I’ve been spending WAAAAY too much time lolling on my bed looking at Instagram pictures of Harry and Meghan (on their recent visit to Oz) and clicking on Facebook links to articles on No Sidebar, Tiny Buddha and Mark Manson.

The latter sites tend to re-share the same pieces over and over again. I know this because I tend to click on the same links over and over again.

“Oh yes,” I think, “tell me how to declutter my mind”. Or “Confirm for me, why I should give no fucks.”

But I’m a sucker for stuff on creativity: given my desire to be so is constantly thwarted by my apathetic nature.

A favourite (and I can’t remember where I read it) talked about the whole limited headspace thing I often blither on about. The fact that there needs to be whitespace in our lives which allows our creativity to bubble through. Like a plughole regurgitating soapy bathwater. Or something.

The example in the article talks about limiting time on other websites, social media and so forth and the author found it meant that their creative juices were titillated and they were off and running. On whatever it was they wanted to do.

Given the aforementioned lolling about and having accidentally added something to my phone which told me how long I spend on social networking vs productivity I decided this was probably a very timely re-read.

I decided:

1. I’d limit social media use to my desktop computer, so take everything (but Facebook messenger cos I use it instead of email / text messaging for friends) off my mobile device(s).
2. Reduce my reading for one week. I had two reviews to finish but after that, I figured if I did no more reading I’d have no book reviews to do.

I didn’t read on my holiday and I’d taken a bit of a break from book blogging earlier this year and both times it resulted in more ‘other’ blog posts.

Words and ideas were itching to get out.

And I thought the same thing would happen this time.

Of course the main thing I wanted to do was to clear my plate (and mind) before 1st November (ahem, today) to start NaNoWriMo. I’ve talked about this before and lots of other bloggers and writers talk about it as well.

And it started well. The first night I had a brainwave for either a feature piece (attempting my hand at freelancing – writing and getting paid for it!) or an ebook for my blog, around a theme or two.

However…. three full days have now passed and I’ve actually not done more writing. This blog post is being written out of desperation the night before it’s due to be published cos I can’t think of anything else to write (it was either this or something about Dr Who).

I’m feeling far from creative. In fact I’m feeling flat.

So perhaps my plan – detoxing my mind of other creative stuff to refocus any creativity I might have – might have failed! I told myself I’d give it a week, so, there’s still time…

Have you attempted any ‘challenges’ that haven’t given you the results you hoped for? (Also, should I hang in there for the next 3-4 days or just pick up a bloody book and start reading?) 

The Lovin’ Life team includes: