Have a break, have a breakthrough

I’m writing this column from 30,000 feet, flying back from Portugal with a mind buzzing with fresh ideas. Last week, I experienced my first “company retreat” as a solopreneur – a concept introduced to me many years ago by a solopreneur friend who regularly escaped to remote locations to strategize and reimagine his business future. 

Following this example, I divided my days between exploring Lisbon’s cobblestone streets and dedicated work sessions on NextMinds – developing new concepts, refreshing my website, designing workshops, and mapping out future initiatives. This intentional blend of exploration and reflection transported me back to the energizing academic conferences I’ve always loved to attend before having to pause such travels for almost two years. 

Conferences always send me home with a renewed sense of purpose, a notebook full of ideas, valuable new connections, and a refreshed mind. To be honest, I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed that feeling until now – that distinctive clarity that comes only when you physically remove yourself from your daily environment. 

Breaks and holidays are not indulgent. They’re essential not only for our well-being and health, but also for sustainable success and innovation. However, for early-career researchers drowning in deadlines, publication pressures, and multiple tasks, deliberate pauses often seem difficult – or even irresponsible. When at conferences, many PhD students don’t even feel they have permission to skip some sessions to have a coffee with someone they just met, let alone take the afternoon to explore a new city. 

If this sounds familiar, I invite you to consider these approaches to use (and plan) breaks intentionally: 

• Schedule regular escapes before you need them. As PhD students in the Netherlands, you’re entitled to holidays – use them! Don’t wait until you’re completely exhausted and desperately need a break. Plan periodic getaways, even brief ones, to environments different from your daily surroundings. This environmental shift literally rewires your brain, creating the perfect conditions for breakthrough thinking and unexpected connections. 

• Create true disconnection through boundaries. Set an out-of-office message that means it. Inform supervisors, colleagues, and students of your absence well in advance. Then take the radical step of leaving your phone behind (or at least on airplane mode). In Lisbon, my best moments of clarity came during aimless walks through winding streets, completely present and undistracted by digital demands. The ideas that emerged during these hours proved more valuable than weeks of forced productivity. 

• Embrace serendipitous conversations. Travel and conferences offer unparalleled opportunities for unexpected encounters. These conversations – whether with fellow researchers, locals in a café, or travelers from entirely different fields – can shift your perspective significantly. In Lisbon, I met a colleague who had followed the same coaching and counselling training. Our exchange reaffirmed my desire to grow in that direction. Serendipitous exchanges can also remind you of the unique value and privilege of your academic journey, even during its most challenging phases. 

• Forget about the fear of missing out. As a PhD student, I approached conferences with Swiss precision, determined to attend every possible session and get the best out of an already packed program. The fear of missing out coupled with guilt about “wasting” university funding kept me trapped in this exhausting cycle. Now I understand that strategic session-skipping actually enhances learning and integration. Your brain needs processing time to transform information into genuine insight – something impossible when constantly consuming new content. 

• Create space for long-term vision. The daily demands of research leave precious little room for big-picture thinking. Yet without regular reflection on your broader career trajectory, you risk waking up years later wondering how you arrived at a destination you never consciously chose. I’ve discovered that physical distance creates the mental distance needed to see patterns, opportunities, and potential pivots with remarkable clarity. My most significant career decisions didn’t crystallize in my office or on my couch, but while wandering through a new city or exploring nature abroad. 

Doing a PhD demands intense focus and dedication – qualities that paradoxically make strategic breaks not just beneficial but essential. Your most valuable research asset isn’t your data or your fancy instrument – it’s your thinking mind. And like any sophisticated instrument, it requires regular calibration and care to perform at its peak. 

Whether through international travel, weekend retreats, or even a day spent in a different neighborhood, give yourself permission to step away from your research regularly. Breaks don’t require a plane ticket – what matters is the change of scenery and mental space. The breakthrough waiting on the other side of your break might just be the one that defines the next step of your career.