Take short breaks throughout the day and to help you refocus when you get stumped or overwhelmed with your current project. There is a lot of truth in the “walk away” approach to handling the “stumped” brain or “writers block” as some refer to it as. When you are so involved in a project and get stumped or hit a wall, sometimes it is best to just take a break and walk away. Perhaps going to the break room and grabbing a snack. Taking a walk around the block or down the road. Going out and grabbing yourself a snack from the store around the corner. Grabbing your favorite drink and sitting out on your porch. Honestly it could be as simple as calling up a friend to just catch up. Then when you least expect it…the answer comes.
My best example that I can think of to share here is when you are so focused on something, now you need something from the other room. Yet when you walk into the other room, sometimes you just can’t remember what you came in there for. You in turn spin around, walk out of the room back to where you were and then it hits you. Back you go for what you were after in the first place. Well, when you just set everything down and walk away or think about something else by simply taking a “short break”, the same thing happens. Taking your mind off what you are currently working on gives your mind the break it needs to be free to actually think without being told to think. Does this make sense to you?
Let’s take a look at it from a different angle.
Have you ever driven somewhere and then when you get there you wonder, “how did I get here”? It’s your muscle memory. Even when you are off thinking about other things, focusing on other things-your brain knows where it is you are wanting to get to. So it takes you there, even though you are totally focused on something else while driving.
How about this angle?
You are having a conversation with someone and for the life of you you are not able to remember the title to a song, a title to a movie, the main actor, or maybe just the main character. So you move on with the conversation. Then about 5 or 10 minutes later out of the blue you say the title to the song or movie, or the main actor or character. All because you were no longer focusing on that particular thing at that particular moment. You took a “short break” away and then the answer came to you…
This is how the taking “short breaks” works. It is helping you with your “focusing” so that you may conquer just that. More focus and the answer you are looking for. As you learn to help your brain “focus” (by not focusing on the task but by focusing on the short break) your projects suddenly start becoming finished. Answers are finally coming to you. You are giving your mind the “break” that it needs so that it can just do what it does naturally.
The holiday season is upon us. Some projects need to be completed and completed yesterday. Yet please remember to take those “short breaks” and walk away to allow your mind the freedom to do what it was made to do. Let those around you know that you just need a “short break” (they may need a break as well). It will help y’all find the answers. Complete the project. Come up with new ideas. Whatever it is that you are looking for. It will come to you when you take those “short breaks”. So go ahead and take them. Your future self will thank you for it later.
You can find more at: https://medium.com/@candowithlesia
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