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So Easter is upon us and here in Australia that means a four-day weekend for most of us. Everyone here in the office is definitely looking forward to the break because we've been working at maximum capacity since the start of the year.

While you may not have as many days off as we do you should still take advantage of some of that time to get out of the office ... the house ... the apartment ... and just do something different. Everyone needs a break to avoid becoming stale so grab the opportunity to take some time off ... you won't regret it.

Steve and I were going to head down the coast for a few days but the weather down there is set to be less than ideal so we'll stay home but take a few day-trips north or west ... and check out some interesting places we haven't been to before.

I guess if we cared to admit it we have been getting a little stale lately so the time getting out and doing something different will be good for us.

Just in case you are getting a bit stale but you can't get away here are a few less expensive tips from an article I was reading earlier this morning. The author ... a mainstream marketer ... was writing about things we could do that would help us to learn to be more creative.

Some of them seemed a little far out to me but I know, from personal experience, that some of these do work.

One of the suggestions was that we try working from a new space. That's not something that I've tried because my space at the office and the space in my home for a home office tend to restrict the amount of shuffling of office space that I can do but sometimes just changing the layout of your office can have a positive effect on the work that you're producing.

Another suggestion was to take more time to go walking outside of the office. Unfortunately I can't do much walking thanks to some old injuries but Steve often gets out early in the morning and walks for a mile or so along the beachfront and I can see that has a positive effect on the work he produces.

You may not have a beachfront to walk along but perhaps it's not what you look at while you walk but the physical exercise that stimulates the brain so just get out there and walk and see what it does for the work you produce.

One really important suggestion in the article I was reading was that you should network with people outside of your industry. That is such an important point for people in the adult online industry to think about.

Years ago we here in adult online were the thought leaders in online marketing ... we were the ones who were out there on the cutting edge ... but not anymore. These days people in mainstream online marketing are really pushing the boundaries and people in offline industries have a lot to teach us too so start talking to them and networking with them.

You will find that networking with people outside of our industry will have a very positive effect on your own creativity. It's something that definitely works for me.

Perhaps you should also spend some time being a customer. Now that probably sounds strange but if you spend more time being a customer and observe what happens while you're a customer you'll get a much better understanding of what you need to do to really connect with the people you want to sell your product too.

I'm not suggesting that you will learn something positive from every connection you have as a customer because you won't but you will learn from your negative experiences too and that's important if you want to succeed in marketing.

And if you really want to try to improve your creativity with something a little different and even a little way out then add the color blue to your office. Now if you're into marketing you should have some idea of the power that certain colors have over us.

We all know that red sends subliminal warning messages and can also suggest passion and romance. Orange is said to be a color that makes people feel hungry and blue is a color that encourages trust. But apparently blue can also have a calming effect on us and if we're calm then our brains are more likely to "make new connections with existing information".

Well that sounds interesting but I'm not about to rush out and buy gallons of blue paint for the office but you might like to try it.

Right now though I'm working towards the long weekend and taking time to get away from the computer and do the tourist thing for a few days. I'm sure I'll come back on Tuesday feeling refreshed and maybe even more creative.