This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps.

Having gotten stuck and unstuck a lot over the past 325 weeks of writing this newsletter, I’ve found a few tricks that help. Pick one to try, and leave a comment to share what you do to get unstuck.

As a little experiment, I’ve made an Unstuck Studio page to accompany this post and to help you get unstuck playfully.

As Daniel Pink explains, starting comes first: “Action precedes motivation,” he says, “not the other way around.”

The critic assumes there’s a better word for whatever I’m typing. It urges my fingers to stop and wait. When I’m rambling with my voice, the critic is quiet.

We call an idea freeze writer’s block, not talker’s block. When we speak informally, ideas just flow. Because spoken words disappear into air, it’s easier to avoid self-editing. In a dictated draft, clunky first words are OK because they get us closer to what we’re trying to convey.

The Most Dangerous Writing App erases your words if you stop typing before your timer ends. Choose a 3- or 5-minute sprint, or set a word target. Once you get the hang of it, your hands will keep moving. Edit later. Free

Ilys is an even more challenging way to force yourself to keep writing. It shows your typing just one letter at a time. When your session is over, you can review and edit your words.

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