It’s tempting to slave away around the clock when working towards a significant goal, or to feel like working around the clock is the right thing to do. 10,000 hours, right?

The trouble is, not everyone’s wired to slave away around the clock without burning out and becoming massively unproductive.

When I first started freelancing in Atlanta and was taking on web design/development projects, I holed myself up for what felt like weeks at a time in order to take my business seriously.

It resulted it much Facebooking.

When I started making time to be away from the computer, engage in actual recreation, and put some structure around my work (no work on weekends or after 6pm, for example), I saw a dramatic and immediate spike in my productivity.

As a matter of fact, I started to find inspiration and motivation and creativity coming to me when I was nowhere near my office. I started looking forward to my projects (instead of falling into the lazy and ungrateful habit of lamenting the workload…) and attacked them with enthusiasm.

Sometimes a day at the beach is much better for your business than a day at the office.