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#231 The 3 Types Of Breaks You Should Be Taking
42 Plays2 years ago
On this episode of Shaping Your Pottery I am going to be talking about why you need to be taking frequent breaks and the 3 types of breaks that have helped me the most. Listen to this episode to learn more
The Questions we ask will determine how our pottery will look like that's why I created a Free 15 questions to help you discover your voice template go grab it here www.shapingyourpottery.com/questions
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Transcript
Introduction to Finding Your Pottery Voice
00:00:00
Speaker
Real quick before we get started, did you know that the questions that we asked are going to determine what our pottery is going to look like and it's going to determine what our voice is going to look like? That's why I created 15 questions that you can use right now to start discovering your own unique voice. Go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash questions to get this free booklet.
The Importance of Taking Breaks
00:00:23
Speaker
When was the last time you took a break from making pottery?
00:00:28
Speaker
If you love pottery and want to take your skills to the next level, you're in the right place. Find your own pottery style right here on Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Let's get started.
Consequences of Skipping Breaks
00:00:41
Speaker
What is up, Shaping Nation? This is Nick Torres here. In this episode, I'm going to be talking about three types of breaks that I like to take with my pottery. Number three is my favorite. So listen up. So taking a break is very, very, very, very crucial.
00:00:58
Speaker
especially if you are feeling a little bit burned out, it's going to help you so, so much. And I take frequent breaks all the time. And this helps me not get so burned out and helps keep things really refreshed. Like think of it this way. So picture yourself, you're at your job and you're at your job and you've been working for three hours straight without taking a break. You've been working for three hours straight.
00:01:26
Speaker
and you do that every single day and you work constant nonstop three hours, four hours, five hours straight and you just don't take a break ever. You eventually get that phase where you just want to stop. You need to stop. Your body is telling you to stop. Your mind is telling you to stop.
00:01:46
Speaker
because you have been working for so long and doing the same thing over and over and over again that your body is telling you to stop. It's time to stop and you need to take a break.
Types of Breaks to Boost Creativity
00:01:58
Speaker
And it's kind of like that with our pottery as well. If you are working constantly and you are always making pottery,
00:02:07
Speaker
then then you aren't making time to take a break. It's very bad. One on your mental health, but two that's also how you're going to start burning out yourself because you start making the same things over and over again. That's when it comes boring. So here are the three different type of breaks that I take.
00:02:25
Speaker
to help me stay refreshed with powdery. So the first break is what I call is literally just a straight up break. This is the break where you're not touching any clay, you're not doing anything, you're literally just relaxing. Maybe you relax for a day, for a week, a month, a year, whatever it is, you're literally just relaxing, you're not touching the clay.
00:02:48
Speaker
This is probably one of the best things that you can do to help get your mind right because when you aren't touching clay, you aren't doing anything around clay, what begins to happen is you start thinking more about pottery because you want to get back into it. And it's going to help you get a little bit more excited, a little bit more into it when you're ready to get back in. So that is the first break is literally just taking a break
00:03:14
Speaker
and doing nothing, you're not touching clay, you're not touching anything. That is the easiest break. You can do this like once a month where you are taking a break for a week or a day, or you could do this like every couple months where you just take a break for a couple weeks. This is like a mini, this is like a vacation for you, mini vacation from clay. And you wanna take those pretty often throughout the year.
00:03:40
Speaker
The second break that I do a lot, this one helps with a production mode. So this is what I like to call the mini breaks where you are working 50 minutes on and you're taking a break for about five, 10 minutes.
00:03:54
Speaker
This one is so helpful to, if you are a potter that is making a lot of pots and in that production mode, this is so helpful to you because this will help you keep your energy up and it will help spice things up a little bit as well. So you're not getting bored with doing the same things over and over and over again.
00:04:13
Speaker
So here's what you can do with this brick. What you can do is you're going to set a timer for about 45, 50 minutes, even 60 minutes around that range. Anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes, you can set a timer. You can say, you know, if you have an iPhone, you could just tell Siri to tell you to set a timer for that long or you could set yourself whatever.
00:04:35
Speaker
But set that timer and during that time, you are going to be making that entire time. Whatever you are doing, no distractions. You are just going to be making that entire time. But as soon as that timer sets off, you are to stop whatever you are doing, even if you are a mid pool. Stop, stop whatever you are doing. Get up, go stretch, go get some water.
00:05:01
Speaker
go do some type of movement. Because if we are staying still for so long, then what begins to happen is our back starts to hurt, our wrist starts to hurt. So we have to get up and move every so often, you know, get some water start moving around. I like to
00:05:17
Speaker
or if I'm trying to make a lot of pottery, like one day, I will literally set a timer for 50 minutes. And then afterwards, after that time is done, I'll stop whatever I'm doing, go get some water. That's the first thing I do, no matter what, is I'll go get some water because I'm thirsty and I just need to get up and start walking around. And then I'll either stretch or I'll go on my pull up bar and I'll just hang there and I'll literally just hang there for like maybe 30 seconds.
00:05:45
Speaker
And I'll just hang and then I'm refreshed. I'm ready to get back to go. But a big key here is to not touch your phone if you want to get back into work, into that production mode right away. Do not touch your phone unless you are telling it to set a timer for a stretch or something. Do not touch your phone. Do not go on social media because that's going to break your cycle.
00:06:07
Speaker
And then you're gonna go back into the wheel or whatever you're doing, hand building, sculpting, whatever you're doing. And you're gonna set another timer. And you're gonna do that again. You're gonna repeat that process. And you're gonna be able to get so much more done while also being able to stay refreshed throughout the day.
00:06:26
Speaker
So that is the second break. The first break was the vacation break, where you take a break, where you're not touching any clay, you're not doing anything, you're just relaxing. The second break is what I call the mini break, where you do 45 minutes to 60 minutes. And then once that timer goes off, you are taking a break for five to 10 minutes.
The Role of Play in Skill Development
00:06:46
Speaker
Finally, the third break is what I like to call is just taking a break from what you are making and making something different. You're just making something different to spice it up. This is also what I like to call as playing with the clay. Oftentimes we get too focused on trying to sell our pottery that we forget to play with the clay sometimes.
00:07:09
Speaker
We need to make time to play with the clay often because this is how we're going to grow our skills. We're going to evolve our pottery. It's going to look start looking better. And this woman will learn a lot more stuff just by playing around what I like to do.
00:07:25
Speaker
is that if I'm starting to get a little bored with what I'm making, you know, maybe like throughout the week, I'll get a little bored of what I'm making. Like say, for example, right now, I'm making a lot of characters, sculpture characters, and I'm going to turn them into magnets. And I've been making that a lot.
00:07:41
Speaker
So what I would do is instead of making the same character over and over and over again, especially when I start feeling boards, is I will start like just playing around the clay and start coming up with a new design. New design, I'll take like a whole day or maybe even a week sometimes where I'll just come up with a new design, new character that I'm trying, that I want to maybe make in the future.
00:08:03
Speaker
And I'll just create this character so that it spices things up a little bit. And you're not doing the same thing over and over again. This is a very crucial break that everybody needs to take. I don't care if you're not doing the other two. You need to be taking this break right here because this is where it's going to count. This is where you are going to start learning more and your pottery is going to start evolving even further. So you need to take this break. So to recap.
00:08:33
Speaker
The first break was a vacation break. You know, maybe you're taking a break from party for a week, two weeks, a month, however many months. That is the first break that I like to take and that everybody should take as well. The second break is the mini break where you are setting a timer for anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes and you're working to that timer. And once that time goes off, you're taking a five, 10 minute break and you do that throughout the day.
00:08:59
Speaker
The third break is a play break. It's where you are setting time to literally just play with the clay. You are not working on trying to sell your potter. You are just playing with the clay. And those are three types of breaks that I like to take, and I think they will help you out as well. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and see you guys in the next one.