Our best work as creatives—big-picture thinking, creativity, strategy, ideas, connection—can only happen when stepping away.

We might have periods of furious output; to get there, we require periods of faithful input. With input, there’s a restoration of fertile, vibrant thinking. You might need a monthlong fallow after a big project. Or maybe it’s two weeks. You might even do it in a minor way — a half-day mini-sabbatical, say, to achieve what the Harvard psychologist

It’s no coincidence that we keep grappling with the language for how to cultivate a good and productive life (witness the successive manias for wellness in the form of hygge, Marie Kondo, tech, freedom from tech). We all struggle daily with the balance of work and play. Both are essential to a life full of meaning. Fallow time, when practiced the