November 2025
4 Mini Experiments To Help Reset The Restless Creative
Choose a few of these mini resets to carry forward so you can be a more present, less restless creative.
Buzz buzz.
Text notifications. Email pop-ups. Social Media feeds. Endless (mindless) scrolling through 20 second bite-sized videos, each with an annoying new musical number designed to get stuck in your head.
Our world is constantly ON.
It’s little wonder why so many of us – especially creatives who have no choice but to be chronically online – feel restless, distracted, and utterly drained of every last drop of our creative juices.
All that said…
What if you gave yourself just one hour a week to dial down the noise?
To do that, I rotate through simple, intentional resets that give me a chance to mentally rest, reconnect, and invite fresh inspiration into my routine.
If you want to give these 4 mini experiments a try, they’re perfect for restless creatives as none of them require big commitments and the goal is never perfection.
Your goal is to plug into awareness:
Notice how you feel. Keep track of what sparks something in you.
And maybe even choose a few of these mini resets to carry forward so you can be a more present, less restless creative.
What if you gave yourself just one hour a week to dial down the noise?
Experiment 1: Detox Digitally for 1 Hour
This one is super simple, but initially it feels a bit like cutting off your favorite limb.
All you have to do is choose one hour this week to unplug. No phone, no laptop, no streaming. Just you and your presence.
Here are a few (offline) things you can do instead:
- Take a slow walk without your phone
- Bring a sketchbook to the park and draw what you see
- Sit on your balcony or porch with nothing but your thoughts
These activities bring mindfulness into your life because you really have to embrace the itch to reach for a device. And then, notice what fills the space instead.
A digital detox, even just for one hour, helps you quiet the overstimulation we’re constantly exposed to so you can reconnect with your senses. Research shows that mindfulness reduces stress and improves overall well-being. It can even help alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Slowing can feel like a “waste of time” at first, so you have to work to reframe it as a way to restore something you may not have even realized was missing.
Experiment 2: Have an Analog Morning
How often do you automatically reach for your phone the moment you wake up?
Most people I know don’t even have a clock on their bedside anymore, so they immediately reach for their phone to check the time in the morning.
And once that phone is in your hand, what else are you doing with it? Diving straight into stressful work emails? Doomscrolling on TikTok? What if, instead, you choose to spend the first hour of your morning screen free?
(A quick suggestion: If you can, invest in an old-fashioned clock and experiment with keeping your phone out of your bedroom altogether!)
Try:
- Incorporating a few bedside stretches or mediation as soon as you wake up
- Going to an early morning workout class (yoga is awesome to start the day)
- Reading a physical newspaper or book with your first coffee
- Journaling in a notebook you keep by your bed
- Cooking yourself an unrushed breakfast
When you start the day with a device, you’re practically opening the door and hollering for anxiety to make itself at home in your head.
Early morning screen exposure – particularly from smartphones or devices emitting short-wavelength light – can alter the usual cortisol response, effectively heightening stress hormone activation to keep you on edge all day long.
An analog morning sets the tone for a calm day, making space for clarity and intention.
I mean, imagine starting each day with your own thoughts, rather than a bunch of random internet strangers you strongly disagree with!
These activities bring mindfulness into your life because you really have to embrace the itch to reach for a device.
Experiment 3: Give Mirror Sketching a Go
When was the last time you just…saw yourself?
Not a quick, cursory glance while you swipe on your mascara or brush your teeth, but a real “witnessing” of who you really are?
If you’re not used to it, the concept sounds wildly uncomfortable, but I really hope you give it a go.
All you have to do is find a quiet space, sit in front of a mirror, and sketch yourself.
Don’t worry if you’re the worst sketch-artist in history because you aren’t aiming for accuracy. The goal is connection.
To connect more fully, avoid focusing on your physical details. Instead, notice your energy, your movement, your presence, and try to capture your mood rather than your features.
This practice is all about something that’s foreign to most of us:
Self-compassion.
Too often we see ourselves through the most critical lens (I’m nothing if not my own worst enemy some days) picking apart all the flaws we believe we see. By sketching your presence, you can shift yourself away from judgment to observation.
This tiny act of truly “seeing yourself” with kindness can strengthen your creative intuition and deepen self-awareness.
Experiment 4: Write an Unsent Letter
We’ve come a long way in the “emotional processing” department, but most of us still have some ground to cover and this experiment can help with that.
Choose someone in your life (either present or past) and think about how they’ve shaped you.
Maybe you choose someone who’s encouraged your creativity, supported your dreams, inspired you, or someone who’s simply been there.
It could be a teacher, friend, parent, partner, or even a past version of yourself.
Next, write them a letter and very specifically tell them the things you’ve never said out loud about how they’ve shaped you and what they’ve done for you.
And then…
Don’t send it.
You’re not trying to communicate, you’re simply releasing something. Writing unsent letters helps us process emotions, recognize gratitude, and uncover insights that otherwise would have stayed hidden.
Sometimes what comes out on paper is more healing that anything that’s shared out loud.
This tiny act of truly “seeing yourself” with kindness can strengthen your creative intuition and deepen self-awareness.
Calming down that restless creative syndrome
I hope you see these experiments for what they are:
An invitation to work on your restless creative syndrome.
Each one offers a different way to choose a small window of time so you can slow down, reflect, and reconnect with yourself.
Try just one this week and see how you feel.
Maybe you’ll discover that unplugging for an hour feels centering. Or that journaling in the morning steadies your thoughts for the rest of the day. Or that sketching yourself in the mirror opens up a road to self-compassion you didn’t know you were capable of.
Sometimes, our most creative moments come from noticing, rather than producing.
And often, the most powerful ideas show up when we step away from the noise and give ourselves permission to simply be.