Grinding does make it harder for true, raw creativity. I would say being in a good mood, and being carefree - completely non-judgemental of one's own thoughts.

Grinding does make it harder for true, raw creativity. I would say being in a good mood, and being carefree - completely non-judgemental of one's own thoughts. So being in an environment were 'nothing matters'. Even going to an office, there are 100 little things we are doing to be professionally conformist. So avoiding that. Sometimes it's hard for organised people to feel comfortable with disorganisation. So trying to get in a state of mind where it doesn't matter. Doing something that is 'not serious' can help with this. So if the project has literally no purpose this may help creatively though it can really hurt the impetus to 'get it done'. It seems like a trope, but getting to the place of the 'inner child' is certainly real. Remember when you had zero responsibilities and didn't plan ahead even 10 minutes? Totally care free. That space is hard for a lot of people because I think we feel it will make us fully 'child like' or that we lose our 'adult' demeanour. Or will be construed by others to be 'irresponsible'. Doing something that's closer to raw creativity. Having fun in photoshop, experimenting with filters etc. - this has nothing to do with anything but a weird lesson I learned long ago there was to just 'let go' of whatever you're trying to do, and just 'go where it takes you', i.e. to be open to whatever your subconscious or a bit of randomness is happening, as opposed to the construct you might have in your head. In improv they have this notion of 'yes, and' - which is to say whatever the other actor says, you have to go along with. It's really amazing to see how that works, and how minds can form coherency out of that. The more proficient one is with the tools: code, frameworks, audio eng. DAW, photoshop, words, paint, musical instrument - the less mind space they occupy and the more you can do what you want. And of course 'just doing'. Sometimes literally putting pen to paper, trying something even if you have no clue what you are doing, is a neat place to start. Also looking at other people's work. In design, going to Behance to see other people's work is really inspiring. It's neat to see how creative frontiers are ever expanding.