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On a similar note, the importance of taking breaks where you're doing something TOTALLY different is incredibly crucial. By this, I do not mean playing a quick
by alexholehouse 15y ago
On a similar note, the importance of taking breaks where you're doing something TOTALLY different is incredibly crucial. By this, I do not mean playing a quick game of angry birds.
If you're coding, writing, doing research based tasks or basically anything where you're at a computer or in a book, the difference going for a walk makes is incredible. It's taken me about 4 years to accept that even the hardest problems sometimes fall into place during a shower, while walking to get a coffee or just through going somewhere physically different and talking through the problem to yourself - no pen, paper or screens allowed.
I don't get too much out of breaks every 45 minutes, and when things are going well am happy to work 2,3 even 10 hours straight, but if I've been stuck on something for more than 20 minutes 9 times out of 10 if I leave and come back I can solve it pretty much instantly. It's like a reset button to my mental state, and I'm always pleasantly surprised with the result.
- spicyxtreme 15y agothis is definitely true. My best epiphanies have come at the gym. i.e. physical activity, rather than from playing angry birds.
- rimantas 15y agoMy favorite example of this is Archimedes. When someone touts the virtues of being at your desk without turning your head away from the monitor and lifting your hands off the keyboard I usually ask "where was Archimedes when he had his "Eureka!" moment?".
- freehunter 15y agoTo be fair, the story actually shows me was doing something related to his study when he made his discovery. In a bathtub that was too full, he found that physical objects cause water displacement. He wasn't planning on making a breakthrough, but it didn't just come to him out of the blue. Point still stands, though.