Resetting yourself and your space between large projects

If you’ve ever come off the tail end of a project that has taken an extended amount of time, it’s possible that you have found yourself staring blankly at your monitor and wondering “what do I do next?”

This is a completely understandable reaction.  Think about it, you’ve just singlemindedly poured your creative heart and soul into something for a month or more. Immediately turning your attention to something else will more than likely be difficult at best.

If this has ever happened to you, let me offer you a solution.   Clean your space and take a few days off. If you’re working for someone else, the second part of that equation may be a bit difficult to manage, but cleaning up your space should still be at the top of your priority list.

Long projects tend to build a lot of desktop clutter as well as mental clutter. Unless you are totally paperless in your working life, you’ll have scribbles of notes, scraps of research, printouts and assorted other “stuff” that ended up sitting on your desk while things were unfolding.  Take the time to go through all of these things.  File what you need and toss what you don’t.  Wipe down your desk and surrounding areas.  Make sure the trash is out.  Make a clean space for a clean start on the next project, it will help you focus on what needs to be done, rather than what you’ve been doing for the past several weeks.

The same goes for your computer. If you’ve been dropping links, photos or documents on your computer’s desktop for easy reference while you were working on that last project, now is the time to move them to a permanent spot on your hard drive or send them off to the recycle bin.  Leaving these items out where they can distract you serves no purpose once the project has been completed.

Once you’ve tidied up your workspace, walk away from it.  If you have the luxury of making your own hours as I do, take a few days off. Use the time you’ve earned to read a good book, catch up on your new favorite video game, plan to take over Chicago using just the resources you can find inside the city or perhaps get ready for that all-too-imminent zombie infestation.  Take a cue from the girl pictured at the top of this article and go have a long conversation with an old friend, even if it’s by phone, in the park or over coffee. Whatever you do, don’t go sit at your desk and stare at your monitor.

If you work for someone else, get up and take a quick stroll around the office.  Check in on a few coworkers or chat with someone in the office you may not know all that well yet. Sort through the inevitable folder of forwarded jokes and chain email to see if there really is something funny in all of that chaff.  But take a break from whatever is next on the list if it is at all possible.

These breaks will help you to be far more productive when you do get back to your normal routine just as much as a clean workspace will.  They are necessary to help achieve focus and keep you motivated to complete the task at hand.  Push too hard and you’re headed for what we in the freelance industry lovingly call a burnout, when we’re speaking in polite terms, that is.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’ve known people who can keep dogging away at project after project for a very long time before they suffer from burnout.  Unfortunately these people are not the norm.  If your mind is tired, your work will suffer and so will your productivity, especially after a very involved project that has taken a lot of time to complete.

Another way to combat this type of mental fatigue is to constantly flip between projects, never allowing yourself to become buried in one thing or another.  This helps to keep the mind fresh and moving freely from idea to idea.  This kind of mental exercise takes a bit of practice, but it can be a life saver if one project is threatening to fry what’s left of your grey matter.

I hope that these ideas prove helpful to you the next time you’re ending one project and moving on to the next.  If so, drop me a comment and let me know!

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