Your brain is too full to be creative

I’ve consumed an excessive amount of content this year. Podcasts, business books, articles. All in pursuit of business success. And now my notes app is full of stored advice that I haven’t had the time or energy to absorb or act on.

The more I consumed, the more overwhelmed I felt, culminating in creative burnout a month ago. I had saturated my mind with advice, leaving no capacity for original ideas or business progress.

I’m embarrassed it took so long to see the conflict. Rationalising ‘research’ as relaxation meant my to-do list grew while my ability to generate original work only weakened. I was stalled, full of others’ ideas and pressure, and empty of my own.

We often assume that consumption equals progress. That the limitless knowledge resources we have access to today (YouTube, ChatPT, social media giving us instant connection to experts), should boost our creativity. But this abundance is detrimental.

Constantly researching and learning is overwhelming us all. The conflicting yet confident opinions and essential-sounding strategies the internet is full of are quickly causing us to lose focus on the original problem. And the inability to decide on the right action is preventing us from taking any action at all.

Creativity is all around, if only you don’t force it

We’re consuming more information than ever before

In 2011, long before TikTok, IG reels and this massive rise of short-form content, research found that the average American consumed five times more information than in 1986, roughly 34G of content per day, which equates to about 100,000 words. And that was 2011.

So when I think about how much we consume today… I can only be glad that I couldn’t find a stat on that.

French philosopher Jean Baudrillard summed it up perfectly:

“We live in a world where there is more and more information and less and less meaning.”

But what happens when we stop consuming?

A trend is circulating on TikTok among Gen Z (yes, writing that makes me feel old) where participants set a timer for an hour and film themselves doing absolutely nothing, just sitting.

As someone whose most successful meditation attempt was about 26 seconds, I can only admire the commitment. But why does it feel so radical to be bored for an hour?

The second we have space, we reach for the TV remote or open up an app to scroll. Or probably both. Yet boredom is one of the most effective ways to become creative. In just a quick Google, you can find so much research supporting this:

• Participants who did a deliberately tedious task performed better on a divergent thinking test afterwards (Mann and Cadman)

• When boredom is paired with low pressure, creativity increases further (Krannich et al.).

• People who did simple, undemanding tasks (like walking or washing up), performed better on creative problem-solving tests (Baird et al)

All research backs up how I’ve been feeling: a mind that’s not constantly busy is better at making new connections, while a stressed one just keeps cycling through the same old ideas.

I was constantly taking in information and never really allowed myself to switch off. This always-on approach totally overloaded my brain. It just couldn’t relax, think creatively, or come up with new ideas outside of the data I was feeding it.

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It’s not just me. Creativity is declining globally.

It was difficult to begin researching this essay without immediately spiralling into an existential crisis. Numerous researchers have, in fact, been tracking a steady, population-level decline in creativity for decades. This trend is only exacerbated by recent technological advancements, namely AI, which intensifies concerns about limiting our creative potential.

Kyung Hee Kim, a leading researcher in creativity, analysed over 270,000 participants and found a “steady and persistent decline” in imagination and originality since the 1990s, even as IQ scores have continued to rise.

So we’re getting objectively more intelligent and more logical, but our imagination is slipping.

When was the last time you allowed yourself to be creative without purpose?

Naturally, there are hundreds of different problems this leads to. But mainly, all the logic in the world can’t help you come up with something fresh and original. So where are all our future ideas coming from?

We’re absorbing more ideas than ever before, and analysing almost none of them. We might not want to copy others, but all we’ll do is subconsciously recycle thoughts because our minds are too crowded to wander into new territory.

So what can you do about it?

To ensure this isn’t just another piece of content to absorb and add to your to-do list, I want to share the steps I’ve been taking to reignite my own creativity. And I urge you to prioritise time to do the same.

Consuming differently

Let’s start with baby steps. I didn’t stop consuming altogether (not sure I am quite strong enough for my Monday morning jog to be in complete silence?), I just stopped consuming business content.

I love a podcast. But I realised that every podcast I was listening to was either teaching me something or explaining something or basically giving me something to do. I’d be walking with my notes app constantly open to write down the advice I was being given.

Life is far too short for that.

So I have switched them out. I started listening to things that have nothing to do with strategy or business or personal development. My new faves are: Shameless; Style-ish; and Big Small Talk. All the shows that are still interesting, but have nothing to do with conversion metrics. (Shameless Media’s tagline is “for smart people who love dumb stuff” and that is EXACTLY what I needed).

This alone has given my brain so much room to breathe. I can listen without feeling like I have to act on anything. I can tune out for a few minutes if I want to admire a dog playing in the park (and probably get my phone out to take a picture of them because I’m not trying to pretend I’m above having a ridiculous amount of screen time just yet). And I can actually come back from my morning walks feeling refreshed and ready for the day.

Trying new things with my hands

I may not be above it, but I am ready to admit my screentime is borderline unacceptable. (Yes, isn’t everyone’s. But no, it doesn’t have to be that way.)

Almost everything I was doing existed inside a screen. I’d cook whilst the Instagram reel with the recipe I’d saved played on a loop. Or I’d watch a film whilst simultaneously shopping online.

Brocolli and leek homemade soup, made without using a recipe

So instead, I tried to be less productive. I bought a colouring book and coloured pictures in with the ‘wrong’ colours. I took photos of trees I’d usually walk straight past (how was I not appreciating the autumn colour palette!). And actually visit new places for no particular reason.

How was I not taking in all the colour around me!

Creativity is born in movement, in colour, in sensory experiences, and in being present with the world instead of thinking about it from a distance. It definitely wasn’t being born from my being sat behind multiple screens.

Reading for pleasure again

This is one my GoodReads app should thank me for. Because my god was my 2025 book roundup looking boring?

I’d somehow become someone who was only reading business books and self-development books, and that is not the sort of person I’d want to be sitting next to at a dinner party.

Non-fiction books will always have a place for me. But reading is also for stories, for imagination, and for different worlds. A chance to allow me to switch off instead of again having that damn notes app up alongside my book to write down all the advice I was trying to absorb. In the last 6 weeks I’ve read:

• Butter by Asako Yuzuki

• Atmospher by Taylor Jenkins Reid (this one was an audiobook but I’m going to count that as reading still)

• The Thursday Murder Club by Richmond Osman.

I am now halfway through F*ck Being Humble by Stefanie Sword-Williams (non-fiction), but I’m all about balance and apparently still needed some learning in there.

Sometimes all you need is to read a fun book.

Getting back into reading has reminded me how expansive the mind can feel when it’s absorbing stories rather than strategies. Fiction allows you to feel, imagine, and care about people who don’t exist. Letting your mind wander to entirely new possibilities. And it’s hard to feel stuck creatively when you’re using your downtime to stretch your imagination in directions your everyday life would never demand of you.

Changing my environment

I’ve always been someone who is impacted by my surroundings. And yet also realised I had been chaining myself to my desk.

So I started working from cafes again. Found a co-working space near my flat (£20/ day, so not being too much of a regular but once a week is a nice mix up!). And refreshed my home desk for the days I am working from there.

I spend far too much time at my desk for it to not support my creativity.

Plus, I made sure to make an effort with my appearance every day. A proper outfit rather than leggings and trying out new hairstyles, even temporarily, before resorting to a slick back bun. One of the recent branding exercises I did was inspired by the colour palette of an outfit I was wearing, so you can set yourself up for creativity. The small things add up.

Talking to people around you

The last change is the simplest of all. I started calling my freelance friends more. We catch up often, but we generally didn’t go into details about our work. But it is so much easier to picture a route forward when you simply share the hurdles you have with someone new.

We didn’t necessarily give each other any groundbreaking advice, but the age-old saying of “a problem shared is a problem halved” rang true.

Go for that coffee with your friend!

What’s next for your creativity?

In short, if you’re feeling stuck, you’re probably just overloaded. Your mind is saturated, and you can only solve that by making room.

So, if this is also you right now, see this as your reminder to give yourself space to stop filling every gap. Listen, read, move, speak, and rest without demanding anything from yourself. And try not to force creativity; it will naturally arrive once you open the right doors.

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