Waiting for inspiration to strike you? Five tips for defeating creative blocks

Waiting for inspiration to strike you? That doesn't work. I know all too well. When I'm stalled on writing or photography, "I'm so uninspired" and other variations like "I lack the motivation" is commonly heard in this household. But I'll be honest, they are lame excuses.And laziness is not a good trait to have.

Yes, getting stuck on a project is understandable. But there are ways to get past the block and get your creative juices flowing.

1. Do a 365 days photo or writing project. 
• Challenge yourself to learn and utilize a new technique each month. For example, if you've always been interested in HDR, learn about it and utilize it. And further, challenge yourself to photograph with the goal of telling a story. Don't just snap pictures randomly and call it a day. Take your time, think about what you're photographing.
• Write a down an idea for a story every day. Or take it a step further and write a short story daily. Do a timed challenge to write a certain amount of words in a short time frame.
2. Write short stories. Challenge yourself to write an entire story in 1000 words or less. And then step it up by decreasing the word count to 500...and then 250. And forth. This is a wonderful writing exercise because it retrains your mind to use words with precision.
3. Make a mind map. This is a great visual tool that helps you brainstorm ideas. For example, if you're writing a story and you're stuck at the point where your lead character might shoot someone. You could then jot different outcomes and then go with the one with the most interesting result that will best continue your story.
4. Do something else time-consuming but simple enough to let your mind wander. Oftentimes I get my ideas while working completely random and usually boring tasks like scrubbing the kitchen floor. Going for a long drive is a good trick as well, but with the rising costs of gas, perhaps not a viable one anymore.
5. Ask yourself weird questions while doing ordinary stuff. It's an odd tip, but it works for me. For example, while I'm grocery shopping, I'll wonder things like:
   
   • What would happen if zombies invaded the store?And I'll imagine chaos, whether people would fight or run, and how I could capture that on the metaphorical film (I use a digital SLR - no film).
   • What happens if all these eggs hatched chicks? And I'll imagine that there's some sort of chicken conspiracy back at the hatcheries where one of the inspectors was murdered and a batch of eggs got through because of that. And ... 

The benefit of these exercises is it gets your creative juices flowing, and you'll work up a few ideas for stories, photos or artwork.

Bonus tip: don't get in the habit of doing something like surfing the web or checking twitter, emails and Facebook regularly; it's very easy for time to slip through your fingers if you get caught up on interweb. Make it a rule for yourself that you will check only every 2 or 3 hours.