Innovation can be hard work. Hard mental work, that is. And your brain, like any other muscle, can only work for so long before it needs a break. Here are some easy ways to refresh and recharge your tired brain.

If you're a video person, I lay it all out in the video below. If reading is more your thing, skip the video and hop straight to the transcript below!

Hey there, Bill Stainton here with Turning Creativity into Moneyâ„¢, and today let's talk about overcoming innovation overwhelm.

Yeah, that's a thing. Innovation overwhelm.

Because, think about this, when you're innovating your brain is working. Your brain is working hard, the, the synapses are firing up there. They're, they're finding connections, they're, they're connecting connecting dots is what they're doing. They're connecting dots.

And that can be hard work. And your brain, just like any other muscle, it it can't work forever. Right? I mean, it needs to take a break every now and then.

Back when I was producing my TV show—some of you know this; I used to produce a sketch comedy TV show, it was a weekly comedy TV show. And I had an incredibly creative team, incredibly innovative team. They were coming up with ideas all the time. Their brains were really on fire most of the time.

So, as the executive producer of the show, what I would do is, I would schedule no more than four shows in a row before taking a break. Every now and then, occasionally, we'd have to do five shows in a row. That was pretty exhausting. Maybe once a year or so we'd have to do five in a row. But typically, I would, I would schedule four in a row and then a break, because you need that break.

And if you watch Saturday Night Live you'll see that Lorne Michaels does the same thing. They rarely do more than four shows in a row. Because it's taxing, it's exhausting.

Innovation can be tiring. If you don't give your brain a rest every now and then, you're going to hit the wall, and you're going to get to the point of diminishing returns.

So for you it may not be a weekly show. Maybe you're, maybe you're working on a project, and you're just, you're starting to feel exhausted, like nothing's coming. And you just feel like at this point, you need a break, your brain needs to recharge.

So what what should you do?

Give it a break. It doesn't have to be a long one. Just go out and take a walk—walking is great for creativity. Take a walk. Just, you know, veg out on something. Read something that's not taxing, just something to give your brain a little bit of a break. Meditate, take a nap.

And then when you come back your brain is going to be recharged, refreshed, and ready to find new ways to Turn Creativity into Moneyâ„¢.

I'm Bill Stainton. I'll see you next time.