Tip | Problem Solving | Psychology | Thinking | Productivity

Got stuck finding a solution? Stop There.

And remember this quote from Albert Einstein.

You’re frustrated and pulling your hair because you are stuck at some specific point in your work for the last 30 minutes. Or maybe even from the last few hours.

You’ve been trying again and again but your brain is just not coming up with any solution and you’re getting stuck at exact same point.

The problem isn’t very tough, you know that. And maybe you already have solved similar kinds of problems many times before.

But this time, it’s just not working.

So what to do now? Try harder? No.

Just give up.

Yes, you read it right. Give up.

“You can’t solve a problem using the same thinking that created it”— Albert Einstein

Here, by using the word “give up” I’m not telling you to give up on your problem/task completely, but it’s about taking a break like you entirely gave up on your problem/task and stopped thinking anything related to it.

When you start working on any task or solving any problem, your thinking gets narrower and narrower as you spend time with it.

The focus and thinking shift from the bigger picture to details specific thinking and your brain start concentrating on smaller and smaller details of the problem/task. Also, the data, ideas, and points you’re taking into your consideration for thinking change as you go deeper and deeper.

At this point, if you get stuck at any specific point and can’t move ahead even after making a few more attempts, it’s time to refresh your thinking and change your perspective.

Because now, no matter how hard you’ll try, there are high chances that your brain won’t come up with any meaningful solution using the same old perspective and thinking as your brain keeps looping inside that old state of mind.

Also, this cycle of attempts and failures frustrates you even more that makes the situation worse to solve the problem.

So finally, it’s time to take a break. A mental break.

For this, you can listen to any music, do any activity that relaxes your brain, or just can take a small nap.

The basic idea is to bring your brain out of that specific mental state by removing everything related to that particular task/problem.

Once you feel relaxed and fresh, come back and see the problem from a completely fresh perspective. Here, you’ll be able to see a lot more new things that you were unable to see from that narrowed perspective.

Hence, you will be able to think in more new directions and will get more new ideas. And who knows if one of these ideas be completely out-of-the-box?

You may not come up with any solution or new ideas with just a single break and have to take multiple breaks after attempting enough time. But generally, this approach takes less time to solve the problem than continuously trying without taking any break.

Learn to zoom in and zoom out your perspectives with time for better problem-solving.