Unstuck - Ubiquitous Just-in-Time Interventions to Unleash Creativity and Sustain Wellbeing of Creative Professionals

Creative professionals often experience “stuckness,” moments when ideas stall, or motivation fades. We define creative stuckness as a temporary state of self-regulatory misalignment—an impasse marked by perceived obstruction of progress and dysregulation of attention, affect, and motivation. U nstuck is a ubiquitous just-in-time system that detects contextual cues of stuckness and delivers brief, autonomy-preserving micro-interventions. A formative study with twelve professionals identified these mechanisms and informed a library of 98 interventions spanning embodied, cognitive, and reflective strategies. In a five-week deployment with 225 creative professionals (106 Control, 58 Random, 61 adaptive MLB), both intervention arms improved creative self-efficacy, coping, and wellbeing and produced consistent creativity boosts. 77% reported that U nstuck helped them manage their creativity and focus. Three months later ( N =110), nearly 60% continued using Unstuck-inspired strategies such as mindful resets, reframing, and movement. These findings show that short, context-aware interventions can transform transient impasses into lasting self-regulation and creative wellbeing.