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Whether you want to spruce up your living space, inject more innovation into the meals you make, or really push a writing, music or painting project, you might be looking for ways to enhance your creativity. The tips below can help you tap back into those wells of inspiration.

Address Your Worries

Stress can do a number on your creativity. If you’ve been feeling blocked for a while, you might want to dig around and see if you can figure out why. For example, if you are having an issue with something at work, it might be best to talk to your supervisor about it. If you are struggling with debt and worried about money, this can affect your output as well. You may want to look into refinancing any student loans you have. This doesn’t take long. In just a few minutes, you can find out whether you are eligible for a lower interest rate, and this could mean paying off your student loans in a shorter amount of time.

Unplug

Turn off your phone, or leave it in another room or at home. Resist the urge to scroll through social media when you have a few minutes free. If you’re old enough to remember a time when we didn’t have constant access to our phones or tablets, you might also remember just sitting still or daydreaming. If you’re not old enough, you are in for a treat. Your imagination needs time and space, and sometimes that means time without much input. You might even think of it as time to be bored. Start training yourself to just sit in the still moments or even when you are standing in line or doing something else boring, and let your mind wander.

Go for a Walk

It’s no coincidence that people often talk about getting great ideas while they are driving or showering. There is something about repetitive activity that gets our imagination churning, and one of the best ways to spark that is with a walk. Walking is a great way to increase your creativity and give you a different angle on things. You may also be inspired by what you see along the way.

Take Risks

Perfectionism is the enemy of creativity, and yet many creative people suffer from it. After all, you have this perfect mental picture of the project that you want to do, and the reality never quite lives up to your expectations. However, you need to let that go and be willing to take risks. It may help to think about a very prolific artist that you admire, whether that person is a film director, a musician, a writer or something else. Anyone with talent who keeps working steadily and trying to innovate is going to produce a mix of work that ranges from brilliant to mediocre to poor. The poor work does not diminish the brilliant work, and in fact, in many cases, it takes several years or longer before it is really possible to evaluate the product at all. The lesson to take from this is that it’s okay to go out on a limb and produce something that is imperfect or even not very good. It’s all grist for the creative mill.