I regularly solve crossword and other word-based puzzles – it’s one of my favorite distractions for downtime.
And at least three times in the last few months, I’ve solved them by turning to a spreadsheet. I’ve rearranged the puzzle as a spreadsheet, organized my thoughts, or just compiled information. In all cases, you wouldn’t look at the puzzle and think “What this needs is a spreadsheet.” But in each case, I solved it more quickly when I stepped back from the way the puzzle was presented to me.
It reminds me that we don’t need to rely on the way things look – with musical scores, with books, with school days. Look differently at the problem!
Don’t accept the way it looks now as the only way to look at it.