design. You could even play a bit of a mix and match remix game. Take an old piece of content and put it on a different old design.
It’s low effort, and maybe not all that amazing, but it still get it done and keep you consistent instead of falling off. You never know some lazy design work might even work really well. Not everything has to be brand new and fresh, its ok to reuse and remix. Remember it’s rare that anyone has seen absolutely everything you have done and even if they did, I doubt they have it all memoized. If anything it just makes your brand identity and voice stranger by reinforcing an exisiting message and style.
It’s always better to put out something that doesn’t feel amazing then nothing at all.
Use the Quiet to Experiment
Before we know it the busy end of year season will be upon us, and you will suddenly feel behind and rushing to keep up. Now in the lull and quiet it is the perfect time to test things. Do some experiments, work on things you normally are afraid to dedicate the time to. Try different layouts or styles in your designs, work on a project you are worried might flop but really want to try, create some templates, brainstorm some big crazy Christmas campaign ideas. Whatever you normally put off for lack of time or fear, now is the time to give it a go.
I remember during 2020 lock down, the middle of that year I had a lull moment. The days were quiet and slow and I sat on the couch and set up Notion (haha thats twice I mentioned Notion in one post, I promise this isn’t sponsored), I am so glad I did as I otherwise would never found the time and it has helped me stay organised. This really is the perfect time for those kind of things.
If like me you just feel a little lack lustre and are finding it harder to get motivated mid year, I hope these ideas will bring back your spark, keep your creating and maybe even get you ‘motivationally inspired’.