I am very much of the opinion that creativity is the art of plonking one’s backside down at the desk and working at the thing until you bleed. But when you have options, when you could walk away, and when it’s one of those days, take a look at these half dozen suggestions for how to get going.

Some of them are familiar such as the idea that you can give yourself permission to write rubbish at first. (I don’t give myself permission to do this, I just naturally do it all the time.) But some of the others are intriguing, such as perhaps my favourite:

Work in the Dark

If you’re feeling stifled, try working in a dimmer environment. A study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology has shown darkness and dim illumination promote creativity. Other experiments discovered that you can boost your creativity by simply priming yourself with the idea of darkness—even just describing an experience of being in the dark.

Conversely, while darkness and dim lighting may be more effective for generating ideas, a bright area is more conducive for analyzing and implementing the ideas.Six Unorthodox Ways to Spark Your Creativity – Herbert Lui, Contently.net (19 August 2014)

It’s my favourite because it was the most unexpected of the half dozen – and because it feels like it rather fits in with my ridiculous 5am starts.

Do read Lui’s full piece for more on this one and the other five ideas.