Time away builds creativity and releases those out-of-the-box ideas. How does one think out of the box when boxed up in an office?

My own view on the matter is one needs to know oneself. It has been my experience though, that creativity is hard to structure and it is more cyclical, and, as David implies (or do I put words in his mouth?), comes in bursts.

I have found, when I need to, that there are ways to jolt my own creativity though. And when I cannot immediately get a way from a thing because of looming deadlines, I simply do something entirely different for an hour or two. When I’m looking at a budget that just won’t balance for example no matter what angle I look at it from, I read a few chapters of an Anne Tyler nover and find that that rests me, temporarily at least, and enough to get back to the task at hand and complete it.

Rombo, I don’t think budgets ever balance – at least in my own experience… 🙂

I follow the same pattern as you though. When things get extremely hectic I usually take a break.

But then I realize that my late hours are on stuff that isn’t quite so cool. TPS report type uncoolness in fact. (I worked until 3:00AM to get a batch process working for one client that printed checks from their loan processing system).

I think, after a while of pulling “trips to Australia” (16 or more hour days trying to get things done), that the one thing that rings true in this duality is that there will always be the long days and nights, no matter how many well meaning writers and thinkers claim that a person thinks better without them.

In fact, places like France, where it’s illegal to work hard are completely void of discovery. Computer chips, cars, software, magazines… it all comes from places where people push themselves to do more than they thought they were able –

The thing that I’ve learned is that the long hours and high intensity have to be done in a “burst” type approach. It’s hard to maintain intensity for weeks on end. When my pointy haired boss comes in and acts like we’re going to work 16 hour days for a few months it makes me laugh. That will make the project go slower. Instead he needs to do some rapid fire. Short intense periods, allow rest, then repeat.

I agree that good thinking requires those periods of rest. But I think the challenge is to deal with the inevitable crunch and still manage to think clearly.

Great comment David. I hope I wasn’t coming across as saying that you should take time too much time off and not be productive, that’s not what I was getting at here.

My point is that in our crazy, hectic and highly profitable way of doing business, that we often forget to stop and let our minds think. We’re to jacked-up with the daily tactical things to figure out what the truly important strategic things are.

I don’t need a vacation to come up with new ideas or strategies. What I do need to do sometimes, right in the middle of the mayhem even, is to take a walk to the park and feed the ducks. Something as mundane as that lets my brain breathe and clears my head.

Innovation, ideas, strategy: those are the competitive advantages you want to cultivate as an individual in today’s global marketplace. They can program cheaper in India, China, Ukraine, etc…, they can’t necessarily out-innovate you though. Though there are plenty of jobs to be had for the programmer drone today, your ideas and your creativity are what will make you competitive in tomorrow’s world.

Sarah Ward asks when new moms with babies will get to relax. The answer is probably that it will be awhile;-) But the importance of doing nothing goes to kids too. It’s a family affair. It seems to me that parents who get to control the schedule to a great extent must pencil in nothing time. And then babies can teach us how to do nothing really well.