One of my current weightlifting goals is to do a conventional barbell deadlift of 200 pounds for 5 reps. For the past few months, I’ve been stuck 4 reps.
When I fail to lift the bar on the fifth rep, my determined and persistent nature kicks in. I want to immediately try again. Time and again, this strategy has proven not to work. In fact, it only builds my frustration when I fail two or three attempts in a row.
The Strategy of Distraction
I have been learning that the better strategy is to walk away, or engage in conversation with a coach, even if just for a minute or two. When I return to the barbell after a brief distraction, I generally get the final rep.
In fact, I often get more than one rep. In this way, I’ve deadlifted 200 pounds for 9, 8, and 7 reps — just not the 5 in a row I’m seeking.
The strategy of walking away isn’t just about giving my body time to rest. Sitting on a bench or walking around the gym by myself rarely results in getting the lift I just failed.
What seems crucial to the successful outcome is the element of distraction:
I typically notice that my most successful outcomes come after engaging in unrelated conversations.
Taking my mind off the lift and focusing on something else for a while yields a better result than just rest alone.
Distraction often gets a lot of bad press, but sometimes it can be a useful ally.
Other endeavors work the same way.
Sleep experts advise people with insomnia to leave their bedrooms when they can’t sleep and engage in a mindless task for a while until the urge to sleep comes.
The same principle also applies to creative work.
When I was in school, conventional advice was to sit your butt in a chair and stare at a screen until you finished writing your paper or report. It’s a tactic I adhered to throughout the early part of my career as an attorney: no leaving the office until the brief was done.
It’s an illusion: sitting in front of a screen gives the appearance of doing work, even if you’re not actually getting anything done.
Pushing more in the moment is rarely effective, and most likely counterproductive, both in the immediate term and the long term.
The best strategy to address a creative block is to walk away from it and do something else for a while.
Sometimes, distraction can be a useful ally.
[…] Distraction is not always the “problem” we make it out to be. In fact, there are times when distraction can actually be helpful to our work. […]