Take a break

 

Why wait until the end of a project to take a break?
I find taking a break right in the middle really helps with my productivity, and I often do. These mini-breaks are times for me to reorganize, and wind down for a bit, before I plunge right back into the deep end again.

Here is what happened today:
I woke up today and was just overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to get done in three weeks. My house has been taken over by my work and materials, and I couldn’t see past the mess. I didn’t feel like producing more work to add to the chaos, so I didn’t.

I took a step back, looked at the mess, and realized what I needed to do…

The ‘break’
A break is not an unproductive way to spend time. In fact, even if you spend your break flicking through a magazine, or staring at your feet, you are still doing something very worthwhile. Stepping away from your work momentarily can do wonders for your creativity, and  give you a fresh perspective when you get back to it.

I took the morning off to put things in order around my house. I cleared up my work-space (which happens to be the whole house), bought large flat boxes to file away finished work. I reorganized my drawing materials and wrote a plan of attack for next week. All highly exciting and heady stuff, I know 🙂 (aren’t my blogs so exciting?)

Now that everything is sparkly and organized, and I have finished my crazed cleaning, I feel excited about working again.  I even have a few new ideas based upon some old pieces of worked that I spied while cleaning up.

Words of Wisdom
When my daughter was 3 years old,  and I was pregnant with my second child, I remember weeping with exhaustion one day.

“Mommy what’s wrong? asked my daughter. “Honey, I’m just so tired” I answered.

“Mommy listen to me: if people be tired – need to take a break. Ok?”

Smart girl. I’ve remembered that piece of baby wisdom ever since.

That break was definitely worth it. I encourage you to take one. Go on, you know you want to.