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This following statement is so true:

“Sometimes the most creative ideas come when you take a break.” – Elena Drakulevska

And I am not contradicting it at all with what I am going to type here. Anytime I am stuck on a problem, or am bereft of new ideas to write about; breakfast, coffee, a walk, a large cup of Diet Coke, etc at a park or restaurant is a great thing to get my fingers dancing on the keys. (That sounds like AI doesn’t it? Just trying to paint a picture.).

I just wanted to note to be careful not to overmix breaks with work. I will say for me, using breaks to get work done too often means I never actually take time to rest my mind.

My own personal issue

It may be yours as well, and it has started to creep into my life again once I started writing a blog. And honestly, now that it is a hobby it is actually starting to get worse.

My problem is that when I start to mix rest/time off with creativity, I never actually rest my mind. Years ago, when I was a new MVP (maybe years and years ago is better to say), I got in the habit of spending my work time working, my free time working on side stuff, and my rest time thinking of things I can do or do better in my off time. (Like how I am writing this way too long post right now starting at Dollywood, and fleshing it out at a high school football game, and finishing on Sunday while someone in my house is about to finish Tears of the Kingdom.)

I have always loved working on technical content, but it had gotten way out of hand the last three years because after I got over all the orthopedic surgeries…I had started to be always on most of the time. And even recovery time can be a good time to work/pa(n on content creation because you can’t be that active.

Forcing mental breaks

After a while (and this was 20 some years ago), I realized I never took a break where I didn’t think about work. Our vacations were attempts at relaxing, but I ended up doing things like sitting at a cabin watching the water, but my mind was churning, and my device came out. I still do it to this day unless I really get my mind on other things.

To avoid this, I had to find a hobby that was almost insanely busy that would hold my attention almost completely. I didn’t want it to be sedentary like video games (even thought they are good distractions). My job is sedentary enough.

For me, I found mine when we first went to Walt Disney World in 2001. It was to be a one and only trip, and it turned into 24 years and over 60 visits. Theme parks worked for me because they are a puzzle where I try to figure out how to get the most out of the day given my limitations. It is something I have written on before in fact.

Not everyone needs this sort of break. Some people can turn their devices off, and just sit back and clear their mind.

Elena’s advice is spot on for a great way to clear your mind and get creative ideas. When I was writing professionally and had a deadline to write something I didn’t specifically want to, I did this a lot. Go take a walk, get coffee, etc., always leaving space for work to simmer. As a programmer, I do this (way less often) to let my brain solve the problem without me getting too much in the way. (I love it when a solution hits me when I am only casually thinking about it, or sometimes not at all.)

But sometimes those aren’t actually breaks in the large sense, just a more pleasant way to work, techniques for solving a problem that you are too involved with.

A real beak

Sometimes I need a real break where my brain doesn’t even realize that anything work related exists. And that is hard, because I really enjoy writing blogs about software and life, but I like roller coasters a lot more.