Lessons learned from playing Sudoku

Playing Sudoku is one of my favorite ways to relax. For those of you unfamiliar with Sudoku, it’s:

A puzzle in which players insert the numbers one to nine into a grid consisting of nine squares subdivided into a further nine smaller squares in such a way that every number appears once in each horizontal line, vertical line, and square.

I’m more of a left-brained analytical person than a right-brained creative type, so doing something related to logic appealed to me. I also got some unexpected bonuses from playing sudoku.

Here are the lessons I’ve learned from Sudoku:

1. Persistence pays off.

The more I look at the puzzle grid, the more I can figure out.

Persistence is a good thing for all other areas of my life:  my job search, my exercise, my writing and the list goes on.

2. Taking a break can work wonders.

I may be stuck on a puzzle, but if I leave it for a day or so and then come back to it, I always see a pattern that I’ve missed.

This also works when I’m having writer’s block.

3. Constantly challenging my brain is energizing.

I now try to complete the sudoku without writing the possible numbers in the grid. I try to reason it out.

Even though my brain is working hard, I find this exercise to be very relaxing.

4.  Looking for patterns in Sudoku has helped my writing.

My blogging is all about finding analogies and patterns with every day life.  Finding the number patterns has helped me to that.

What about you? What hobbies have helped you in unexpected ways?

Photo is courtesy of Incurable Hippie’s Flickr Photostream, under Creative Commons Licensing.