Feeling Uninspired Doesn’t Mean You’ve Run Out of Ideas

I thought discipline meant learning to create on command. What I actually needed was a way to keep inspiration from having to work on my schedule.

Robyn Lee

There’s something especially frustrating about setting aside time to create…and then feeling uninspired and having absolutely nothing to say. 

You did what you were supposed to do. You carved out the time, removed the distractions, sat down, opened the blank document or turned on the camera.

And then…nothing, no ideas..

I’ve heard the advice about this so many times: Just start. Show up every day, sit there for an hour, make something, and eventually the ideas will start flowing.

I understand the logic behind that. I’ve believed it myself.

But I started noticing something that didn’t quite fit.

I actually feel inspired all the time.

I’m just not necessarily inspired at 4 a.m. when I’ve scheduled myself to write. Or any other scheduled time for that matter.

I might have a great thought while I’m driving. Something will occur to me on a walk that I suddenly want to explore. I’ll be in the middle of something completely unrelated and make a connection I hadn’t made before.

So it wasn’t really true that I had no creative ideas.

I had plenty of them.

The problem was that they weren’t showing up when I had decided it was time to create.

Why Feeling Uninspired Wasn’t Really the Problem 

This happened to me all the time.

I’d be driving somewhere and think of something that felt really interesting. Maybe it was an idea for an article or just a thought I wanted to explore further.

I’d think, Oh, that’s good. I’ll add that to my next article.

Then I’d go on with my day.

By the time I actually sat down to write, I might remember that I’d had a good idea. I just couldn’t remember what it was.

Or I’d remember the general topic but lose the part that had made me excited about it in the first place.

Then I’m sitting there at 4 a.m. staring at what I’m supposed to create, thinking:

Why don’t I have any ideas?

Except I did have ideas.

I’d been having them all week.

I just hadn’t kept them.

That made me start questioning something I’d taken for granted about creativity.

Maybe inspiration and creation weren’t supposed to be happening at the same time for me.

Maybe I didn’t need a better way to force inspiration to happen when I sat down to work.

I needed a better way to stop losing the inspiration when it was already happening.

How I Started Capturing Inspiration Before It Disappeared 

This is where my phone has completely changed the way I create.

I carry it around with me, and when something hits me, I record it.

In the car. On a walk. Wherever I happen to be.

And I don’t try to make it good.

I just start talking.

That last part has been important because it’s very easy for me to turn an idea into a project the second I have it.

I can start thinking about how to explain it, whether it makes sense, how it fits with something else I’m creating, or whether it’s even good enough to use.

I’m trying not to do that anymore.

If something is there, I capture what’s there.

The recording might be messy. I may repeat myself, change direction halfway through, or not really know what I’m trying to say yet.

That’s fine.

At that point, my only job is to catch the thought before it disappears.

Why Inspiration Doesn’t Have to Become Creation Right Away 

This was another distinction I needed to make.

If inspiration hits while I’m walking, I don’t need to abandon my walk and go home to write an article.

If I’m doing something else, I don’t suddenly have to rearrange my day because I had a good idea.

Inspiration doesn’t automatically become an assignment.

I can talk into my phone for a few minutes, capture whatever is coming to me, and continue with what I was doing.

The actual work can happen later.

And that’s where this started changing my scheduled creation time too.

Because when I sit down at 4 a.m., I’m no longer starting from nothing.

What Changed When I Stopped Trying to Feel Inspired 

By the time I sit down to work, I usually have material.

There are recordings, half-formed thoughts, things I noticed, ideas I got excited about three days ago.

Now I’m doing something very different from trying to become inspired on command.

I’m reacting to something that already exists.

I can listen back and think, I really like this part, but I don’t like where I went with that.

Or I can realize that what I thought was the main point wasn’t actually the interesting part at all.

I’ve always been pretty good at looking at something and knowing what I like and what I don’t like. I think most of us can do that much more easily than we can stare at a blank page and produce something interesting because we’ve decided this is the hour when we’re supposed to be creative.

There’s also some distance from the original inspiration by then.

When the idea first comes, I’m letting it come out however it comes out. I’m not trying to create and critique at the same time.

Later, I can look at it differently.

The messy version of me got to have the idea.

Now the 4 a.m. version of me gets to clean it up.

I’ve actually started to really enjoy that process.

I’m Still Showing Up—Just for Something Different 

This is probably the biggest shift for me.

I haven’t stopped believing in consistency or setting aside time to create.

I’m still showing up.

But I’ve changed what I expect myself to do when I get there.

There’s a common idea around creativity that we shouldn’t wait for inspiration. We should sit down, start working and trust that eventually inspiration will find us.

Maybe that works beautifully for some people.

For me, I’m finding something almost opposite.

I don’t necessarily need to show up until inspiration comes.

I need to capture inspiration when it comes so I have something to work with when I show up.

There’s still discipline involved. I have to notice the idea, pull out my phone and capture it instead of assuming I’ll remember. Then I have to come back later and actually do something with what I’ve collected.

But I’m no longer making my scheduled creation time responsible for both parts.

Inspiration can happen when it happens.

Creation time is where I shape what came.

What I Do When I Have No Creative Ideas 

The other thing I’ve had to get comfortable with is that inspiration isn’t consistent.

There are weeks when I feel like I’m recording something constantly. I might have 20 different thoughts I want to explore.

Then the next week?

NOTHING.

There was a time when that would have made me nervous.

I’d start wondering where my ideas went or whether I needed to force myself to sit down and come up with something.

I’m starting to trust those quieter periods more.

I’ve seen the cycle enough times now to know that inspiration comes back.

I don’t know when. I might have five ideas tomorrow, or something might happen next week that makes me see an ordinary situation completely differently.

So I’m learning to go with the flow a little more.

When inspiration is abundant, I capture it.

When things are quiet, I let them be quiet.

I don’t have to interpret a week without new ideas as evidence that I’ve somehow lost my creativity.

I can keep working with what I’ve already captured and trust that eventually something else will make me reach for my phone.

Maybe Feeling Uninspired Isn’t Really About Inspiration 

I used to see two choices.

Either I waited around for inspiration—which sounded inconsistent and undisciplined—or I became someone who showed up every day and created whether I felt inspired or not.

I’m not sure those are my only options anymore.

I can let inspiration be unpredictable and still have a reliable creative process.

An idea can hit while I’m driving on Tuesday, become a messy five-minute recording on my phone, and get refined at 4 a.m. on Friday.

The inspiration doesn’t have to happen during the work.

And the work doesn’t have to happen during the inspiration.

Separating those two things has taken so much pressure off my creation time.

Because when I sit down at 4 a.m. and don’t feel particularly inspired, I no longer automatically think I have no ideas.

I probably have plenty.

They just didn’t arrive at 4 a.m.