Think about the biggest challenge you are currently facing. How can you meet every deadline at work? How can you beat your writer’s block once and for all? How can you improve your work-life balance and enjoy more time with your spouse and family?

Your instincts might be to double down and put in an 80 hour week to get the answer you need, but the truth is the more time you spend spinning your wheels, the less time you’ll spend submitting a finished creative project. Writers work better when they take breaks, and the sooner you implement this, the more successful you’ll be.

We’ll elaborate on how this applies to a writers work, but this story can apply to any creative problem solving you might encounter. Let’s discuss the history of Henri Poincaré, a famous French mathematician, who was able to form the theory of relativity that would only later be perfected by Albert Einstein.

In 1908, after studying countless mathematical equations without success, Poincaré wrote in his log: “Disgusted with my failure, I went to spend a few days at the seaside, and thought of something else. One morning, walking on the bluff, the idea came to me, with just the same characteristics of brevity, suddenness and immediate certainty.”

The log elaborates on several other instances in which he came up with brilliant solutions only when he stopped doing the work itself. Instinctively, when we spin our wheels on any problem, our conscious waking mind takes the wheel, but there’s another driver that can take us to a more productive destination. When we’re working with only our conscious mind, we limit our own ability to get inspired and download new ideas that seek to find us.

Think about playing with a jack in the box when you were a kid. You had to grind the lever consistently if you wanted the toy clown inside to pop out, but once he was ready to pop out, you had to stop grinding. Writers’ work follows the same principle. You need to take consistent structured action, including creating outlines, researching your topics, and putting words on the page, but once you’ve put enough into the grind, “pop” goes your inspiration, and you can thank your unconscious mind for this.

The unconscious mind is responsible for long-term memory, the act of dreaming, and is a treasure chest of fun new ideas, your collective knowledge, emotional memory, and the answers to most of your problems if you give it a chance. The only limit to the unconscious mind is consistent conscious thought powered by our analytical left brain. If you don’t give your mind and body a chance to turn off, you’ll never be able to mine for the creative gems tucked away in your unconscious mind.

The downside to a writer’s work, or any creative pursuits really, is that the more effort you put into it, the harder it is to produce something great. The deeper your problem, (and I think we can all agree that Einstein and Poincaré were attempting to solve problems much bigger than the ones we face in our everyday lives), or the deeper you find yourself stuck in writers block, the greater the need for a positive shift away from the grind.

Successful writers work on a massive scale, require consistent self-care, and an environment in which our unconscious mind knows a solution is possible even if our conscious mind can’t find it. The next time you feel your wheels turning, take a break. Take a hike, make a nice hot cup of tea, sit by the lake or ocean, and reflect. Chances are the spark of inspiration you’re looking for will come more naturally.

If you’re looking to learn from writers that work in a myriad of different environments, you’re in the right place. From authors to online content editors, Calepin is an amazing resource for writing workshops, contests, freelance writer’s work, and amazing content to get you inspired.

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