Episode Summary:

Ever been stuck on a stubborn tech problem with no solution in sight? Before you burn out staring at error messages, try this: Take a break and play a video game! In this episode, we explore how stepping away from a problem and engaging in a quick, immersive game can spark new ideas, reduce stress, and improve problem-solving skills.

I’ll share my personal experience of troubleshooting an AI software issue and how a quick game of chess led me to the answer I couldn’t find after hours of research. Plus, I’ll break down how background processing in our brains works—similar to how computers handle tasks in the background.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🎮 How gaming can reset your mental focus and spark creative solutions

🧠 Why your subconscious continues problem-solving in the background

⏳ The best types of quick, engaging games to maximize effectiveness

📌 How to set time limits to avoid gaming becoming a distraction

🚶‍♂️ Alternative strategies if gaming isn’t your thing (hint: walking and hobbies work too!)

Key Takeaways:

🔹 If you’re stuck on a tech challenge, taking a short, engaging break can unlock new insights.

🔹 Games like Apex Legends or chess create a flow state, refreshing your brain.

🔹 Avoid burnout by recognizing when it’s time to step away.

🔹 A 10-15 minute immersive break can do wonders—just don’t let it turn into a binge!

Resources & Links Mentioned:

📌 https://titanof.tech

📌 Recommended Reading on Cognitive Breaks & Productivity

📌 [Follow me on LinkedIn / Twitter / Other Socials] @johnbarker78

Join the Conversation!

💬 What’s your go-to method for breaking through mental blocks? Drop your thoughts in the comments or tag me on social media!

🎧 Subscribe & Review!

If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with a friend who needs to hear this! Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

#TechProductivity #GamingBreaks #ProblemSolving #ResetYourBrain #WorkSmarter #TechTips

you get stuck on technology related problems that you just

can't seem to break through?

Go play a video game.

It's my secret trick when I get stuck on problems.

If you've worked in the technology industry in any sector for any

length of time, you've clearly run across a complex technical challenge

that you found difficult to solve.

It's made you want to beat your head against the wall, throw your keyboard

and laptop or computer across the room, or in my case, rip my hair out.

Well, one of the problems that you face if you're working on 1 of these.

Significant technology problems, and you're not making

any bit of progress at all.

You face burnout within that particular moment on over focusing.

So, in your case, that could be a moment where you've been

staring at code for hours.

Or an error message that you get that the system is generating

that just doesn't mean anything.

We've all probably have seen some level.

That's just you have an error.

I've legitimately seen those only to realize After you've sit there

and worked on the problem and worked on the problem and worked

on the problem You're just stuck

but going and playing a video game can help you get unstuck And part of this is

from the mind's ability to do background processing Particularly your subconscious

is continuing to work on a solution

So taking a break to go play a video game and stepping away from that

problem allows your subconscious to continue working on the solution in

the background, a background test, like on a computer, and it's in a way, it

would be similar, like, taking a walk.

But we'll talk about that in a second that if you have.

Some quick bursts of fun, and in my case, I would use

Apex Legends, and I'll explain why,

or Online Chess.

This can help reduce those stress levels, and reduced stress levels will help to

enable more effective problem solving.

Gaming can create a flow state.

That refreshes your mental focus and you get a kind of a fun

dopamine hit in the meantime

and the reset at least in my case anyway, and I think probably in anybody else

that actually tries to give this a try.

Can lead to new ideas once you return to your tech project, or typically what

happens to me is another branch of Avenue for troubleshooting actually occurs in

the middle of the match that I'm playing.

I recently went through this about a week prior to recording this particular video

on a new AI tool that I was trying out.

It was some open source software to help with character consistency

using AI generated images.

And never used the platform before, never used the software before, and it

required a bunch of different plugins and workflows that I got from other people.

It was all open source software, and once I get it completely all set up,

and if you looked at the workflow on the screen, there would be red boxes.

And if you've got all the red boxes to go away, meaning that all the plugins were

installed properly, all the workflows were connected properly, You should

have been able to start generating the images that you wanted, and this would

be a different way of doing it than using something like mid journey or chat

GPT with with Dolly a tool like this.

This is something that I was able to install or trying to install,

at least on my local computer.

Well, after going through the process, I was just running into this crazy problem

where the images weren't generating.

It was stop at different spots.

And come up with an error code that I just could not figure out what was going

on and this went on for about 2 hours.

I was spending a lot of time on the knowledge basis.

I was spending a lot of time trying to see if there was any support

documentation and getting kind of stuck in different spots, not know where to go.

I said, I need to go do something else.

I need to walk away.

And have my mind occupied with something that I considered more fun.

So I ended up firing up chess.

com and I ended up playing a 10 minute match.

As we're getting to the end of the time limit, it hit me.

This wasn't a software problem.

This was a hardware problem.

Just what type of hardware problem.

And once I started digging deep into it, I realized that I was

limited on the amount of VRAM.

On my video card, it was causing the process to stop, but it just wasn't

a clear error message with the way the program was set up in the way the

workflows and connected themselves.

So, by taking that break, it allowed my mind to completely focus on a

different task and subconsciously it was working in the background.

I never even thought about it because such a poor chess player that I was

trying to focus on beating the opponent that I was playing in at the moment.

But.

Kept it to a 10 minute game.

So how would you set up your own gaming break effectively?

The first thing you want to do is you want to identify if you

actually even need a break.

Some parameters to set around yourself are if you're making consistent progress,

meaning you've solved a particular error message in a code or some other

configuration, whatever it is that you may be working for, but you're

still getting a domino effect, meaning you fixed one error message that may

have led to another error message.

Keep going, keep going.

As long as you're making progress and generating new errors, only use

this and take this particular break.

If you're really, really stuck on something, you've been at the

computer screen for a, an hour or two.

I can't find anything in the forums.

I can't find anything in knowledge bases.

I just have made no progress.

There's no new errors.

Or I keep finding myself stuck in the same loop, and I'm getting the same error

message over and over and over again.

Then,

once you realize that, you're stuck, you've been at it for a while, you're

beating your head against the wall,

make sure that you have a time limit.

I mentioned at the top that I would play Apex legends or more recently chess as a

way for having that mental distraction.

And the reason and I'll go back to Apex legends because I did that one for years.

A match with last no more than 10 to 15 minutes.

If you made it all the way through to the, to the way the, the battle

Royale system work and you played the full match and you were one of

the last teams in there, roughly 15 minutes was about the time period.

And in that period of time, that was typically enough to give my mind a rest.

And that new idea will pop up, but you want the break set to a small time limit

so it doesn't become where you're binging where you're like, the dopamine of the

game itself starts taking over control.

You need to be cognizant of that.

Once the idea pops into your head, if you have 1, you also want to choose something

that's fully engaging again.

The quick immersive games.

A lot of people will play fortnight call of duty.

Maybe even it's a puzzle game that's on your mobile device to walk away

something that fully distracts your mind from what you're working on.

To give it a mental break.

So you're basically filling up your mind with something that

hopefully you have found fun that you're not actively thinking about.

And then after you've taken the break, 10 or 15 minutes, jot down any new ideas that

may have come up, particularly mid game.

Again, that's typically how this happened to me.

And then dive right back into it.

You've got a fresh perspective.

I would also encourage you that if you're doing this.

That you're not sitting at the same desk, the same table, the same

chairs, the same computer that you're actively working on, make sure you've

transitioned yourself to a new environment

this is not an excuse to go play a game every time you've

run into a minor roadblock.

Oops, I got an error message.

I need to go play.

No, no, no.

That's not how this works.

And if you need to, use timers or alarms to keep yourself disciplined.

Now, some people will say, Hey, that sounds like a waste of time or

I don't like playing video games.

You can do other stuff.

Steve Jobs was famous for taking walks to solve problems or

even take his meetings walking

walking is great stimulation on top of exercise.

One of the things that I would say, when it comes to solving a

more technical problem that you've been stuck on for a while is.

walking in and of itself.

You're not having your mind and brain focused on an unrelated task fully.

So if you don't like playing video games, but you've got something

else that's integral to your life.

Let's say you've got a hobby playing an instrument.

Go set yourself up a 15 minute session.

I found gaming is a powerful way to reset my mind, tackle that in the moment stress.

It sparks some creativity when trying to solve technology problems.

Let me know in the comments below if you've got another tip or trick

when you get stuck on something that you have found useful, that

somebody else may find useful as well.