There it is. Blogger burnout is rearing its ugly head again, and this all too common problem cuts right into your creativity. These creative droughts can turn into vicious cycles, but if you listen closely, they’re telling you something you desperately need to hear—it’s time to recharge your process. By making these six simple changes, you can take control of your creativity and keep your burnout at bay.

#1 Find Your Rhythm

At first glance, the frequency at which you post may not seem to affect your creativity, but believe it or not, it does. Committing to a steady schedule is a great way to lift yourself out of a creative rut. Sure, it forces you to sit down and brainstorm ideas, but posting more often forces you out into the world—the world wide web, that is. The more you post, the more you…

• Research
• Discover new blogs
• Network on social media
• Improve your SEO
• Grow your writing skills.

This inspires more concepts, post titles, and social media content, but upping your frequency doesn’t necessarily mean you have to post substantially every day. If you do decide to post daily, make sure to sprinkle in shorter, more digestible, blog posts with images, videos, and infographics. On average, readers prefer to consume longer, more useful posts on a weekly basis, rather than be inundated with them every day.

#2 Pencil in Your Posts

To stay on rhythm, use a content calendar application like CoSchedule to schedule your posts in advance. That way, your post ideas turn into real goals with deadlines. Plus, you can go a step further and pencil in your social media promotion for each individual post as well, so each one gets their proper exposure.

This is all great, but scheduling also has hidden benefits for getting those creative juices flowing as well. Brainstorming the same ideas more than once is bound to happen when you’re generating a lot of content. It’s impossible to remember every post you’ve ever written, so you have to remind yourself from time to time. By keeping a log of past posts, you can focus your energy on creating fresh ideas for your blog.

#3 Keep a Creative Spreadsheet

When you post more frequently, ideas start bursting at the seams. To wrangle in all your content ideas, use a simple spreadsheet program, like Excel or Google Sheets, to stay organized. Like your content calendar, this is also a good way to keep track of your content to avoid repeating yourself.

Most importantly, a spreadsheet lets you organize your ideas by separating them into different categories, sub-categories, or marketing campaigns for example. They’re also handy for managing your SEO keyword research and creating post outlines with media attachments, keywords, and research links.

#4 Up Your Reading Game

Reading is vital to the writing process, but you’ll be surprised at how easily it falls through the cracks, even for the strongest bloggers. Ask yourself, when was the last time you went on the hunt for a new blog? If it’s been a while, now’s probably a good time to up your reading game. The more you read, the more knowledgeable you are about what’s trending, what’s passé, and what’s on the horizon in your niche.

Like content ideas, bookmarks can grow just as unruly when left unorganized. If your bookmark manager is out of control, consider using an app like Feedly that lets you store and view all your favorite publications and bloggers all from one convenient dashboard.

#5 Get Social

Social media lets bloggers promote content in an instant, but it’s also a valuable tool for participating in and growing writers’ networks. If you don’t network at all, you may be missing out on some real opportunities to improve your creative edge over others. Luckily, social media gives even the shyest writers an opportunity to grow their writers’ network more easily.

Bouncing ideas off fellow bloggers is a classic brainstorming method. Instead of meeting up at a coffee shop, bloggers create Facebook groups and Twitter chats to grow their network, share ideas, and get critiques on their latest writing. Second opinions can provide further insight into your work, which leads to even more ideas for future posts. Furthermore, you may even generate more traffic for your blog and grow your readership in the process.

#6 Find Your Influencers

You know what they say, learn from the best, and you can definitely learn a lot from today’s social media influencers. Respected influencers generate high-authority information that you can trust. For example, online marketing influencer, Neil Patel, built a name for himself in the personal blogging niche by dispensing fresh, on-trend advice that works. You can find influencers in virtually any niche, and by engaging with them, you can grow both your network and creative arsenal in the process.

To start looking for influencers, use a Twitter research tool like Hashtagify.me to find trending hashtags in real-time, as this is one of the quickest ways to find multiple influencers fast. As you start following, reach out to influencers by reading, liking, re-tweeting, and leaving relevant comments that add to the discussion. Make sure to tweet your best work to increase your chances of influencers not only following you back, but becoming loyal readers as well.

What do you say? Ready to stop spinning your wheels in the mud? You have all the tools you need to reignite your creative drive. Once you get your rhythm, organization, reading, and social networking on point, your last case of blogger burnout will be just that—your last.

Can’t get the wheels to turn? Then maybe you could use a jumpstart.