Vacation

I took a few days of vacation this week. We took a family trip to Chicago. I was almost able to completely forget about work and just enjoy myself. Now I'm back at work with a little more motivation.

There was an interesting article in the March issue of Wired. It talked about how distractions such as Twitter or Facebook can actually make us more productive at work, especially when doing creative tasks. These distractions help our mind break out of a single mode of thinking, especially when they involve activities that bring about some novel information.

When I use Twitter, it's usually to find what other people are reading or writing about, some new article about Agile or Kanban or Personal Branding. According to the article, by looking through this other material, I may unlock some idea in my mind to solve some problem that I'm currently working on. So next time you're stuck, pull out that article you've been meaning to read for the last 3 months, it may help get you through your impasse.