Power Down for the Sake of Creativity and Yourself

I love being a web services librarian and trying to solve the problems of usability and function for web projects or how to instruct my community about critical thinking and information literacy. Every day presents new problems with new resources and technology. And with the advent of the social web, we need to consider our impact on Facebook, Twitter, et al; stretching our responsibilities far and wide.

A drawback to all of this activity is that the web doesn't leave our presence. It's in our pockets on our mobile phones and sitting our desks at home. So surely, I am checking the day's design work after dinner or reading web statistics about a status post in Facebook while watching TV.  Never mind, we are reading and viewing blogs, articles and tweets from our colleagues and professionals in the library, design and tech worlds to keep up with growing trends.

This is all good. It is great to be excited about work, especially during a design process. In many ways your giving birth to products or experiences that are virtually going to live and breathe in people’s lives and maybe crucial to their educational and professional growth. You question every move you and your team have decided because once objects and content are placed into context our conceptual models are coming to life. But when do we take a break from it all?

I have made it a point now on Fridays to not only power down my computer but also to power down, literally, me. No html, no code, no posts, no reading pertaining to design projects. Period. (Never mind, you’re not getting paid for this extra time.)

This may sound like a topic that is coming off the heels of Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer’s controversy of ending working from home remotely. This is actually a practice I started when I was a graphic designer where the hours were much more intensive and “you would push through” till the work was done that was mostly deadline based. 12-15 hour work days were the norm.(Mayer does have a point of the power of team work and collaboration but that's for another post).

I think rest is key to productivity and creativity in our work.  This discussion of rest in our every days lives is being debated in every demographic especially in children who are consistently over-scheduled by their parents and educators and are being prompt and prodded to take testing. For many years now in the U.S. schools have been pulling back on recess when research has shown that it is essential to learning and creativity.

Yet many of us just plow through days designing, reading, typing, and drinking caffeine. Almost all of the time. Hours go by at our desks staring at our screens, clicking away. I have to remind myself to get up and walk around some days after two or three hours for my muscles to relax. I just discovered that this practice actually falls in line with research that suggests “our body has rhythms of about 2 hour increments.”

Taking weekend breaks, refreshes my mind from the process we are going through. Saturdays I watch guilt free, football (the one that’s actually played with your feet), read a novel (at the time Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy), play music, hang out with my family and friends, have a drink (or two) and go running. Sure, I use the internet but for personal purposes like checking the news and watching videos but make sure it’s not work related.

Once back at work I get to reflect on the process. There have been many a foggy Monday morning I’ve walked into to see a creative product look so foreign to me, I literally have to step back and say, “Did I make this.”  Sometimes it’s great but other times, ugh. In the maelstrom of design we barrel through pulling at all of our powers and resources to band-aid and create and in the end, it turns out a Frankenstein monster. Luckily with reflection and time we can fix the situation before unleashing it to the world.  

So every Friday (and most nights after work) give yourself a break and power down. You and your work will be better for it.