When I’ve got a creative project to work on for our clients, “getting in the zone” is super important.

If you’ve done any kind of “design for hire” type stuff over the years, or even any kind of creative project really, you know what I’m talking about. I could easily spend several hours just pacing around my house trying to find that magic jolt of inspiration that will suddenly make everything *click*.

Other times, it’s almost as if whatever creative muse-like forces that are floating around in the unknown parts of our reality just suddenly start dropping ideas left and right.

Or was that the cup of coffee I just had earlier? Who knows, right?

What it really boils down to though, at least for me, is that I don’t have time to wait around for inspiration to show up. I have had to figure out ways to find inspiration anywhere I can get it, especially when working on deadlines for clients (and myself).

Over the years I have found a number of different tactics that work pretty well for shortening the amount of time that it takes me to “get in the zone”.

One of them involves spending a little bit of time getting in my clients’ heads and asking them questions that force “out of the box” thinking.

In this video, I share some of those tips and offer some quick encouragement to anyone who is working at making their creativity work for them instead of the other way around.

You may not be a logo designer, and you may not run a creative agency, but it still will at least encourage you to think a little differently about the creative process and some ways to jump-start your own!

Enjoy.

• Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
• Reinvent Yourself by James Altucher
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
• Show Your Work by Austin Kleon