5 Things That Unlocked my Creative Flow

When you're in your flow, your genius comes through, the ideas pour out of your head and into your work. But often, this isn't the case. You don't feel motivated, you easily get distracted, and you have no idea if you're heading in the right direction. So how do you get out of this slump and back into your creative flow? Hello, I'm Matthew Encina, and in this video, I'll share the five things that have helped me stay inspired, focused, and consistently put out work I'm happy with. Thanks to Webflow for sponsoring this video. I've been a creative professional for over 20 years, working as a designer, creative director, and content creator. For the last few years, I've worked mostly independently. In this season of life, I'm accountable to myself, deciding what projects to take on, figuring out how to execute them, and making sure they get done. I prioritize both personal growth and well-being. I seek out new and interesting projects, develop skills that will serve me for life, all while trying to avoid burnout. Looking back on this journey, what have I discovered about unlocking creativity? What practices have genuinely made a difference? And how can these insights potentially help your creative process too? Have you ever felt like your life was on autopilot? Or that your creative work lacks direction? One day you wake up and realize all of your time is already spoken for. You're going through the motions of work, but you're not really sure why or how you got here. Once you have this revelation, you know something has to change, but you aren't sure what to change or where to go next. This is where I found myself in 2021. At the time, I was at the best job I ever had. I was working on incredible projects, and it led to so much personal growth. But after 10 years, and with changing internal and external conditions, it eventually dried up for me. I was doing the work, but I wasn't feeling fulfilled. I stopped growing. How did I end up here? What did I really want? What would make me happy? I went through a deep process to determine my next steps, exploring different paths and carefully evaluating each option. Though it was a difficult decision, this process gave me incredible clarity about what I truly want for my creative career. Insights that remain relevant for me today. It became my true north. I created a whole video about why I quit and my decision-making process, which I'll link to in the description. My journey boiled down to asking myself a few key questions about different aspects of my life. What do you want? Why do you want that? And how can you achieve that? Often we operate with only a vague idea of what we want, but fail to develop it beyond an abstract concept. Understanding why you want something and spending the time thinking about how to achieve it transforms that abstract concept into a real and viable path. It becomes a clear direction to follow. Your true north in life. It took me over a year to find clarity in those questions and discover my path forward. You don't have to figure it out immediately and your direction can always evolve. But taking the time to reflect, especially when you reach an impasse in your life, creates the foundation for where you'll invest your time and energy. When you understand your why, you gain both clarity and conviction. You develop an internal compass that helps you navigate opportunities by simply asking yourself, should I be working on this? This makes it easier to filter out the noise, focus on meaningful work, dive deep, and achieve your creative flow. When we create, we crave stimuli. We seek inspiration, research, and ideas to connect to concepts. But do you ever feel overwhelmed by it all? Do you find yourself spending more time consuming content than creating it? There's no shortage of inspiration out there and sometimes I find myself endlessly scrolling and saving content, unknowingly slipping into digital hoarding under the guise of seeking creative fuel. Without a clear purpose, I invest countless hours with nothing to show for it, becoming distracted and ultimately consuming far more than I create. One thing that helped me was something I read in Jim Quick's book, Limitless. In a chapter focused on reading attention, he highlighted a common problem. He says, Have you ever read a page in a book, arrived at the end, and could not recall what you just read? He explains our brains are constantly overstimulated and naturally filter information, allowing in only what seems relevant. To improve retention, Jim Quick says, Prepare your brain by directing its focus on specifics when consuming information. Ask yourself these simple questions. How can I use this? Why must I use this? And when will I use this? This was eye-opening for me because it not only improved my reading retention, but also transformed how I consume all content. Now when starting a new project, I intentionally curate my creative stimuli by focusing my intake on very specific needs. For instance, I've been designing a new keyboard at mode and at each stage of the process, I have a different focus. In the beginning, I focused solely on the form, so I prepped my mind to seek out elements relevant to that aspect of the project. For a few weeks, I became fixated on form-related details. I studied the continuous lines that flow through well-designed cars. I examined the material combinations and surface treatments on products. I paid attention to shapes and curves, particularly the subtle beauty of concave surfaces. By preparing my mind with a specific lens and a clear prompt, I was able to filter out distractions and focus only on the most relevant information. Once I've gathered what I need, I completely shut down the intake. I delete social media apps from my phone, close my books, and begin the process of synthesizing everything I've consumed into my creative work. When you approach your work with a specific question in mind, answers naturally emerge. By eliminating distractions, you create the mental space needed to fully immerse yourself in your creative process. Alternating between periods of intake and output establishes a healthy balance, keeping you both inspired and consistently productive. Having good tools helps you express your creativity. That's why designers and marketers use Webflow, the sponsor of this video. Webflow is a website experience platform that empowers creative professionals to visually build stunning, high-performance websites with advanced interactions. Some of today's most engaging sites incorporate motion because it captures attention, helps tell stories, and makes the web fun again. The latest version of Webflow Interactions is now powered by GSAP, a powerful animation library which makes building complex interactions intuitive. The visual-first workflow features a horizontal timeline, giving you precise control over how animations unfold. You can create smooth, expressive animations with advanced effects like staggered motion and text splitting, all without a single line of code. So you can focus on your creativity and put your ideas in motion. Check out Webflow by clicking the link in the description. Do you ever find yourself stuck in a creative rut, doing the same things year after year? This stagnation often leads to boredom and stunted growth and inevitably manifests in your work. Throughout my career, I've experienced this stagnation several times. Whenever I feel this creative plateau setting in, I actively seek new stimuli, whether it's changing the environment, taking on a challenging project, or making a deliberate shift in my career. This led me to quit my job in 2021 and start my own creative studio, Mod Musings. Since then, I've embraced many new challenges, building my studio space from scratch, directing a documentary series with Webflow, and designing a product with Roadmaid. After several years of running my independent studio, dipping my toes in industrial design and launching products, I felt drawn to do more in this space. So at the beginning of the year, I also took on a new role as the chief design officer at Mode Designs, where I now lead the vision for both brand and product. Each of these projects stimulated personal growth by challenging me in new ways. They were difficult and uncomfortable because I had never tackled anything like them before. But I committed anyway, knowing I'd figure things out along the way. I had to. When you step outside of your comfort zone and venture beyond what you already know, that's where massive growth happens. When you do hard things, there's another benefit I've come to recognize. In a world obsessed with shortcuts and easy paths, when you tackle the difficult challenges, few people will follow, simply because it demands significant time and effort. By embracing these challenges, you stand out and create unique opportunities that leverage your distinct blend of skills and experiences. You forge a path that enhances your abilities, sustains your momentum, and generates a creative flow that can carry you forward for years. When you're working on a project, do you ever have that inner dialogue creep up? This could be better. Maybe I should change the color of that. But that will look bad with the other color. That's not landing how I want it to. I think I messed up the whole thing. I should just throw this in the trash. I suck. No one's gonna like this. This isn't gonna work. Why bother finishing it? You want those voices to shut up so you can do the work, but you feel they're actually valid truths. This struggle is especially difficult when working alone. You end up getting in your own way. Your excessive self-criticism prevents you from sharing your work, or worse, leads you to abandon your creative pursuits altogether. For a large portion of my career, I've either worked for someone or been the one delegating work. In these team situations, there are clear roles between the person creating and the one giving feedback. I've found the structure naturally separates the making from the feedback loop, giving the team a clear process for creating and refining the project to completion. When working solo, I've had to be both the creator and the critic. Learning to separate these roles has been crucial for my creative flow. Now I deliberately alternate between making and reviewing. I do a sprint of work without judgment until reaching a natural stopping point, then switch to critic mode with fresh eyes. I treat my work as if I'm reviewing my colleague's project, giving specific, actionable feedback for my next sprint of work. This approach works because our two mental voices, creator and critic, both offer value, but not simultaneously. If your inner critic disrupts your flow, schedule dedicated periods where your creator works uninterrupted. I aim for two to three days. Let the work come out of you, raw and unfiltered, focusing on output and exploration. Then switch gears with structured review sessions where your critic can constructively evaluate what you've created, focusing on refinement. When providing yourself feedback, consider the following. What are the project's goals, challenges, and context? How effectively does your work address these elements? Which areas need refinement? And what specific steps can you take to improve them? By the end, create a clear list of action items to complete before your next review. When you respect the voices in your head and give space for each to do their work, then you'll get out of your own way so your creative and your critic can flow through you. Often, our creative pursuits begin as hobbies, things we're genuinely interested in and find tremendous joy from. But have you ever felt that turning your hobby into a career has taken the fun out of it? Do you still make room for play? Outside my career, I've always kept a hobby that's purely about play. I've been breaking since 1999. And while I once approached it competitively, I've now intentionally shifted to dancing purely for expression. At 40, I've embraced dance as a playful escape with no expectations beyond showing up and having fun. It's become a weekly ritual where I can focus on creative explorations without pressure. It helps my mind think in other dimensions about shapes, textures, tempos, and rhythms. Having this exercise feels like it clears out any residual thoughts stuck in my mind from work. This playful approach has led me to explore entirely new dance styles like hip-hop and house. Being a beginner at something again is humbling. It opens my mind to different forms of creative expression and reminds me that there's always more to learn, regardless of age or experience. In life, not everything needs to be monetized. Joy can be the outcome of your creative pursuits. Maintaining a hobby free from career or financial pressure benefits your mental health. It provides personal time to yourself or connects you with a like-minded community. A hobby gives you a creative outlet to play freely, serves as a refreshing escape from work, and creates balance in your life. I hope this video helps you unlock your creative flow. Let me know if any of this resonates with you. If you have a question, ask, and I'll do my best to answer it. With that out of the way, it's time to get back to work.