Twenty minutes ago I had a simple choice.

Do I write the SlopeFillers post I hadn’t yet written today. Or do I take a walk.

I chose the latter, and I think it’s worth explaining why.

Constant Info
There is so much info we’re presented with at any given moment. This morning was no exception. I had four meetings before lunch and I have two more coming up once I hit “publish” on this post.

If you think about my brain like a sink, I was overflowing. I hadn’t yet processed all the stuff I’d discussed in the morning, yet I was about to dump even more water in and make the problem even worse.

So I took a walk.

Skiing? Biking?
Listen, I love skiing. And I love biking. But in my experience, those are great for helping me feel relaxed, but they require just enough mental engagement that I don’t actually have a chance to make heads or tails of the thoughts and ideas rattling in my brain.

To return to the analogy for a moment, they prevent more water from coming into my sink. But they don’t allow me to actually drain any out. Walking seems to be the perfect blend of:

• Disconnect from the firehose of information
• Not requiring mental focus to actually do
• Being in a place free from further distractions

So, I walk. A lot. And I tend to walk in proportion to the size of the problems I was just meeting about or trying to tackle.

Just…Walk
The next time you have a big meeting or are faced with a big problem or just feel like your brain is about to explode, I’d encourage you to take a walk.

Don’t jump on the bike, don’t throw on the skis, just…walk. Let your brain do nothing but get organized; clearing out the stuff that doesn’t matter and digging into the stuff that does.

A simple prescription, but one I turn to daily. Hope it help.s

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.