I’m convinced embracing a seasonal approach to your creativity can change everything, because it roots you to your own innate rhythms in a way our social media–fueled, busy-as-a-badge-of-honor culture does not.

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