Everyone needs a break once in a while.
Whether it’s a holiday, a family vacation, or a long weekend staycation, taking a break from your normal routine has many creative benefits. Having time to recharge, either by yourself or by spending time with your family, allows you to reset your brain and gives you time to reflect on priorities.
But what happens when vacation ends? Getting back into your regular schedule and work takes time.
For those working on creative pursuits, either professionally or as a hobby, getting back into your projects after a break looks a little different than the prescribed schedule and duties of a more traditional field. And finding time for personal creative hobbies can get lost among the time needed to get back into your normal work/school routines as a family.
For creative professionals, you might have deadlines placed on you by clients and agents. But you still have control over what your day-to-day routine looks like. This freedom is a double-edged sword, though. Being able to set your own schedule is great. But getting back to work after a break can be more difficult.
For writers, our ideas and projects become part of our everyday lives. But when we take a break from a specific project, new ideas often start floating around our heads. When it’s time to get back to working on a previous project, finding that same level of engagement as we had before the break can be a struggle.
While everyone will have their own needs for getting back on track, there are some simple methods that can help you refocus your creative energy to finish a project.
RE-READ YOUR WORK
Often when you take a break from a project, you forget the details. As much time as you spend with your book ideas, trying to remember everything you previously wrote means you need to go back and look at what you already have. Sometimes this involves simply reviewing your outline and/or notes. Other times you’ll need to re-read several chapters. But re-reading at least some of what you already have can help refresh your memory and get you back on track.
CHANGE YOUR ENVIRONMENT
Sitting back down at a desk, or wherever you do most of your creative work, can seem stifling when you’ve been on vacation. The first few days back, taking your work to a different spot can help boost your creative juices. Sometimes that can mean going to a different room in your home. For others, spending a few hours at a coffee shop or at the library can help. Getting outside of your familiar location is a good way to help you refocus on your regular writing habit. Once you get back into the act of writing, it will be easier to go back to your regular writing space. (And sometimes you realize that working in a different location might actually be more efficient that your previous location.)
SHARE YOUR WORK WITH OTHERS
Writers are notoriously protective of their work. Fear of having someone steal an idea, and fear of rejection, often mean we don’t like talking about what we’re working on until it’s absolutely needed. But when you’ve been away from your project, talking with a few people about the project helps you re-engage with your ideas and get feedback. This doesn’t have to be a lengthy, formal talk. Just share the basics with a few friends and see how they respond. Talking about your work forces you to think about it. And when you think about it, you re-engage with the original ideas that got you started.
START SMALL
If you’re used to writing several hours a day, coming back to that expectation after a break can be overwhelming. Instead of thinking you need to stay chained to your desk for three hours right away, start with 30 minutes. Unless you’re on a hard deadline for completing a project, allow yourself a grace period to get back up to speed. If you only write 500 words that first day, don’t beat yourself up about it. That’s still 500 more words than what you started with before you went on break.
SET A TIME FOR FREE WRITING
Having time to relax and/or being away from home often leads to creative sparks for new ideas. When you have new ideas running around your head, it can be hard to settle back into working on a previous project. If you find it difficult to focus on the previous project, set a timer for 20-30 minutes, and write about whatever pops into your head. That might be getting basic ideas down for a potential new project, or jotting down thoughts about what you did during your break. Taking a little time to do a brain dump, so to speak, gives you the chance to capture new ideas, get your fingers working, and sparks your creative energies. But, don’t let yourself do this for too long. If you start actively working on a new idea, re-igniting the interest in a past project is more difficult. Setting a timer allows you to get basic thoughts down on paper, but keeps you from going down the rabbit hole for your new ideas.
Taking time away from your normal work and responsibilities is healthy, regardless of what that work looks like. For creatives, time away is a chance to rest your mind and let new ideas take shape. The problem is that getting back into your work when you get home can be hard. By allowing yourself permission to not have to jump back in immediately, re-igniting those creative juices becomes easier.
**When you get back from a vacation, what’s the hardest thing about getting back into your normal schedule?**
Reignite your creativity!
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