Interleave mundane tasks with creative and thinking tasks

There are a lot of procedural things that - as designers - we need to do.  Rippling main nav changes from one mock-up through all the other mock-ups, updating the design wall, compiling notes from the last user session etc.  Sprinkling these comparatively mundane tasks through the more creative or heavy thinking tasks (like say analysing findings and synthesising research results or mocking up a particularly tricky interaction challenge) helps to break up the load and reduce the chance of burning out before you reach the right answer.

Sometimes the answer comes more quickly when we stop thinking about the problem.

All the better if the procedural work engages manual dexterity.  Sticking the labels on cards for a card sort is a good example.

Of course, if you are in "the zone" on a design, nothing (except for perhaps an iPhone OS update) should shake from that zen-like state of enhanced creative productivity.