Stop the conveyor

What fills your weekdays? If you're like me — or most digital professionals — you spend them pushing your mental gears to the limit: brainstorming, structuring, tweaking, optimizing, jotting notes, drafting, editing, sketching. Every day feels like a crazy mental assembly line, and over time, productivity takes a nosedive. Ideas dry up, revisions become a chore, and the frameworks you build begin to wobble like a house of cards.

I've found a solution to restart, restore, or even increase productivity: a digital shabbat (sabbath). One day a week, and you're as fresh as a bunch of freshly picked parsley.

What I do

Since the beginning of the year, I've adopted a simple rule for Saturdays:
I don't create anything new, nor do I change or improve anything that already exists. No posts or articles, no server updates. No illustrations or paintings. The most I'll allow myself is to add a task to Trello or jot down a thought in Workflowy if something valuable comes to mind.

Instead, I actively consume: read books and newsletters I missed during the week; listen to podcasts; observe the world on a walk.

Unlike a strict religious Shabbat, my version isn't extreme. I use my phone, light fires (literally or figuratively), chat with friends, or jot down flashes of genius (so they're not lost forever). In urgent cases, I can even reschedule the Shabbat — if Saturday is packed with unavoidable work, I move it to Sunday or Friday.

Why it works

On weekdays, your brain is overwhelmed with 'output' tasks. It works like a dog — spinning ideas, making plans, calculating connections, building associations. The conveyor belt churns endlessly.

But creative work requires periods of mental wandering. When the conveyor stops, your brain processes input, strengthens neural connections, and subconsciously solves problems in the background. Think of the 'Mendeleev Effect' — you load the brain with data, give it some free time, and then — bam — an idea pops out of nowhere.

Another problem is that when you're neck-deep in creation, there's little time or mental energy left for input. Your conveyor belts are running outward, so it's hard to take in anything against the grain.

Why is this a problem? Because active intellectual consumption directly enhances your vision. Without it, creative work hits a wall. Nothing comes from nothing — the creation of new ideas requires interaction with the existing world. That's where a digital shabbat shines: it reverses the conveyor belt, if only for a day.

The effect

I love morning eye patches — you put them on, and 15 minutes later your skin feels rejuvenated, hydrated, and refreshed. A digital shabbat does the same thing for your brain.

On Saturdays, productive mental chaos sets in. Fresh, original ideas emerge. Unusual comparisons emerge. Solutions to stubborn problems suddenly click into place. The effect extends beyond that single day — all week long, work flows more effortlessly.

So, my advice is: