Ever feel like you’re brain blocked? Can’t be productive, come up with any new ideas, or even think straight anymore? Here’s what I believe is one of the best ways to get your brain working again.

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It’s Monday again, my favorite day, and I hope you are feeling refreshed and empowered to take on another week!

I realize I’m in the minority for loving Mondays, but I love a fresh start and the chance to keep working towards goals, resetting from the week before if it didn’t go as planned or continuing the momentum if it was a productive week.

I certainly don’t wake up every single Monday feeling refreshed and ready to take on the week. If I’m being honest, this past week kicked my butt and I’m having a hard time even writing this post. All I want to do is sleep and eat popcorn + jelly beans while watching reruns of The Amazing Race or New Girl.

But anytime I feel like this, I know what I need: A reset.

My brain has been on absolute overload the past week with being a tantrum tamer, beating the winter blues, my husband’s truck repairs, planning my toddler’s 4th birthday party, and keeping everything moving around here. Not to mention trying to create more content for this blog. I love it, but the creativity and ideas don’t always just flow to me every waking hour.

In a past life, I used to be in the corporate grind, pushing to next levels, taking on projects, and trying to be the most creative one in the room (hello, I’m an enneagram 3, nice to meet you). I used to get so frustrated when I couldn’t think clearly, come up with new ideas, or finish projects fast enough for my own timeline. This was 100% living inside of hustle culture and while I don’t bash working hard for what you want, there is a big difference between working hard and overworking. And your brain is always the first one to shut down when you overwork it. Followed closely by your body.

Chances are, you know when your brain is overworked. You might feel a bit groggy, kind of just stare at the computer screen, get distracted easily, become forgetful, procrastinate, or (my personal least favorite) push yourself to the end even though you know it isn’t even close to your best work just to call it done. That might work when you’re running a marathon, but it is not ideal when you are trying to finish a project or come up with ideas for the spring marketing campaign.

Pushing to finish work and doing more and taking more on, believing that we can do it all while keeping the same pace if we just work a little longer, an extra day, or sleep a little less. And then we do the worst thing. We convince ourselves it’s temporary.

Maybe sometimes it is. But most of the time that extra work becomes your new normal. And now your new normal is longer days, fewer days off, and less sleep.

And then suddenly, as you’re showering one morning, barely even awake because you stayed up late to finish the last slide deck for the big presentation, it hits you: A great idea. The solution to a problem you’ve been having. The answer you’ve been trying to come up with for weeks or even months.

It hits you so hard and fast that you actually stop shampooing and can’t believe that you thought of this now, while you don’t have a pen and paper to write anything down or your phone to jot it down in a note or send it off in an email and now you are praying you remember exactly what it is by the time you can get yourself out of the shower fast enough and get it out of your head before you forget and it’s lost forever.

Sound familiar?

If it isn’t the shower for you, maybe it’s as you’re walking the dog, loading the dishwasher, at your kid’s soccer game, falling asleep, or, if you’re me, laying in your toddler’s bed waiting for them to fall asleep. Do you ever wonder why this happens?

It’s because without even realizing it, you’re taking a break.

Even if it’s just for a few seconds or a couple of minutes. The second you let your mind rest, refocus, and step away from what you’ve been laser focused on, amazing things start to happen.

Albert Einstein knew this was the key to successful breakthroughs. He is famous for taking breaks from his work to play the violin. That’s right. The genius responsible for discovering the theory of relativity took breaks to help him think more clearly and he ended up coming up with what is considered to be man’s highest intellectual discovery.

And that’s exactly what I think we should all do too.

Your brain and your imagination need time for free thinking to process what you already know, come up with new ideas, and reset. Think about how often you try and schedule time to think or be creative. That staff meeting every Monday at 11am? The one that could have been an email? Mhmm.

Blocking time in your day to work on your novel from 7-8pm? But then you sit down to write and can’t come up with anything? Yep.

9am-5pm, Monday through Friday, because no one ever comes up with ideas or does productive work Saturdays or Sundays or before 9am or after 5pm (heavy, heavy sarcasm).

Here it is: You need to flip the script and schedule times to take breaks alongside scheduling time to work, be productive, or be creative.

You can’t just say, “okay brain, time to give me a really great idea now!” (If you’ve seen Inside Out 2, I’m thinking of the “brain storm” where ideas are flying all over and they’re all really small light bulbs and then suddenly a BIG idea comes flying by…if you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend).

When I worked a corporate job, the people above my pay grade loved scheduling brainstorming sessions to come up with solutions to current problems, or new and fresh ideas to increase productivity, or for the next big campaign.

Thinking about it now, it makes me smile in a ‘bless your heart’ kind of way that anyone believes if they schedule a meeting inside a room with fluorescent lighting and no windows that it will produce the results they are looking for within the 1-2 hour block of time they scheduled. You simply can’t instruct your brain like that on demand.

What I have found to be the best use of my time, productivity, and creativity, is scheduling breaks. I’m a big fan of the Pomodoro technique. Using this, you set a timer for 25 minutes and focus on nothing but one single task without distractions. When the timer ends, you take a 5 minute break. Then you repeat three more times, and take a 15-30 minute break. Then start over.

Using this technique, I have had my most productive days. And I have even used it as a stay-at-home mom.

It’s still structured and productive, but includes breaks and doesn’t waste time. I also don’t feel burned out by the end of the day because I can usually complete at least a few tasks start to finish. Check out the details of the Pomodoro Technique if you need more convincing. You don’t need to buy anything, just check out the benefits and try it out yourself.

If the Pomodoro Technique isn’t your tomato, at the very least schedule yourself break times throughout your day. Take a walk outside, play an instrument, read a fiction book, get up and stretch, call a friend, walk your dog, play with your cat, get a snack, drink some water, crochet, doodle or draw.

Anything that is a 180 degree pivot from what you are working on so your brain can rest and reset. And preferably something away from a screen if you’ve been staring at one for work. Who doesn’t love working towards a break anyway? Knowing one is on the horizon makes me work as focused as possible.

I’m sure when you saw the title “Monday Motivation” you were thinking it would be some type of hype post to get you jacked for the week and inspire you to do amazing things.

Look, I’ll always aim to inspire you to do amazing things. There is no one more capable of greatness than you. I just also believe you deserve (and need) breaks to be your best self. Especially if you have big goals you’re working towards.

And if you need to do something to feel more motivated, I really can’t recommend a better idea than stepping outside of the hustle and grind of your daily, overly scheduled life to take a break or two…or ten.

Here’s to the best Monday and the most productivity you’ve seen in years. Happy breaking!