Apathy is the enemy of creativity. As the summer season kicks in it is all too easy to find ourselves on autopilot. Whether boiling our brains on the Northern Line or navigating the mental gymnastics of summer childcare logistics, summer can be a difficult time to maintain momentum. For creativity and curiosity to thrive we need rest and inspiration. Be it recommending a book, a breathing method or developing a craft, this summer BITE is asking leaders to share how they are making the space to nurture their creativity and find their pace.

Elliott Starr, Creative Director at Impero, shares how a holiday side project can keep his mind engaged and prepared for a return to work.

My first summer working full-time in the industry set unrealistic expectations for the rest of my career.

I'd enjoyed selling several scripts and was beyond impaled on the bayonets of pre, peri, and post-production. I'd managed to squeeze in Cannes and a bargain bucket trip to Puglia. I was even preparing to attend LIA's Creative Liaisons in Las Vegas.

I had plenty to keep me busy and keep my brain engaged. But in the years that followed the reality of London's summer agency life dawned.

The majority of the key decision-makers are on holiday. Or at least never working at the same time. The temperatures on the tube are eyeball-dissolving. The hibernative sleep of winter's dark misery is replaced with a sweaty, delirious fractiousness (and this is all before one begins juggling the demands of tiny humans).

A CD's life at Impero is a busy one. Such is its size that I'm rarely between tasks for long, and I like it that way. I'm at my best when I'm busy. It might only be me, but I've found having too little work to do to be a consistently greater evil than having a little too much. The former can see one fall into any number of existential crises.

All this said, I don’t foresee any extensive thumb-twiddling this summer. But what of the heat, when it occasionally visits? The holidays? The (now short-lived) lulls in workload?

Well, over the years, I've grown to know and love a simple practice - the list of ten.

I've always believed the mind has muscular qualities. Some refer to this as neuroplasticity. I prefer simple language - use it or lose it. Much like the horrific experience of a shrivelled gastrocnemius that's spent too long in a cast... the mind's creative faculties atrophy when we don't use them.

I've experienced it first hand, all too many times. I've returned to busyness at work after holidays or quieter periods and found myself to be totally mentally unfit. In an industry that wants creativity on demand, that's dangerous.

Time has proved a pattern. It's the total cessation of prolific creative thinking that's most damaging for creative thinking. So, usually, when I'm off, I'll always look for a low-demand side project I can tick over with. Something that fits around life. Around the absolute insanity of holidays with toddlers. Around the life admin of small, loud, and irritating, but heart-melting pets barking in the boot (or, while sitting on my lap, and drooling all over me, in my particular case).

Sometimes this leaves only one realistic holiday side project - the daily list of ten.

It's exactly what it says on the tin. A list of ten things. It could be 10 intimidatingly large existential questions. 10 ways to decorate the shed. 10 saucy anecdotes for this weekend's barbecue. It's up to you, and it takes mere minutes.

But it requires one to flex the mental musculature just enough it doesn't atrophy.

And as such, it has proven itself as the go-to tool in my Batbelt.