h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At last! A collection of actions to browse through when writer's block habitually sets in. Most of them tried and retried through a long life of deadlines as I fervently promise myself "never again! Next month I'll find a job sorting nails in three sizes short-medium-long."
A small addition. It does sometimes work for me to read facts, notes, articles on a subject - only putting the knowledge and the words into my head consciously trying not to formulate any sentences - just before I go to sleep. The next morning some useful sentences comes to mind immediately. Well, at least to get started.
The same applies to go do some physical work - dishwashing or gardening as suggested. It is amazing how thoughts can jump from wondering about soap bubbles or insects' life to the perfect headline or intro!

One thing I've found is that writers block is sometimes caused, not by an inability to think of ideas, but by a lack of confidence in these ideas. I was once trying to wirte a character study of the major characters in a sitcom i was writing. I stared at a blank monitor for ages unable to come up with anything. Later, when hanging out with a friend, I was describing this problem. They asked me to describe the characters to them to see if they could help. Without telling me, they dicated everything I said and typed it. When I looked back at what I though was just random ramblings I had accidentily come up with a fairly good description. Even better, by discussing the ideas, they formulated much clearer in my head and my friend gave me a hell of a lot of ideas herself which vastly improved what I could have written myself. In short, get yourself a co-writer or at least a muse, just someone to bounce ideas off of and see if they work.