…your brain literally refuses to cooperate?!
Your workload is heavy, deadlines roll in one after the after, you’re putting in long hours to stay on top of things, and one afternoon you look down at your most recent project and nothing makes sense. The words float up at you like ciphered messages but, try as you might, you can’t crack the code. Vocabulary that normally drips off fingers into the word processor has been summarily erased from your brain and the page on screen has more highlighted question marks than actual translated phrases.
That’s what happened to me yesterday. I pushed on for a while longer, determined to make progress, knowing the deadline was today, that, like it or not, the work had to get done. But at a certain point I had to admit that not only was I not being productive, the nonsense I was putting on paper was actually counterproductive: it would take more time to revise this morning than to simply translate from scratch when my head was fresh and clear.
It isn’t the first time I’ve hit the proverbial wall. It’s always when I’ve taken on a little too much, so if one project is proving to be impossible I can sometimes turn to another, simpler assignment and work on that for a while. Maybe I have a marriage certificate that needs revising; all I’m doing are checking the names, dates, and numbers — my brain can handle that. Or there’s usually some filing stacked on my scanner for a complete change of pace.
But sometimes you simply have to stop work, give your brain the rest it is clearly demanding, have some dinner, watch a show, go to bed early, and tomorrow will be another day.
Care to share your brain freeze strategies?
