Alright, let’s talk about this thing I call “pill 270.” Not an actual pill, mind you. It’s just what I ended up naming this… trick, I guess, that I use when I’m properly stuck on something. We all get there, right? Staring at a problem, brain’s gone blank, feels like hitting a brick wall.
For years, I’d do the usual stuff. Force it. Take a break. Complain a lot. Sometimes I’d just bang my head on the desk, not literally, well, mostly not. You know the drill. Then I’d try to be all methodical, break it down, make lists. Sometimes that worked, often it just felt like more work on top of the work I wasn’t doing.
So, what changed?
Well, nothing dramatic, no lightning bolt. It was more like slowly realizing I was approaching things all wrong when I was truly jammed. I was always trying to push through the blockage, head-on. And one day, dealing with this absolutely awful bit of code that just wouldn’t behave – I think it was the 270th time I’d looked at it, or maybe it felt like it – I just kind of gave up on fixing it directly.
Instead, I started messing around with things around it. Not even related, really. Just to do something different. And that’s where “pill 270” started to form in my head. The “270” part for me means not a full 180-degree turn to run away, and not just a small 90-degree shift in tactics. It’s like looking at the problem from a completely weird, almost backward angle, but you’re still in the same room with it, if that makes sense.
Here’s what I actually do:
When I hit that wall, that real solid one, I stop trying to solve the main problem. Instead, I pick three, very small, totally achievable, sometimes even silly, tasks that are sort of in the vicinity of the problem, or just things that clear my head a tiny bit. It’s crucial they’re small. Like, ridiculously small.
- Maybe I’ll refactor a tiny, unrelated piece of code that I know works. Just for the satisfaction.
- Or I’ll sketch out the problem on paper, but using only circles. No squares, no lines. Sounds daft, I know.
- Sometimes, I’ll deliberately try to think of the worst possible solution to the problem. The most complicated, idiotic way to do it. Gets a laugh, and sometimes, just sometimes, it shakes something loose.
The point isn’t these specific actions. The point is the shift. It’s about telling my brain, “Okay, we’re not fighting that monster right now. We’re just gonna poke this other, smaller thing over here.” It breaks the tension. It stops that feeling of being completely bogged down.
It’s not magic. It doesn’t instantly solve the big problem. But what I found is, after doing these little “270-degree” detours, when I come back to the main issue, my head’s a bit clearer. The wall doesn’t seem so high. Sometimes I see an angle I missed before. It’s like my brain needed permission to stop failing at the big thing for a moment.
So yeah, “pill 270.” It’s my personal little system. Took me a long time to stumble into it. It’s not about being lazy or avoiding work. It’s about working smarter when you’re stuck, by stepping almost completely sideways for a bit. Give it a try, or don’t. Just something I found works for me when my brain feels like old, tangled wires.
