A large (artist's) sketchpad, brainwave entrainment (or silence), and time spent thinking, reflecting, synthesizing, etc. As someone who's been constantly on t

A large (artist's) sketchpad, brainwave entrainment (or silence), and time spent thinking, reflecting, synthesizing, etc. As someone who's been constantly on the computer since I was 12 (30 now), I learned early on that it's good to know when I'm spinning in circles blindly more than progressing, and to then move away from it to a quiet place (maybe I'll pace around the living room, or work at the kitchen table), then work in "low tech silence." As a programmer/designer, there tends to be a lot of conceptual thinking and synthesis involved with what I'm doing, which can often be done (better, even) away from the computer. When I'm on the computer, I'm either learning, doing/implementing, or screwing around. Deep thinking happens (better) elsewhere.