A few ideas: 1. I've learned not to get down on myself if I'm in a slump. Even if it seems there's no particular reason to be slumpy, there might be some reasons still. 2. I go for a long walk or to the gym. Without any podcasts or music or nothing. At first it feels like a waste of time to be just walking without listening to something, particularly something productive! Then I get manic. Then somewhere along the way I start to feel better than I have been. 3. Instead of working, I will sit down and make a plan of what is to be done and how I'm going to do it. Lots of times my slumpiness is actually a feeling of overwhelm, a lack of belief in my vague plan to tackle an impossibly large project. With a better, clearer, written down plan, slumpiness sometimes disappears and I eagerly get to work. 4. I do something very small for the project. Actually a Ben Settle idea from long ago. Along the lines of, if you don't feel like writing something then just go in and make sure what you've already written is nicely aligned. You will do a small and maybe necessary task. Odds are, with that bit of momentum, you will keep doing more.