Photo courtesy of Paige West '90

I founded Mixed Greens, a contemporary art gallery and Web business, because I wanted to inject change into an industry, make the art-buying experience more enjoyable, draw a new collecting audience to contemporary art, and so on — at least that’s what I tell most people. If I’m speaking to someone from Colorado College, though, I often add that I started my own company to bring block breaks back into my life!

Was it just me, or do all CC grads experience withdrawal upon hitting the job force and its two-weeks-a-year vacation plan? At least once a month during my first year out of CC, I felt that block break “tickle”— the urge to escape, to change, to recharge — and the need to take on a new task or learn something new. My brain was ready to move on to a new project at least once a month.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t slip block breaks into the schedule of my employers or my graduate school. When I started Mixed Greens in 1998, I consciously set out to incorporate block breaks into my and my employees’ schedules. I encouraged everyone to take small “refueling” breaks at least once a month.

While this was a swell idea, the reality was that starting a company was not conducive to taking block breaks. New projects and responsibilities sprung up daily, not monthly. Weekdays became synonymous with weekends. Finding time to take a break for an hour, much less a few days, was a luxury. Block breaks were nowhere to be found in those first few start-up years.

“	I felt that block break “tickle” — the urge to escape, to change, to recharge — and the need to take on a new task or learn something new. ”

I recently realized that in order to reincorporate block breaks into my life, I’d have to start by redefining them from structured and planned vacations or trips to anything that gives my brain a break. A hike in Aspen (then) became finding an hour to go to the gym (now). A trip to Lake Powell (then) became taking a random weekday afternoon off to play with my son (now). I began to see opportunities to take block breaks daily.

Today’s block breaks may not look or feel like those I experienced at CC, but they accomplish the same thing. They recharge me. Had I not started a company, placing myself more in need of block breaks than ever before, I’m not sure I would have ever understood their true meaning — nor found a way to bring them back into my life.

Paige West is now — finally — taking a real block break with her new baby, Charlie.