Familiar strategies can make it harder to see a better way forward.

Persistence becomes less useful when circumstances change but our approach doesn't.

Research suggests that stepping away from a problem can sometimes help new solutions emerge.

I have spent a surprising amount of my life believing that the answer to almost any problem is to try harder.

If something isn't working, I work at it. I make a plan, read another book, send another email, pin another list, or have another earnest conversation with myself about what I could be doing differently. Occasionally I do all of these things at once, which gives me the satisfying impression that progress must surely be taking place somewhere.

To be fair, this strategy has served me rather well.

I have written books, built businesses, moved countries and started again more than once. Persistence is a quality I admire, and there are undoubtedly times when the only way through something is to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Lately, though, I have become curious about what happens when persistence quietly turns into something else. At what point does determination become rigidity? And how do we recognise that moment when we're standing inside it?

The Einstellung Effect

Psychologists have been interested in this question for a long time. In the 1940s, psychologist Abraham Luchins demonstrated something that became known as the Einstellung effect. "Einstellung" roughly translates from German as "attitude" or "setting," and the idea is wonderfully simple. Once we have learned a successful way of solving a problem, we tend to keep using it, even when a simpler or better solution is staring us in the face.

It makes sense. Our brains are efficient........

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