I forgot to hit play, and accidentally had a breakthrough.
Have you noticed it’s harder to think clearly these days?
You’re always learning. Always listening. Always absorbing.
Another podcast on your commute. Another newsletter in your inbox. Another book queued up.
You tell yourself you’re being productive. That this is what growth looks like.
But lately? It feels like none of it’s sinking in.
You feel mentally full, yet somehow… unsatisfied. Like you’re stuck in motion without momentum.
I know the feeling well…because I’ve been living it.
I’m a curious guy. It’s one of my core values and one of my greatest strengths. Curiosity helps me link ideas from wildly different domains. I love learning (always have). I devour books, accumulate a never-ending backlog of articles in my reading app, have shelves full of books I love to explore, and am subscribed to > 20 different podcasts (don’t judge). Add in a few streaming platforms, newsletters, audiobooks… and I’ve got an all-you-can-eat buffet of content ready for endless indulgence.
Sounds great, right? Curiosity is fuel. It keeps me sharp, feeds my work, and makes me a better coach and thinker.
Except when it doesn’t.
Because there’s a dark side to this endless curiosity: too much input makes you bloated.
And that’s when this whole idea hit me.
Not during a podcast. Not while reading.
But in the quiet.
I was driving. No podcast. No music. (This is rare for me).
Just me, the hum of the road, and my thoughts.
It was nothing planned or intentional; I just forgot to hit play. But in that unexpected silence, something clicked.
All that content I’d been cramming in suddenly had space to breathe. Thoughts surfaced I didn’t know were there. Ideas started connecting.
And that’s when I was reminded of something I knew, but had stopped practicing.
Lately, I’ve been on a productivity tear. Crushing tasks, absorbing ideas, chasing progress like a dog chases a cat. Podcasts on during every drive. Articles queued up on every break. Always consuming, always building. And it feels damn good! Constant dopamine rewards. Feels like I’m doing “all the right things”.
But somewhere in all that action, I stopped making space.
Space to think.
Space to integrate.
Space to digest.
And the truth landed like a gut punch: I’ve got creative constipation.
All input, no processing.
All stimulation, no synthesis.
It’s like shovelling down meals back-to-back and never letting your body… ahem, “finish the cycle”. You don’t just feel full, you feel stuck. Sluggish. Blocked.
We treat information like it’s gold, always chasing more. One more course. One more podcast. One more insight.
But –
Information is cheap. Abundant. Everywhere. We’re drowning in it.
What’s actually scarce?
Time. Attention. Silence. Integration.
The edge isn’t knowing more. It’s doing more with what you already know. Connecting dots. Sitting with ideas. Letting meaning surface, not from the next thing – but from the last.
You can’t do that in overdrive. You need space.
I used to be better at this. I’d block off time just to think. No calls. No meetings. No inputs. Just me, a pen, and a question.
I’ve fallen out of that practice, and I can feel it.
More content consumption, yet fewer insights.
More motion, less momentum.
So here’s the reminder I needed (maybe you do too):
You don’t need more input. You need more space.
Try it. Book 30 minutes this week with no agenda. Take a walk without your AirPods. Stare out the window with a notebook in hand.
Because your next breakthrough idea isn’t hiding in the next podcast episode or book.
It’s buried in the last one you never gave time to digest.
And if you don’t make that space?
Well, you know what happens when you never stop eating and never take a dump…..
Creative constipation is real.
Quotation I’ve Been Pondering
“Action without information is chaos. Information without action is a waste.” — Pat Flynn, author & podcaster
Journal Prompt
What’s something you’ve recently learned, read, or heard that you haven’t made time to fully process? Sit with it. What does it actually mean to you? How might it connect to something you already know, or shift the way you see things?
Until next week!!
Work and live well.
Tim
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