As many of you already know, I play computer games. This Christmas, my mother turned me on to a new one, called Bookworm, which involves making words out of a grid of random letters.  Although I tend to sit down and play one game all the way through, (which can take a couple of hours, depending upon how good you are at it), you can also save your game at any time.

My goal was to break 1,000,000 points. And I finally did it! My new high score is 1,386,471!

But here’s the thing: I did it by taking breaks and playing the game over several days, which is how my mother gets her amazing scores. (She’s several million points above me.) And this made me realize something.

I actually do better if I take regular breaks and keep my stress level down. And I’m not just talking about computer games, either.  Whether it’s writing, bookkeeping, coaching, cooking, cleaning . . . Breaks seem to improve the quality of my work and my life.

This is a new thing. I’m the kind of person who hates to switch gears, so usually I just plug away at something until the task is done or I’m exhausted. And now I’m wondering if that’s really the best approach. There’s an old saying: “A change is as good as a rest.” Maybe I should try that–work on something for a while, and then switch to something else beforeI get tired. It might make me more productive–or it may take too much energy to switch tasks to be worth it.

But one thing I know for sure: if playing computer games a) provides me with insights and b) gives my material for this blog, then I guess I’m going to keep on playing them!