Why is taking a break so important for stress management – and having an extended break will actually build up more stress, so what is the right balance?
Last week I was so deep and wrapped up in animation tweaks and edit timings I was yearning for it to finish so I could take a break. Post it on youtube, ask some trusted colleagues for feedback and then take a break.
What bliss it would be to have a break. To not have to look at it for a whole week. Take a break and come back refreshed on the weekend.
It’s day two of the break and much like any prolonged sickie, the first day was great but the second day has been hell. This is the longest self enforced period of not working on Digitopia I have had since early 2008.
How can taking a break be so difficult?
It takes a lot of discipline not to work or look at the project. I did go on youtube to see how many hits I’ve had (it’s thirty three for one in case anyone’s keeping score). While my boy was having a nap, I thought I’d relax and put on a dvd (I did the housework while he was at his playgroup before you say). I watched Ghost in the Shell for the second time. The first time I didn’t understand a single thing about it, admittedly it was two in the morning and I fell asleep a couple of times. Watching it in the afternoon I can gladly say I still didn’t understand a single thing about it.
Perhaps having the volume on so low as to not wake sleeping baby may have been a factor but when I watched it today I was focused on the composition, the lighting, the colour palette and camera angles and how I would employ these in Digitopia that all I gleamed from the plot was
<spoiler alert> a titanium based cyborg risked her life to go swimming so she could look at the bottom of the ocean </spoiler alert>.Roll on day three of the break…
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