Sheila Heen on How to Get Unstuck - Creative on Purpose Live!

9 Aug 2019 · 1 min

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1:20

In this interview segment, Sheila Heen shares a practical habit for overcoming feeling stuck in work or creative endeavors. She recommends taking a daily pause away from the to‑do list to ask, “What is the single most important thing I need to think about today?” This reflection helps surface hidden obstacles, such as not fully understanding what others need or expect. By stepping back, questioning the underlying needs of collaborators, and reframing the problem creatively, she finds a pathway out of the impasse. The routine of daily reflection becomes a trigger for creative problem‑solving whenever she notices she’s stuck.

What's one tip or piece of advice that you would leave our listeners with today that would help them fly higher in an endeavor where they seek to make a difference?
Boy, it's a great question. I, I think that maybe what helps me is to at least once a day step back from my to-do list to think All right, what is actually the most important thing I should think about today? And it may be something I've been dwelling on for a long time from a task perspective, like I don't know how to attack this task. But maybe the reason I'm stuck is that there's something I'm not getting about what they need from me or what might help, so that I'm actually trying to set aside the urgency of the tasks to reflect on my own stuckness or their just like, what is it that they're hoping for here? And why is it that I'm not sure what to offer? So it's just rethinking something, sort of backing up from it. And if I do that once a day when I, and I notice I'm stuck on something, that's the only thing that tends to get me unstuck. And that's often a creative process because my usual approaches are not helping either me or them. Yeah.
I love it.