Topic awaiting preservation: How do you get over mental blocks?

Sitting here at work, starting at to many lines of code, much of it butchered do to my own evil-doing and just bouncing my head off a problem. I usualy clear my head by taking a walk to Timmies and getting a x-large double double But one can only consume so much caffine in one day. Or I'll surf the net a bit, or listen to music

..what do you guys do if your hitting a roadblock and need to clear your mind a bit to get a fresh look on things?

I generally go do something else, completely unrelated. Generally the farther from a computer I am, the sooner I go, "Oh, duh, why didn't I think of that before?"
Usually I go shoot pool and listen to some music, or go play some raquetball if it's close enough to the end of the work day (just remember to bring a pencil and a sheet or two of paper, so you can write down what you figure out, because as obvious as the answer probably is, almost guaranteed you'll forget it by tomorrow when you need it).

go to a museum, or books, or architecture, or anything that's not a computer screen. i like the idea hilman curtis talks about in his book (MTIV), the idea of "going back to a master." when he gets a mental block for a logo he'll go look at logos by someone like paul rand (if you don't know who he is look him up). i have tons of books of different designers that i flip thru, sketch from, etc.

also, check out a book called "creativity for graphic designers" by mark oldach, one of the best things with regards to creativity, design, and clients i've read, great stuff.

chris


KAIROSinteractive

Make a cup of tea, if I still can't get over it, I try to go round it. Then make another cup of tea.
I've found that a little "hanky panky" helps as well.

Walking around green places at night always clears my head, or a good night sleep. But mostly I just focus like a laser for incredibly long periods of time and just 'break' through the so called block. What block? There is no block...

I go watch cartoons for a while, just to have a little mindless fun.


The programmer's national anthem is 'AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH''

Wolfen's Sig Site

I use either wooden or plastic steps. Sometimes I can just jump over them...


...ohhh
I thought you said metal blocks.


But generally (and this is for a variety of things, writing on paper, writing music, writing code) I just plow on. Just start writing, strumming, coding whatever. It doesn't have to be good or even ususable but usually something will get me going.



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

comics


~We're not here for long, we're here for fun~

For those times when I *need* to be creative;

Get very mad/annoyed/angry at whatever it is you're doing.
Take two to three deep breaths and close your eyes.
Concentrate. (Helps to plug your ears if there is excessive background noise..)
Find a piece of paper and a writing utensil.. scribble random things on the page.. Make a senseless doodle. (Blank pages can be very intimidating.)
Then start writing every single absurd solution to the problem you could dream of on the paper. That should gets my ball rolling.

just pick up your guitar, wail on, and let it all flow away and then when you come back to reality, you have a clean slate

rinse and repeat =P

Prettyu much the same than wolfen. Walking in circles also works for me. =)

__________________________________

Cordure is the Absence of Insanity

Alevice's Media Library

You need to get DRUNK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
drink until you piss on yourself then bang the first fat chick you meet.
Then you go to Taco Bell and you eat about 20 Taco's woth no drink, puke and then................What were we talking about again?

Slappy The Great
Ruler of All That Is Wet

Mr. Slappy I see your career here being a very short one...

some good ideas here...

I usually go for a drive in my Mini

Sit and stare blankly at the screen or page untill some random half-assed Idea forms in my head, repeat untill something usable forms, and go with that.

The other day, I think I watched the Halloween Special of Invader Zim about a dozen times (well, more or less playing in the background while I worked), actually helped me though the day quite a bit.

But at one point, I had my headphones up a little to loud and the people in the office could only hear Gir's screaming and kept giving me wierd looks

Odly (or not so odly), I often come to good conclusions while sitting on the can reading Readers Digest ... as what I was working on is the furthest thing from my mind.

When I run into a mental block, I tend to jump over it as soon as possible.

Sing a songs.

Hiroki Kozai