Rebooting Your Brain on the Fly
[by Colleen Wainwright]
When you solve problems for a living–i.e., when you’re a creative–it’s dangerously easy to let the well run dry, especially since it seems like we have fewer and fewer opportunities to take the down time we need to stay juicy.
While my absolute favorite way ever to unsnarl a knot in my brain is a good, old-fashioned, 2-mile walk without purpose (bikers, runners, swimmers and other movement enthusiasts, substitute as necessary), sometimes that’s just not practical. When I’m pressed for time and ideas, here are some of the tricks I use to keep ideas flowing.
1. Clean something by hand. Dishes, the floor, the toilet, the dog. It almost doesn’t matter what I do; the mechanical action of doing something repetitive and mindless seems to engage my body and my attention just enough to free up space in my head. Plus you have to get (most of) this stuff done anyway. No less than David Allen himself is a big advocate for high-level procrastination.
2. Switch up your input. I am always on the prowl for interesting things to read and listen to that are slightly outside of my purview. Podcasts are incredible for this, because you can listen while you work. My three current favorites are: comedian Marc Maron’s WTF podcast (comics are essentially the philosophers of our day, with all the time in the world to just think about the human condition); Colin Marshall’s “The Marketplace of Ideas,” featuring amazing, in-depth interviews with smart folk from a wide variety of creative fields; and “Back to Work” with Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin, an intensely nerdy but always interesting look at the world of work and the ways we get in our own way.
3. Take a 10-minute walk. Here’s a dirty little secret about restorative walks: they don’t have to be two miles to work their magic. There’s a mailbox a couple of blocks from my building. When I get stuck, I’ll pull out a postcard, dash off a note to a friend, and walk it to the mailbox. By the time I get back, I’m usually good to go again. If not, I do the dishes. (Although really, I should get to that toilet soon.)
Colleen Wainwright is rebooting her own brain by figuring out how to raise $50,000 in 50 days for a group of really deserving high school girls. While she was thinking about it, she made this fun video to help separate you from your money.
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Listening to stand-up comedy albums are the way to go for me. Michael Ian Black, Jim Gaffigan, Aziz Ansari, and Demetri Martin are like cheap therapy for me. I usually listen on the ride to the office.
There’s no substitute for a real laugh, to loosen you up. Judging from your entertaining “50 for 50″ video, you’d probably agree.