A visual guide to getting out of a creative slump

On creating work like a human (and all the feelings that come with it)

👋 Hey there, I’m Lenny. Each week, I answer reader questions about building product, driving growth, and accelerating your career. For more: Lenny’s Podcast | Lennybot | How I AI | My favorite AI/PM courses, public speaking course, and interview prep copilot

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I’m so, so excited to share a guest post by Michelle Rial, my wife! Her first children’s book, Charts for Babies, comes out TODAY, and we thought: what better way to celebrate than collaborating on a post? Below, you get a glimpse into her brilliant mind. This visual guide is both inspiring and useful, and is for anyone trying to create something. Read it right now or bookmark it for the next time you get stuck.

P.S. Michelle’s book is truly great, and makes an excellent gift—but you don’t have to just take my word for it. Renowned child psychologist and parenting coach Dr. Becky said, “Charts for Babies says to your child, ‘I believe you can understand the world’—and that message matters from the very start.” And Booklist said, “Rial’s understanding of her audience and her ability to distill information clearly are gifts, and the whimsical hand-drawn illustrations and text will delight readers.” Grab a copy (or two) here.

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Are you feeling what I’m feeling? Blink twice with your heavy human eyelids if you are starting to feel like there is no point to creating things anymore. That if robots can do the creative work we spend hours, days, months, or years pulling our hair out over, why should we even try?

Or maybe you’re just in a regular creative drought. The paralysis of worrying that your work isn’t worth doing anymore or that someone (or something) is already doing it better.

Well, it’s time to lift yourself by your Blundstone loops and climb right out of that rut. I’ve made you a visual pep talk.

Each of the following 12 charts I’m about to share was crafted from the inside of one of these hollows. Making them felt like peeking out from underwater before heaving myself out of the sea like a slippery, blubbery walrus, gripping the land and steadying myself with my number 2 pencil-tusks.

I hope that this guide will help you, too. Maybe you’ll be able to hoist your heavy artist soul out of the deep dark ocean, onto a sunny platform where we can all warm our insides together and enjoy some ceviche.

And if any robots are listening, please get back to work on helping me find the cause of my eczema.

1. Be OK with being embarrassing

As a sensitive human, putting work out into the world to be judged can feel excruciating. What if I look “thirsty”? Or worse, what if Gen Z thinks I’m cringe? What if, what if, what IF? It makes me want to pack up my infinity notebooks and quit.

But the people who always end up with something really good? They don’t stop. Maybe they pause or take a rest, but they always come back and keep going. Nobody remembers the project that didn’t get any traction, the one that may have seemed a bit embarrassing at the time. People remember the successes and forget all the attempts.

2. Ignore the algorithm

Are you making work to please the algorithm like it’s your never-satisfied immigrant parent? (Just me?) Well, the algorithm will change, and then you’ll look back and be like: what the hell was that? So instead, try to make things that make YOU laugh, make you tear up, make you spit out your iced matcha latte that is apparently causing your anemia.

3. Use your caffeine wisely

Caffeine can be amazing for creativity . . . until it isn’t. Try not to fall into the trap of squandering your mental alertness on a pile of emails that only needed a simple “sounds good!” What happens then is we don’t make any progress on the juicy stuff, we feel defeated, and we reach for another cup. And then . . .

4. Overwhelmed? Take some breaths.

You might think it’s too early in this process to be overwhelmed, but sometimes staring at a blank page (or at a very full page that you just realized is trash) can feel incredibly overwhelming. And the overwhelm paralyzes you before you can even get going. Especially if you just flew past your caffeine limit.

I highly recommend having a meditation or breathwork practice. The times I’ve been consistent with it have been my most steady and productive times. Unfortunately, today I’m right here with you, panicking that I need to finish this post.

5. Stop thinking about what you’re going to work on and just get started

Yes, your ergonomics should be solid; yes, you need to find quiet or a playlist that helps you focus. But after that, stop stalling and just get started. If you get distracted, start again. Butt in chair.

6. Keep going

And going, and going, and going. The love of the work is the reason you got into this in the first place. Remember that the work is the point, and the struggle is what makes your story interesting. Imagine succeeding at every attempt—you’d need a whole forearm full of mal de ojo bracelets.

7. You can’t control how the work will be perceived

Sure, you can throw your best effort into sharing and promoting your thing. Some people will hate it. Some people hate you and thus hate it. If people hate it, congrats, it’s popular enough to attract scorn. Maybe nobody sees it? Congrats, it’s a hidden gem. Be proud of what you’ve done, share as best you can and as often as you can stomach, and then keep on making and progressing.

8. Rumination is a waste of time

Something I know about the writer of this newsletter is he doesn’t ruminate or get caught up in regret, which may be how he is so mind-blowingly productive. His thought loops? They move forward in a straight line. The only time he looks back is to note how he can do something better in the future. I might try that.

9. Each failed idea creates the potential for new growth

Don’t discount ideas just because they didn’t work right away. Let them grow and sprout in new directions. Put them in your bad-idea pile and let that pile grow and grow until your dining table is covered in bad ideas and you have only a tiny sliver of your table to actually eat on. Come back to those ideas, and see what blossoms into something new and what’s still a goner.

And then clean your dining table, for the love of god!! People LIVE HERE.

10. You’re already further along than you think

If you’re blocked and feeling like you’ve been at something forever and still have nothing, go back and look at your draft pile. I bet you’ll spot some progress.

11. It’s never too late to start

Be the adult leaving your piano lesson as a first grader is arriving. Be the youngest person at your rec center’s water aerobics class. It’s never too late (or too early). You might discover you’re great at something you didn’t know about. Or even better, you might have a blast. The juicy new neural pathways in your brain will thank you.

12. Still feeling it all? “Let it be.”

Did you enjoy this in any small, tiny, pie-chart fraction of a way?

If so, please check out my new children’s book, Charts for Babies! It is OUT TODAY and available wherever you buy your books (it’s also at places like MoMA Design Store and SFMOMA Museum Store!).

It’s my way of introducing the language of math at a very early age, when the brain is at its spongiest.

You can request it from your local library or bookstore, gift it to a new parent (unless they sternly specified NO GIFTS), or get it for the future mathlete in your life!

Thanks, Michelle! Have a fulfilling and productive week 🙏

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Sincerely,

Lenny 👋