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Want a consistent flow of ideas?

Whether you want a business idea or your next creative project, there’s a lot you can do to encourage inspiration

Sheryl Garratt
The Startup
4 min readJan 10, 2025

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Where do ideas come from?

I’ve earned my living as a writer for more than 40 years. As a journalist, I’ve interviewed hundreds of creatives at the top of their game: musicians, actors, directors, designers, artists, architects, chefs, comedians.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve also coached hundreds of creative professionals, and talked to them about where their ideas come from. (Or why their inspiration has dried up!)

Here’s what I’ve learned about inspiration.

Be more playful.

I’ve rarely met a successful creator who isn’t playful in some way.

So if you want more ideas, put aside time every week to play. Allow yourself to explore without an agenda, and without needing it to be immediately productive.

This can be challenging, if you’re used to optimising every waking minute. It might feel like you’re wasting time. And if everyone around you is working hard, you might also feel guilty.

Perhaps it feels impossibly indulgent to just be messing about with materials, writing in…

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The Startup
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Sheryl Garratt
Sheryl Garratt

Written by Sheryl Garratt

Writer; editor; coach, supporting creatives to step up and do their best work — and get paid for it! Find me at www.thecreativelife.net

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