First of all, apologies for the long break—it has been quite some time since I last posted.

On a personal side, there were major changes that happened which required me to take a break from all creation and focus my attention towards them. I am slowly settling in, but it’s in moments like these personal situations that can truly break your creative habit. Once that habit is broken, it can get incredibly difficult to get back into the rhythm again.

It literally feels like starting from scratch. It feels like you’ve lost the skill entirely. You want to dedicate some time to your creative outputs, but all your attention is drawn away by other urgent priorities.

It took me some time to get started again, and here’s what I learned that helped me:

1. Keep Collecting Ideas

Don’t stop the idea collection! Even if you can’t act on them yet, keep the inspiration flowing. Anything that excites you—a quote, a concept, a funny observation—keep them in a dedicated folder or notebook. This gives you fuel the moment you are ready to start.

2. Start Small

Don’t have access to your entire stationery or tool set? Use what you have at your hand to create. It doesn’t need to be a perfect, complex masterpiece. Most important in such times is to create for yourself and not for the world. Prioritize Quantity over Quality just to get the gears moving again. A quick sketch, a few bullet points, anything to prove to yourself you can still do it.

3. When You See the Chance, Jump In

Life is still busy, but when you see a window of opportunity—even 15 minutes—jump into creativity. Cut off all the distractions, silence your phone, and start creating. Don’t wait for a perfect 3-hour block; use the small gaps you find.

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While I am not fully back to my normal routine yet, this approach has helped me get back into the game.

So, what did I create? 13 SketchNotes! More on that in the coming week. Stay tuned.

The biggest lesson I rediscovered, which my latest SketchNote illustrates perfectly, is that the key to returning to creativity—and life—lies in having an anchor. As the quote from Annie Dillard on the SketchNote reminds us:

The secret was Routine.

Whether you have all the time in the world or none at all, a simple, consistent routine is what helps you make the time count and stops you from wasting it. It’s the shield that defends your creative space. My small, consistent actions were my mini-routine that got me rolling again.

A schedule defends from chaos and within.

P.S: GenAI was used to check grammar and structure the post but the overall content, Sketchnote and the ideas that helped me through are completely mine.