The Context
Staring harder won’t help. When your brain crashes into a creative wall, the smart thing to do is to get irrelevant on purpose, then come back to the work. By walking away, going perpendicular to the flow of the current activity and mentally and physically displacing yourself, you invite unexpected inputs that change your perspective for the moment, delivering new insights that the work so badly needs. Take a walk, solve a problem.
The Tool
Go Perpendicular
GO PERPENDICULAR — Intentionally walking away from your current work to engage in something unrelated to the flow of activity
In the creative process, the best way to find something is to stop looking for it. The best way to accomplish something is to try less. Taoists would call this concept paradoxical unity. Which appears vague and esoteric and wholly unsatisfying in its practical application, but it’s actually a helpful approach in becoming prolific.
The Rest
Sometimes the best strategy is to work perpendicular from the task at hand. To intentionally walk away from our current work and engage in something unrelated to the flow of activity. He went out for a walk and found exactly what he has stopped looking for. Which of your ideas have come when you least expected them?
The Benefits
Find inspiration where and when you least expect it
Avoid burnout and slipping into unhealthy workaholic tendencies
Invite unexpected inputs that change your perspective for the moment
Gain insights about your work by not looking for them so aggressively