Twitter friend Jessi Sheron posted yesterday “does anyone else ever worry you’ll run out of ideas?” My response was, “Having ideas is never a problem. Having the time to execute on them is the challenge.” This came, of course, in the middle of me experiencing one of those “bursts of ideas with not enough time to execute on them” periods. I think the video above speaks to that, somewhat.

It also came on a day when I was feeling actually not super productive, either with my day job stuff or my personal projects. I sat down and tried to work on scripts, but just didn’t have the energy (physically or mentally) to do so. I stepped away, came back to my desk, and moved on to drawing some comics, which seemed to do the trick. Sometimes my to-do list says “write this script,” but my brain says, “sorry, I want to do something more visual.”

But, even if I chose to do absolutely nothing at that moment–to watch The Flash or take a nap or whatever–that would have been OK. Or it should have been OK. I have to keep telling myself, “Hey, it’s OK if you aren’t super productive today. You did your best, and you can try again tomorrow.” (And yes, I know tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, but let’s not get into that discussion.)

I see a lot of creative pals on social media express the same guilt/frustration over lack of productivity. It’s unhealthy. We can’t be “on” all the time. We can’t beat ourselves up over it. Yes, we need to hit deadlines when our clients/employers/editors need us to. But we also need time to think, time to relax, time to exercise, time to be with people, time to recharge.

My mother-in-law was staying with us last week. While we were out just casually walking around Huntington Beach after dinner one night, I came up with a bunch of crazy/brilliant ideas for social media promotion. She pointed out that had I not taken the time to just meander around, I would have never freed up my mind to gestate those ideas. She was right. Like, super right.

So often, we’re all just doing, doing, doing. This happens whether or not we work in “creative” fields. It’s the nature of our on-demand modern society, but also because a lot of employers have stepped up the pressure to do more without adding resources to meet those goals, so a lot of time is spent executing without investing the time into ideating.

My pal Todd A, when he can, hosts weekly writer meet-ups here in Orange County. I think his original goal was to actually have us sit down and dedicate time to writing, in an almost co-working type of environment. What actually ends up happening is that we all talk about our projects, and lives, and in the process, incidentally bounce ideas and problem-solve without realizing it. And you know what? That’s good. That’s needed. We can individually sit in a corner by ourselves and write our books, games, songs, whatever. But having that free-flowing, caffeine-fueled time to exchange ideas is just as important, if not more so.

So, next time you’re beating yourself up about not getting enough done in a day or you’re experiencing writer’s block, just stop. Breathe. Take a walk. Watch that episode of Game of Thrones. Meet a friend for coffee. Pet your dog. Make a sandwich. And feel OK with it. The work will be there when you get back.