How do you stay creative and inspired when your workload becomes overwhelming? When deadlines stack up, tasks repeat endlessly, and pressure replaces curiosity, even the most creative professionals can feel their ideas dry up. Overwhelm doesn’t just slow productivity—it quietly erodes inspiration.
This article brings together insights from founders, creatives, executives, and strategists who have learned how to stay creative when workload is overwhelming. Their approaches aren’t about working harder—they’re about shifting perspective, protecting creative space, reconnecting with purpose, and finding inspiration in unexpected places. Together, these twelve strategies offer realistic ways to keep creativity alive, even in the busiest seasons.
- Try a Silent Sensory Walk
- Return to Patient Stories for Meaning
- Explore Opposite Fields for Breakthroughs
- Refocus on Real Customer Voices
- Listen Humbly to Find Useful Patterns
- Borrow Nonprofit Ingenuity to Refresh Work
- Institute a Monthly Idea Day
- Partition Routine Tasks and Protect Open Time
- Chase Small Wins for Momentum
- Reconnect to Purpose and Make Space
- Use Rest and Collaboration to Spark Creativity
- Stick to a Positive Structured Plan
Try a Silent Sensory Walk
To me, running two content-heavy platforms means I hit seasons when the work feels repetitive and my creativity thins out like old paint. Over the years I’ve learned one simple practice that reliably brings the spark back:
When I feel overwhelmed, I take a 10-minute walk without opinions. This means no phone, no music, and no agenda. I just walk around the block and notice three concrete details: a sound, a color, a movement. It sounds almost too simple, but it shifts my brain out of problem-solving mode and back into perception. Within minutes the mental pressure drops, and ideas start showing up sideways — not forced, just available again.
This works because repetition compresses your attention, while novelty widens it. You don’t need a grand creative retreat. You just need to interrupt the spiral with something real, sensory, and outside your head. My best lines, product tweaks, and article angles almost always arrive after one of these tiny walks.
All in all, creativity returns the moment your mind stops bracing and starts noticing again.
Lachlan Brown, Co-founder, The Considered Man
Return to Patient Stories for Meaning
When my workload becomes repetitive or overwhelming, I stay creative by returning to the stories of my patients. Every day, I meet people facing fear, uncertainty, and hope — all in one moment. Listening to their experiences reminds me why I chose this path in medicine and media: to connect science with humanity. That real human connection reignites my curiosity and gives fresh meaning to even the most routine tasks.
When I was filming “Ask Dr. Nandi,” there were days when exhaustion threatened creativity. During one such stretch, a patient shared how our show gave her the courage to seek treatment for her digestive illness. That reminder — that real people are listening and healing — transformed my fatigue into motivation. My advice for others: reconnect with your “why.” Inspiration often hides in the very lives we touch, not in the tasks we complete. When you ground your work in purpose, creativity naturally follows.
Dr. Partha Nandi, Owner, Dr. Partha Nandi
Explore Opposite Fields for Breakthroughs
When I get stuck creatively due to my heavy workload, one thing I do that helps me keep my creativity flowing is to take a step outside of my established area of expertise and focus my attention on completely unrelated areas of life. So, to do this, I have begun setting aside time every now and then (for approximately 20-30 minutes) to look at various industries and/or types of creators that are direct opposites of the type of creative work that I do. I may look at architecture, game design, psychology, cooking, all of which I realise sound like they would have little or nothing to do with what I do, but actually help to clear my brain and open up new ways of viewing the same types of problems that I may be working through.
The most interesting thing I’ve learned over time is that almost all of my creative breakthroughs have occurred after I stepped away from my own field and focused my mind on other types of things to stimulate my creativity. Placing my mind on something new even for a short period allows me to view my own work differently and that leads to more creative breakthroughs. This idea has proven to be a small but powerful way of avoiding being “flat” or “overwhelmed” by my workload.
Kevin Baragona, Founder, Deep AI
Refocus on Real Customer Voices
When the work gets repetitive — like endless inventory counts or content planning—the first thing that dies is creativity. The only way I stay inspired when the workload is crushing is to force myself to stop looking at the business and start looking at the customer.
I literally pivot from the spreadsheets to social media. I spend 15 minutes watching videos or reading comments from women talking about fashion, confidence, and what they struggle with when buying clothes. I’m looking for the real pain points and the real wins out there.
That quick jump from the numbers back to our core mission — which is making inclusive clothing that makes women feel amazing — immediately refocuses my energy. It turns the repetitive task into a purposeful one. It reminds me that the whole point of my business isn’t moving boxes; it’s making a human connection. Staying grounded in that “why” is the only thing that refuels my creative battery and tells me what to design, what to write, and what to focus on next.
Flavia Estrada, Business Owner, Co-Wear LLC
Listen Humbly to Find Useful Patterns
When my work starts to feel repetitive or overwhelming, I remind myself that I work closely with nonprofit organizations that are trying to solve very real, very human problems every single day. That perspective immediately recenters me and pulls me out of autopilot, because it shifts my focus away from tasks and back to impact.
I do not try to force creativity in those moments. Instead, I slow down and listen more, especially to customers and to our team, because that is where the most honest and useful insights tend to surface. Those conversations almost always ground me and help the work feel meaningful again.
In the nonprofit fundraising space, repetition is rarely a bad thing. Seeing the same challenges show up again and again usually points to something that needs to be simplified, clarified, or made easier for the people doing the work. Paying attention to those patterns is often what leads to better ideas.
Staying humble is what keeps me inspired over the long term. When I approach the work as a learner rather than an expert, and stay open to what others are experiencing, creativity tends to come naturally instead of feeling forced.
Steve Bernat, Founder | Chief Executive Officer, RallyUp
Borrow Nonprofit Ingenuity to Refresh Work
I work with nonprofits every day, and their creativity is what keeps me inspired. When my workload starts to feel repetitive, I think about the organizations that come to us with the most unexpected ideas. I have seen everything from a tarantula naming contest to the sweetest kids’ art auctions.
Those moments remind me how imaginative this space can be. Nonprofits are not just asking for donations. They are creating experiences that make people smile, vote, bid, and feel connected.
I like borrowing that spark. If they can turn a fundraiser into something joyful or heartfelt, I can bring that same spirit into how I show up for them. It helps the work feel fresh again.
And every time I help an organization bring one of these creative ideas to life, I feel that excitement all over again. Their creativity becomes my creativity. It is what keeps me going.
Katie Jordan, Account Manager, RallyUp
Institute a Monthly Idea Day
When the workload feels repetitive, my strategy is to implement a strict, mandated “Idea Day” every month, completely disconnected from client deadlines. This involves stepping away from the desk — usually a walk outdoors or visiting a non-marketing-related industry event — to actively seek inspiration from completely different fields, like architecture, comedy, or high-level finance.
This break forces my brain out of the tactical rut of routine client work. By exposing myself to new frameworks and different forms of problem-solving, I gain fresh perspectives that I can then transpose back onto our marketing challenges, ensuring that our strategies remain innovative, not just iterative.
David Pagotto, Founder & Managing Director, SIXGUN
Partition Routine Tasks and Protect Open Time
I separate my “routine work” from “creative work” very deliberately — and that’s what keeps me in check when things start feeling repetitive.
I learned it the hard way that trying to force creativity into rigid systems only makes it harder. Whenever I imposed strict routines on trendspotting or ideation, it became less enjoyable and eventually, I stopped doing it altogether.
On marketing or performance teams, most tasks are inherently overwhelming and cyclical too: reports, monthly planning, outreach, pitch drafts. Real creativity barely gets a fraction of the time to breathe.
So we batch all repetitive tasks into fixed blocks and treat them like muscle memory.
After which, I protect a separate window where there are no frameworks, no KPIs, and with a decent buffer time before deadlines. That’s where creative exploration begins.
A practical thing I do to fuel my inspiration: I keep a running “idea scratchpad.” No pressure to ship. No judging quality. Just dumping hooks or half-baked thoughts when they show up. Ironically, that’s where the strongest ideas usually come from.
Sagar Agrawal, Founder, Qubit Capital
Chase Small Wins for Momentum
I focus on small, measurable wins. When my work begins to feel like an impossible mountain, I chop the tasks up into small, practical steps. I write out in a list each task I have to do and try to prioritize them by deadline or urgency. Even something small like responding to an email or knocking out one piece of a project helps me start each day with a quick win. And that tiny win fuels me and powers my momentum. When I’m moving, I spot new angles and ideas that would have passed me by had I attempted to address everything at once.
Echo Wang, CEO and Founder, Yoga Kawa
Reconnect to Purpose and Make Space
One way I stay creative and inspired when my workload becomes repetitive or overwhelming is by stepping back and reconnecting to purpose rather than tasks. When I get stuck in the operational churn, I deliberately pause to reflect on the bigger picture, why the work matters, who it helps, and what impact it will have long-term. That shift in perspective gives me energy and clarity.
I also build in small bursts of creative thinking time. Even 20 minutes spent drawing out an idea, brainstorming improvements, or exploring a new approach helps me break out of reactive mode and into a more innovative headspace. For me, creativity is something you actively make space for.
When I refocus on meaningful progress instead of just “getting through the list,” the work feels lighter, and I’m able to bring back curiosity, optimism, and fresh ideas, even in busy periods.
Ashlea Harwood, Group HR Manager, Indevor Group Ltd
Use Rest and Collaboration to Spark Creativity
To continue to be creative and inspired during those times when my work is repetitive or heavy, I take breaks to do something that has nothing to do with work. This might be a walk, listening to music or doing something you enjoy. These actions let me take my mind off things for a time, so I can briefly escape from the tedium of work. I also surround myself with inspiring people with different views and ideas that can ignite my creativity. Working with other writers and batting ideas back and forth keeps me motivated and generates new ideas for my work.
Pavel Khaykin, Founder & SEO Consultant, Pasha Digital Solutions
Stick to a Positive Structured Plan
I concentrate on the positive aspects of the work rather than those that seem repetitive. And when I’m feeling overwhelmed with work, I make a schedule, and I stick to the plan as much as possible. It is how I keep myself on track and prevent the overwhelm from taking over. I also give myself small breaks when I need them. It keeps me coming back with a clearer mind. And if a project feels stuck, I move on to something else for a while.
Kimberley Tyler-Smith, VP, Strategy and Growth, Coached
Conclusion
Creativity doesn’t disappear when work becomes overwhelming—it gets buried under noise, urgency, and constant output. What these experts show is that staying inspired isn’t about forcing ideas on demand, but about creating the conditions where creativity can resurface.
Whether it’s stepping away for a sensory reset, reconnecting with real people your work impacts, borrowing inspiration from unrelated fields, or simply protecting unstructured time, the most effective strategies share one theme: intention. Small, deliberate shifts can restore momentum faster than pushing through exhaustion ever will.
If you’re trying to stay creative when your workload is overwhelming, remember this: inspiration is responsive. When you slow down, listen, refocus on purpose, or make space—even briefly—ideas follow. Creativity thrives not when pressure eases completely, but when you learn how to work with it wisely.
